Name of Student, Year and College
Bhawana Tawari, 3rd Semester, Karnavati University
Name of the Organization
NGO – Environmental Sanitation Institute, Sughad Ahmedabad, Gujarat
First Day at the Internship (1/01/2020)
On the very first day of our internship at ESI, Sughad (Environmental Sanitation Institute) We (Ravi, Alisha, Bhawana) met Mr. Devendra Parekh who works in the NGO for sanitation. He is a big supporter of hygiene and sanitation. He had made many different models of Toilet” at various places, according to needs. Mr. Parekh guided us and let us aware of NGOs. After, he sent us for the visit of Gandhi Ashram and Safai Vidyalaya.
We went to safai vidyalaya and there we met Arvind bhai he is a nutritionist and had also cleared UPSC and now retired, so he gives lectures in safai vidyalaya. He explained that how biogas plant work and how can we make use of waste into production things. There was also toilet café made in safai vidyalaya by using toilet seats and different models of toilets. There were potholes for waste disposal by an eco-friendly method. So here are 1st day ended well and we also learned about nutritious food to eat and in what quantity. It was fun learning there.
VISIT TO LILAPUR (2\1\2020)
On the next day, i.e., Second day of our internship Mr Devendra parekh sent us to lilapur village near by Ahmedabad. We went to Barotsamajniwadi, which is school for students of 9th and 10th standard. Basically it is a private institute but it runs by Govt. or some (NGO) firm. In this village it is very difficult to convince or to motivate the people about their education. In this village most of peoples are studied till class 8th and girls are less educated. In this village people did not give proper importance to the education. Mr. Bhupat Bhai and Jaydeep are trying to change the mind set of the village people and trying to aware them about education. We saw a library (Abdul Kalam library “one best book is equal to hundred good friends, one good friend is equal to library”).
Mainly in this village Thakur community is prevalent. We met Bhupat Bhai and he greets us and share with us the condition (situation) of village, the business activities in which the village are engaged, the practice of child marriage continues there. Then Mr. Bhupat introduces us to his colleague Jaydeep. Jaydeep is a final year student; he works with Bhupat Bhai for social work. Then we went bharwaadsvass (a small village consisting of 20 to 25 families are there). Peoples in bharwaadsvaas mainly earn by goat’s milk. In this area majority of peoples have goat 30-40 goats. In this village we saw a old man making a bed.
We saw the structure of houses there; all were a type of kaccha (Raw) houses. And at last, we go to Bhupat bhai’s house and we made a khichdi. Although it didn’t tasty, it was fun to eat.
Visit to Khodiyar village (3\01/2020)
On the third day of our internship, we went to a small village named as khodiyar near bylilapur village. In this village, we saw that it is so difficult to teach a small child. Then, we went to Anganwadi (aganwadi is a type of playgroup school) which is the initiative of jaydeep. He came with posters of alphabets in the Gujarati language which also has photographs on it. After 10 -15min there were 15-20 children gathered there, to learn or we can say for chocolates which jaydeep give them every day to make their learning interesting. So, then by seeing pictures on the posters, the children repeat after jaydeep in chores.
Many children over there has skin diseases, they were unhygienic, some were in improper clothes, but the thing is that at least they came to learn and sit far from home for an hour. The condition is improving by putting efforts but onerously it will take time as nothing can be changed overnight. Then here we ended our 3rd day, it was so much fun with children and visiting the village, we had a great experience. This anganwadi motive is teach how to sit properly and how to behave in front of the teachers and to provide some warm environment to the children’s in school basically it is a primary school of villages.
4TH DAY OF NGO
Plan an Ananda mela
Why Ananda Mela? – to spend family and fun time with family, friends, or new interaction of different state people. In their generation all are busy with their busy schedules. We think if we organized a Mela so many people came and enjoy the wonderful environment with their friends.
AMIYAPUR VILLAGE VISIT
We visited a primary school in Amiyapur village. The school is till the 8th standard. The nursing students from a civil hospital had planned a drama based on health and sanitation. They prepared various charts (posters) with pictures and drawing on them. The main aim of those events was to spread awareness regarding personal hygiene and keep our surroundings clean. They started the program by prayer and lighting the lamp. Then there was a dance. After that they performed the drama, highlighting the basic sanitation issues.
The students of nursing play the character of mosquitoes and villagers. Primary students enjoyed the program and some of them had also taken a part in the event by playing dhol. Nursing students make the primary students learn how mosquitoes spread disease and make the surrounding dirty. They also talk about plastic pollution and how tobacco is harmful to health and encouraged them to keep ourselves and surrounding clean and healthy. They motivated them for higher studies above 8th grade. All these events were focused on health and personal hygiene. We enjoyed their performances and interacted with primary school students that how they learn and play. It was a great day and we had fun there.
We also learned about Mujkuwa village basically in this village NGO team visit and make camping agent sanitation to spread awareness about how to clean our surrounding clean. This camping was jointly organized by NDDB (National dairy development booth), Amul, Gram Panchayat, etc. This campaign was for 3 days.
We learned about how to make a broom. We polished a stick (broom) with a knife to make it smoother and stronger. We learned a different type of brooms like- “talavar jhadu” or “pankha jhadu” From oil tins we made dustbin by doing oil paint and made beautiful design and quote’s, we attached 3 to 4 plastic stands under the tin to prevent it from rusting.
Interacting with people from different categories from the society was an exhilarating experience, getting to know them, their culture, we were excited to meet foreigners who had visited the NGO as part of their visit to India, exploring and admiring Indian culture.
We also got an opportunity to visit and volunteer at “craft root” which was organized by Gram Shree”– all handmade products were there. There was no machinery involved in any products. There were stalls where the products were made by children of slums by using paper and waste material. They had mastered the art of paper folding and cutting. There were products like sprout maker, skewer, painting like pithora (was originated in Chota Udaipur. Pithora is a highly ritualistic painting done on the walls by rathwa and bhilala tribes who live in central Gujarat. But he convinced them to try on cloth. So many shops are there like craft, handmade paper bags, quelling stuff, different varieties of clothes shops.
Another day at NGO, we went to see an office of Mr. Rakesh, one of the friends of Mr. Devendra Parekh and also a supporter in social work. His office is located in Ahmedabad and is beautifully designed. There is a large hall for conducting any seminar, programs, or workshops. Mr. Rakesh had distributed nearly 500 plants on his birthday.
We had learned so many small but important things in NGO. The basic purpose of the environmental sanitation institute is to do social work with an open heart. Whatever we do it must be done for a selfless motive. We learned about how NGO works, what are the requirements for running an NGO. And we also had planned a rough idea to visit again to a village and conduct different activities to interact with village peoples and make them aware of rights and duties, sanitation.
ACE Memorial 