Samantha Ka's Learning Journey

Growing Pains and Gains

2011-04-26T21:47:00.001-07:00

"...but what
what if no one's watching
what if when we're dead, we're
just dead
what if there's no time to lose
what if there's things we
gotta do
things that need to be said

you know I can't apologize
for everything I know
I mean you don't have to agree with me
but
once you get me going
you better just let me go
we have to be able to
criticize
what we love
say what we have to say
'cause if you're not
trying to make something better
as far as I can tell
you're just in the
way."

-Ani DiFranco, "What if No One's Watching"

The last two days have borne important conversations about the growth and growing pains of CLP. This year has been the beginning of important new projects-- multiple-college internships, year-long local programs, year-long international programs, international visitors and a $25K budget. Amazing achievements and lots to learn.

I know I have a lot to learn, and I sit here writing this feeling like I'm finally getting through some of this muck of the learning and seeing the clarity of the lessons. Last night with CLP@NoVi team and tonight with the intern team really helped me clarify the ways I need to grow to be a better a CLP member, a better facilitator and mentor, as well as a better friend.

(SOME) Key Lessons for Samantha:

1) I need to hold people to higher expectations-- the same expectations I have of myself. And, when they meet those expectations with their own authentic standard of quality-- I need to recognize and value them for their hardwork and leadership.

2) I need to hold people accountable for expectations that are not met. I need to recognize that this is not me being a "bossy bad lady" but being in right relationship with people who are an important part to an important vision. We need them, that's why we need to be accountable. All of us need to be accounted for because all of us are valuable to the process.

3) I need to be a better, more gracious friend. I need to slow down and listen and value the time "to be" just as much as our time of "to do." I need to recognize that this is hard work for all of us and that we are deserving of time of care and relaxation. High standards of excellence in our work and coalition-building are only capable with high standards for balance and self-care.

4) I need to let people own their process in a public and valued way. We need time to air out our despair, anger, fear, grief and frustration. Furthermore, I need to let people own that process-- what is true for one person in CLP will not necessarily be true for the whole organization, nor is it an attack on me. Creating the space to own our individual experiences as members of the organization is essential to individual and collective health and clarity.

5) I need to be better to and gentler with myself. I have run my own body, mind and spirit into the ground, resulting in a projection of my own fatigue on to the people I am partners with around me. I need to respect my own limits and embody healthy commitment-making, excellence and accountability in my own life in order to practice that (and struggle alongside others who are working on that) in CLP.

I'm thankful to all the incredible friends--the volunteers and interns in CLP-- who have taught me so much this month. From Shiva's visit, which required a greater level of honesty and integrity of me than ever before, to my colleagues and peers in Riverside who have taught me more about people-powered organizations in the last two days than I have learned in years.

Thanks.

----

With this reflection, time for everyone else:

1) A reading from the Boston Globe, "The Truth About Grit." You are welcome to comment on this in your reflection question, below. (The reading: http://www.duxbury.k12.ma.us/highendpilot/TheTruthAboutGrit.pdf )

2) Your reflection: What is your re-commitment to or from CLP? What do you plan to get out of this experience to make the next two months the most valuable two months in your entire internship? What are you letting go of to make room for CLP... or how will you let go of CLP to make room for things in your life that are more meaningful?

Constant Contact and Email Marketing

2011-03-12T19:41:00.000-08:00

CLP is about to take the next step in newsletters/email marketing: the email newsletter with fancy HTML-ness via Constant Contact.

Em did some good research on email marketing.
One in particular: http://www.fundraising123.org/article/14-tips-making-your-nonprofit-email-more-effective

I'm trying to consider some of my practices in reading "weekly" emails... I read the ones that are (1) relevant, (2) don't constantly bug me for money, (3) have opportunities that I can get connected to, (4) include interesting information I can refer to.

What keeps you reading?

Grants and Community Development

2011-02-21T06:57:00.000-08:00

The "craft" of grantmaking:

GrantCraft: http://www.grantcraft.org/index.cfm?

Community Development and Grant Making: http://www.hewlett.org/uploads/files/CommunityDevelopment2.pdf

Youth-Led Organizing Follow-Up

2011-02-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

My favorite youth-organizing website: http://freechild.org/

An interesting website outlining Nagpur (North Indian city) and its development as a "Human Rights Sensitive" city: http://www.pdhre.org/projects/nagpur99.html

[CLP-Interns] Preparation Entry (Jan 31)

2011-01-26T05:49:00.000-08:00

26 Jan 2011

Next week's intern meeting will be Grant-Writing 101 as we prepare to submit for a second year with the Community Foundation and their Youth Grantmakers granting program.

In preparation, please see the following grant information from the Community Foundation's upcoming Youth Grantmakers Grant...

The Youth Grantmakers Program (2011): http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/TCF_Initiative/YouthPhilanthropyInitiative.html

The upcoming grant opportunity (due February 15, 2011):

Grant guidelines: http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/downloads/grants/2011/YGC/2011_YGC_Grant_Guidelines.doc

Grant application: http://www.thecommunityfoundation.net/downloads/grants/2011/YGC/2011_YGC_Grant_Application.doc

Last year (2010) CLP received $2225 from the Youth Grantmakers Committee. This grant is our funding resource for the CLP@NoVi and SU2I Program. A press release about this grant is available here:http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_W_wgrants15.46289c9.html

For your review and preparation for our meeting Monday, please take a look at the grant that we submitted last year: http://bit.ly/ygfund2010. At our meeting on Monday, I will show you an example of a different grant I have written that will influence how we change our approach to the 2011 grant.

---

Other (vaguely related) resources:

How to Write a Grant Proposal from About.com: http://nonprofit.about.com/od/foundationfundinggrants/tp/grantproposalhub.htm

From E-How: http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Grant-Proposal

[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Jan 24, 2011)

2011-01-18T22:57:00.000-08:00

18 January 2011

For next week's reflection (Monday, January 24 from 6:30-8:30), I would like you to watch this 19-minute TED talk on the Slow Movement.

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

One of the CLP Core skills is our ability "to hold process as important, if not more important, than product."

What insights do you make regarding going slowly and "quality"-- quality of life, quality of relationship, of work, etc? Consider your pace (personally, socially, academically, in CLP, etc). Why that pace? What does it mean to you? Where has it "taken" you?

[CLP Interns] Goals and Visions for Winter 2011

2010-12-10T21:42:00.000-08:00

Hey all!

For our last meeting of 2010, we are going to be little planning fools.

Follow this link and print out a visioning/goal-setting/planning tool format you can use to assist in this process: http://bit.ly/clpinternplanningtooldec-mar

Please come prepared on Tuesday (5PM-7PM) with your calendars and plans for programs in the next three months (or more, if you are visioning that far!)

Together we will make one main calendar to set us up for Winter quarter.

See you Tuesday!
Samantha

CLP Event Planning Best Practices

2010-12-09T07:13:00.000-08:00

Developed by the CLP D.I.R.T. Interns, Dec. 2010

1. Create a rich environment. ( Raw | Flava' | Relational )
2. Outreach and reach-out. ( Power of invitation | Informational materials )
3. Commit to the event. ( Before | During | After )
4. Give everyone a role. ( Responsive | Proactive | Helpful )
5. Engage all the senses. ( Make the event sensual.)
6. Be deep / personal. ( Real | [Almost] Spontaneous )
7. Give it energy. ( Heart | Body | Soul = Present)
8. Hospitality. ( Welcome People | Nourish People | Respect People)
9. Accessibility. ( All people are able to attend, understand, participate.)
10. Murphy's Love. ( Murphy wants your event to succeed, he just has different plans-- go with them!)
11. Look good.

[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Dec 6)

2010-12-06T06:56:00.000-08:00

Dear Interns,

1) Having completed the Making Space event, what did you think about the whole event as "CLP Event"? For example, what was your favorite part and why? What did you take away from this that will help you plan your own events in the future (likes, dislikes)?

When considering the event, you may want to consider...
- Vibe
- Hospitality
- Atmosphere
- Speeches
- Videos, Photos
- Presentation, preparation
- Inclusivity
- Audience participation

2) What did you learn about CLP that you didn't know before? After seeing ALL of CLP, what direction do you want your internship to take? Your research?

For your reference:
The PE Article about Making Space: http://www.pe.com/localnews/riverside/stories/PE_News_Local_W_wclp04.4257f88.html

Videos:

CLP@NoVi: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUmleTJBXUU

CLP India, Summer 2010: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_AiCo0SHM

How can you tell if your community will flourish?

2010-11-30T12:47:00.000-08:00

Openness Beauty Social Offerings > Perceptions of Economy Political Leaders

http://bit.ly/knightsoulofcommunity

[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Nov 28)

2010-11-28T09:11:00.000-08:00

Dear Interns!

This Tuesday we will be sharing "our stories" to assist us in being powerful, impactful speakers at the Making Space event on December 4th.

First of all: fundraising is tricky. Lots of us resist fundraising-- it is uncomfortable to ask for funds and we associate it with "begging" and people demand for a "sustainability plan" by the organization (i.e. people want us to "make money" in a "more respectable way" rather than asking folks to donate). Lots of negative connotations. Lots of questions, too. Do I have enough? What if I give it all away? Only rich people give money. Money is greed.

In The Soul of Money, Lynne Twist tells her story of fundraising and the direction of our funds to "our highest commitments." Her stories and her vision of money and sufficiency were important for me in my understandings of work and giving.

For this week, please take ten minutes and view this presentation by Lynne Twist about the "soul of money": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5xlJg9WxJg

On your blog take some time and prepare your response to Lynne's vision. Then, consider: what is your highest commitment? What do you commit your time and money to? One of the things you will be committing significant time (and possibly money!) to is CLP. Why? This is the story we will tell at "Making Space" on Saturday.

See you Tuesday night!
Samantha

Great Quote, Great Resources

2010-11-23T15:20:00.001-08:00

"All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Outline for the "Better Together" Campaign, awesome tools for using Social Media to make a movement: http://content.delivra.com/etapcontent/InterfaithYouthCore/attachments/Interfaith%20Leader%20Action%20Calendar.pdf

[CLP-Interns] Reflection Entry (Nov 20)

2010-11-20T11:10:00.001-08:00

Hello Karla, Cheng, Malcolm, Gilbert, Sara and Francis--

As promised, this week's reading/reflection is on “Why India?”/ “Why Riverside? / Why Mexico?”

To start us off-- why this?

As you know, our annual celebration/fundraiser, “Making Space: Two Years with CLP” is on Saturday, December 4th from 6:30PM-8:30PM at Back to the Grind Coffee Shop in Downtown Riverside. As I'm sure Kat would attest, the most important thing to communicating an idea is the personal story behind that idea. For example-- why you are in CLP and why I am in CLP is different, and should be different. The personal always moves us in a deeper way. We need to be personal at “Making Space.”

And, as you know: CLP does not just collaborate with our brothers and sisters in one country-- we collaborate in all three. Sometimes this is forgotten when people hear we “work in India.” The immediate assumption is that we only work “somewhere else.” And there is a feeling of frustration and defensiveness-- “Why not HERE?” Why don't you work here?”

What does that question mean to us? First of all, where is that question coming from? Why is that person asking the question? What emotions are behind it? Then, what is our personal response? And where does that response come from? This analysis could bring out some ugly-beautiful stuff: from our own (underlying) feelings of superiority, power or entitlement (as challenged by Ivan Illich) or our guilt for the past and the present or our vision for transcendence and transformation or our hunger for connection.

So, the question for your first formal blog “post” / travel journal entry: [Why India? Why Riverside? Why Mexico?]

To help you us started or inspire some thought, some light reading/viewing/listening. Skim them all or pick a couple to read/watch more closely to get your own mind/heart going:

(1) My sermon/reflection on on the soul and global wholeness: http://bit.ly/soulandwholeness_swilson

(2) An LA Times article on poverty in Riverside (Oct 2010): http://articles.latimes.com/2010/oct/08/local/la-me-inland-empire-poverty-20101008

(3) Audio recording of MLK on Gandhi, NPR: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99480326

(4) Video interview of Arundhati Roy, Indian activist on Obama, war and the Indian government: http://www.zcommunications.org/acclaimed-indian-author-arundhati-roy-on-obama-s-wars-poverty-and-india-s-maoist-rebels-by-arundhati-roy

(5) Music video, Indigo Girls “Shame on You”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKqUglOC3_8

These five links are for triggering our own ideas/thoughts-- they do not represent a formal “CLP” opinion on anything (I don't think we have formal opinions, just principles). Use these to get your ideas and curiosities going. Your blog response does not have to be exact or perfect or complete (whatever that means)-- it can be bullet points, some varied ideas. We will be working on this question for a long time. This is just the beginning. Kat has many resources on this one.

See you all, and your blog entries, on Tuesday night. And for some of you, see you in the next couple days as we get started on your projects.

Yeah!
Samantha

CLP Internships!

2010-11-19T10:42:00.001-08:00

Hello, community!

Glad to be here updating you all on our CLP Interns!

They'll be joining us soon and posting a link to their blogs as a comment to this page. This is the first, and certainly not the last, challenge.

:)

"This is Major Tom to Ground Control!"

2010-04-15T21:07:00.000-07:00

I write from a hotel room in Miami, FL.

I've spent my day of travel and subsequent afternoon in a sleepy state of vegetarian-pizza-eating reading and relaxation, browsing the internet, catching up on email and repeatedly falling asleep. I've also been listening to David Bowie's "Space Oddity" with an uncanny sense of identification-- maybe its that floating in a "tin can" part (American Airlines kind of looks that way?) or perhaps its the "feeling very scared" but your spaceship knowing which way to go, so you go with it?

This is my third Clinton Global Initiative University gathering. In 2008, I made my first commitment to work on CLP.

But really, that commitment had been made in India, on long bus rides and international dormitories where I felt like a Grade-A-Bump-On-A-Pickle. But, an observational pickle-- one aware of the potential of transnational action that could take place, if said pickle were willing to risk.

Like, for example, Major Tom!

After one day here, I will be "floating in tin can" to Connecticut. I've never been to that part of the USA before-- a more "radical" journey (if you'll allow this) than going to India. In fact, planning this trip was far more intimidating than planning any of my CLP trips to India! Why is my own country, sometimes, so unfamiliar and big and intimidating? Is it us or is it me? When I step into India, I feel like I enter a world of "Annas" and "Akkas" (brothers and sisters)-- why not here? Or maybe it is less explicit?

Probably the latter. Today, as I checked in to my hotel, a friendly front desk clerk, Alfonso, hooked me up with my vegetarian pizza. And the driver, an older gentleman from francophone Africa, got lost WITH me as we discovered my California accent and his West African accent confused both of us, and we were both (simultaneously) "too polite" to check with one another again. After ending up in a neighborhood of pink and baby blue houses and palm trees, we pulled over, read the directions and realized his "1800 SW" was my "8200 SW". Laughing, I said "Well! C'est la vie!" to which he replied, "You speak French!?"

En peu?

And even though, by the end of it, his meter read "$50"-- he charged me $35, and we said "goodbye" to one another in a flurry of apologies and smiles for the linguistic confusion.

As of Saturday morning, right at the stroke of midnight, I'll be at the Global Health and Innovation Conference at Yale for the rest of this weekend, sponsored by Unite for Sight. I've been scrolling through the presentations and participants, highlighting names and reading webpages to get an idea of the folks I need to hunt down, "court and woo," and learn with. I attend this conference by myself, as Sydney and Rachel stay at Clinton Global Initiative and continue forward in recruiting and connecting with other college students eager to get connected to something real.

Its 12:26 AM on Friday in Miami and I'm restless. Restless with energy to move, to read, to meet. Restless in my desire to fall into a deep, mountainous sleep. I mean mountainous in that timeless, slow-moving, granite way. I want to sleep, literally, like a rock...

... but that will wait. Or it will come in pieces. And I'll make a mosaic of rest and restlessness.

More on that later. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LVC9eW9Q4E

New books!

2010-04-04T20:21:00.000-07:00

My reading list...

Parker J. Palmer, "A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life-- Welcoming the Soul and Weaving the Community in a Wounded World"

James R. Brockman, "The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero"

Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein, "Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism"

David Batstone et. al, "Liberation Theologies, Postmodernity, and the Americas"

INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, "Color of Violence: the INCITE! Anthology"

Arundhati Roy, "The Cost of Living"

Arundhati Roy, "The Checkbook and the Cruise Missile"

Arundhati Roy, "Power Politics"

Melvin Delgado and Lee Staples, "Youth-Led Community Organizing: Theory and Action"

Peter Block, "Community: The Structure of Belonging"

Chandra Talpade Mohanty, "Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity"

Myron Weiner, "The Child and the State in India"

Mohandas K. Gandhi, "Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth"

Frantz Fanon, "The Wretched of the Earth"

Edna Bonacich and Richard Appelbaum, "Behind the Label: Inequality in the Los Angeles Apparel Industry"

Simeon Terry, et al. "Through the Eyes of the Judged: Autobiographical Sketches by Incarcerated Young Men"

Greg Mortenson, "Stones Into Schools"

Notes from a recent CLP India Volunteer Training...

2010-04-04T20:03:00.001-07:00

CLP India Curriculum: “What can we create together?”

Space for the revolutionaries
Meaningful, relevant education that can be applied to real-life
Conversations with parents, teachers and the community
Emphasis on “mutual transformation”
Students are not numbers, know them as human beings
Youth-led activities and organizing whenever possible
Students as experts
Reclaim IZZAT in a “CLP” way
“How” of learning for students, more than memorization (include all ways of learning)
Addressing issues that can't be addressed at home or in a “typical” classroom
Remember-- you are NOT alone! (Many others are dealing with these issues-- build community)
Remember to emphasize “values” and the “universalisms of learning”
Develop a “culture” and set of life-tools that can be used, comfortably or fluidly, in their lives beyond CLP programs-- we are the “mayonnaise” on a sandwich of their lives (make it tasty, work in the system and daily life)
Be real as facilitators and co-learners-- use y(our) stories
Role play for practice, to make it something our bodies actually do
Inclusivity of all people involved

Conversations in a Beauty Parlour

2010-01-24T05:53:00.000-08:00

The collection of stories I am working on:
http://thinkfeminisms.blogspot.com/

Glimpses from India, a Mini-Report on CLP Winter Programming

2010-01-24T05:19:00.000-08:00

Wow.

The Child Leader Project 2009-2010 Winter Program was an incredible success. I type this with confidence and a giddy grin. By “success” I mean that CLP youth leaders were excited, talkative, thoughtful, challenging and engaging as teachers and students. Programs embodied CLP values by the ways in which they were dialogical (or open in the ways in which people spoke more freely from their experience, without a need to prove, convince, or defend one’s ideas, feelings or experiences) as well as experiential, requiring students to act out or experience the topics and ideas discussed in the CLP classroom. CLP Winter Program was also a success in the ways it deepened our roots in India and making a home, while also “branching out” in a serendipitous network with similar-minded organizations in and around our home, Pondicherry. Upon my return from India and my first day back at the “day job” in California, colleagues said I looked even more excited and refreshed—it’s all because of this month-long experience.

CLP Programs

CLP hosted programs with two of our different partners this winter, Vidiyal Matriculation Higher Secondary School (VMHSS) near Trichy in central Tamil Nadu as well as Anbhagam International Education and Development Center (Anbhagam) in the capital city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. These two organizations serve very different populations of youth, requiring the organizations and CLP to be creative in developing programming that would meet their specific needs.

Vidiyal is CLP’s first partner, making this Winter Program their fourth CLP experience and completing their second year of programming! Over 46 CLP students are present at Vidiyal ranging from 8th to 12th standard students. Students who are currently in 10th and 12th standard (similar to the USA “grade” system) are currently focused on preparing for their government-mandated testing and were only able to participate in a closing ceremony. The remaining students (8th, 9th and 11th) were participants for the three-day program.

This winter program at Vidiyal was titled “VISION 2020 in 2010” and utilized the writings of former Indian president, APJ Abdul Kalam as a springboard for discussions and expressions of “community development.” CLP students had selected APJ’s Vision 2020 as a possible topic of interest during our 2009 Summer Program, mindful that APJ’s vision was specifically directed at empowering younger generations and empowering the Indian community towards development. Ultimately, however, APJ argues that India is a “highly developed country in an advanced state of decay.” This statement would turn out to be particularly powerful for students at Vidiyal—in a before survey provided at the beginning of the program, all students stated that India was a “developing country.” In a post-survey, all students stated that India was a “developed country” with social issues that could be remedied by its own people.

Following a group reading of an abridged version of APJ’s “Vision 2020” speech, students returned to their homes and dormitories with a list we called “Points of Development.” This list included concerns related to a wide range of topics, including agriculture, education, corruption, peace and security, trade, environmental degradation and the status of women. The goal of the assignment was to engage the idea of “development” in our own lives— for example, what does “development” look like in our village or in our schools? Students returned the next day with short stories and comments about different points and we found topics and stories that overlapped.

The places of overlap became our “problems” in the CLP version of Augusto Boal’s “theatre of the oppressed.” In this drama, we used stories and situations from our own lives (i.e. concerns about dowry or women’s rights post-marriage, police corruption and child abuse in schools) to act out new solutions. Students performed as actors in the play and would repeat the play, creating new solutions to the problem with each new performance. Ultimately, students created their own “situations” and performed these for 8th standard students at the end of the leadership program.

The experience of performing and improvising new roles and responses was an incredibly new experience for students. One girl, Suhasini performed in the role of the young groom’s father and expressed her total joy at the power she felt in her role. The young man that played the future bride said he felt “negative” describing that he had “never had to be a girl before.” In the performance on police corruption, one student with the ambition of becoming a police officer stood and described how he thinks police could behave differently in the future as students questioned him about the actors in the play. Student performances included issues from caste discrimination in families and friendships to child abuse and public health awareness.

Our feedback from this program reveals the power of this sort of community experience. One 8th standard student describes her experience: “First of all I want to thank Samantha Akka (sister) and Amala Akka. Because I am not so happy in my home or in my class. But I am so happy to attend the CLP and clean the community garden. For this class I hope of having some talent. I attend CLP I have some confidence. I like the games then homework. I like drama that we are acting. I am so fun, happy and I have no words to thank you.” When it was announced we would like to create a “CLP Council” of individuals at the school to help make some guiding decisions about the work we would do together in the future, all the students submitted a statement of interest. We are so happy for the community that we are all building together at Vidiyal.

Our second, main program was with Anbhagam ICEDC. Anbhagam serves the street and slum communities in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Students from these communities are provided daily tuition and program support from Anbhagam’s three staff members. Anbhagam and CLP come together to provide extra programs, trainings and experiences that inspire and support students in their lives (for the present and the future). This program was focused on the topic of making changes in our lives as it relates to education. We discussed the changes that made a difference in our past and how those changes will also happen in our future. Higher education was described as one of many tools for making a difference in our future.

To take the idea of higher education and make it a “reality,” John Bosco (Director of Anbhagam) and staff collaborated with CLP to take students to a local college, Loyola College, in Chennai. Bosco is an alumni of Loyola College and connected with his previous colleagues and professors to create a memorable experience for the students.

Twenty-six Anbhagam students from the Little Mount community came to Loyola College for an exploration of Visual Communications and college student life. They had tutorials of filming and lighting, photo shop and graphics as well as a full tour of the campus with a lunch in the student canteen. To top it off, Anbhagam and CLP created bright yellow t-shirts for each student that said “Child is not a bucket—child is a fire.” Students were stopped by professors and staff and questioned about the meaning of the t-shirt. Students replied that it meant “we have our own dreams!” No participating student had ever been to a college campus before, nor had any of them had family that went to college. This was an incredible first experience for this particular youth community.

The following day, Anbhagam students participated in a short debrief about the program from the previous day, as well as led in a guided meditation by a special guest visitor (Vijay Mohan) on visioning their futures and the changes they want to make in their own lives.

(I'm also in the process of building Anbhagam a website: www.anbhagam.blogspot.com!)

Exciting Opportunities for the Future
First of all, congratulations to our five matriculating students from Vidiyal. We look forward to giving them college scholarships this summer (four featured below)!

CLP has incredible opportunities for the summer. We are now connected with Baby Sarah’s Home, an orphanage for orphaned and mentally and physically differently-abled children and youth. Baby Sarah’s has over 108 children in its home and is led by a young and enthusiastic 27-year-old man named Karthik. Karthik and I met during an International Conference on Autism that we both attended at Pondicherry University in December 2009.

We are also in collaboration with an organization, CHILD (Child Helpage in Long Duration) located in Pondicherry. This organization provides tuition classes, vocational training and women’s Self-Help Groups for a village community in-between Pondicherry and Auroville. The leaders of CHILD are eager to create programs with social change/social justice focus for the children in their area in the summer.

While both of these new possibilities root us even more firmly in Pondicherry, we would like to see collaboration and sharing across Tamil Nadu and Chennai. One of our goals for summer is a “CLP Convergence” of sorts in which all of our partners will have an opportunity to meet, dialogue and collaborate. We would also like to bring our students from across Tamil Nadu to do a similar activity, making this convergence and conference an annual community-event that CLP sponsors. Many of our partners have described that collaborative or dialogue-based meetings are less common as there are many issues related to sharing practices or staff across organizations (i.e. people are very afraid to lose funding or staff of they share too much information about their work). Perhaps CLP and CLP partners can create a new paradigm of community-based organizations in the areas we all work.

Overall, this winter was an incredible opportunity for collaboration and deepening of our relationships with our partners, new and old. A more extensive report of our activities will be available from our website in the next couple of weeks. This will more clearly outline our work, as well as include the feedback from our students.

More importantly, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank our staff and partners in India, our Board of Directors and our donors and supporters in the USA. CLP is not possible without an incredible community of people, seen and unseen, that have given their financial, spiritual and emotional resources to see this organization take off. From the deepest place in my heart, I can not express the gratitude I have for the support those around us have given to see this vision continue.

And with that, happy new year! We look forward to “visioning” our future with you!

CNN Local Interview

2009-12-24T05:38:00.000-08:00

Filmed June 2009, prior to the CLP Summer 2009 Programs.

The Best Measurement: Measure in Love, Measure in Life.

2009-11-22T20:21:00.001-08:00

21 November 2009

As a young girl, my family took me to the Broadway opening of “RENT” three different times. RENT, a now-cult-classic, is a musical performance that dynamically explores topics of sexuality, gender, disease, art and activism at the turn of the millennium in New York. The hit song, “Seasons of Love,” was a song my mother and I would sing from a tape she had recorded and played ad nauseum in her glaringly red, Pontiac Firebird. The chorus went like this:

“525,600 minutes, 525,000 moments so dear.
525,600 minutes - how do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee.
In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife.
In 525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year in the life?
How about love? How about love?
How about love? Measure in love.
Seasons of love.”

Measurement is ever-present in the work we do. As we work our way through November, two CLP Board Members, Rachel Meeker and Sydney Craft, are in the throes of Clinton Global Initiative University applications. CLP has been represented at CGIU the passed two years (2008 a nd 2009) with a special invitation to attend this Spring (2010). CGIU is a non-partisan effort developed by former President Clinton in 2005 as a call to action for college students and universities to tackle global problems with collaborative and innovative solutions. CLP was awarded on-stage in 2009 as an “exemplary approach to addressing a specific global challenge.” This was followed by our being awarded $4,000 by the Pat Tillman Foundation as an Outstanding Commitment Award.

One key question in a CGIU application is the organization's quantitative, measurable benchmarks that demonstrate its reach and impact. How do you measure your year? How does the organization prove its effectiveness? How many bed-nets were given? Loans? Scholarships? Computers? How many students enrolled? How many students retained? How much money donated?

In my “day job” as Coordinator of Undergraduate Research at the University of California, Riverside, I recognize the importance of benchmarks, assessments and analysis in determining whether or not we have reached our desired learning outcomes and goals. My office sits squarely next door to the Office of Institutional Research, housing a determined Sociologist that pumps out incredible amounts of information as to the success of our student population. By the sounds of her typing and printing alone, I am well aware of the mass of information and work required to have quantified, statistic information about the retention and graduation rates of university students and the “success” of the university, no matter how narrow that may be defined.

However, CLP does not strive to model itself after the public university system. Nor does it measure its success in the number of “things” re-distributed across the world or in our local community. If a CLP student dropped out of CLP or did not matriculate into higher education, I know we would not have “failed.” If a book club is attended by three people or ten people, we would not have failed. If two scholarships are given or twenty scholarships are given, we would not have failed. If the organization no longer exists one year from now, CLP would not have failed-- the purpose is not to protect the organization, the purpose is to use the organization as one of an infinite number of tools by which we come together collectively to make change.

CLP “goals” are simple: we create spaces where we become fully human, where we engage oppression, where we reflect on the fragmentation resulting from that oppression and where we take action to address it or bring other people into awareness of it.

So, how shall we measure our year? I think it is represented in the number of conversations we had; the number of hearts broken open in tenderness or awareness; the people who feel more conscious of their individual lives and their lives in relationship to others; those who are mindful of the world and their power in the world; those that feel capable of contributing their piece to life.

We shall be measured by the number of organizations and people that led us in a better direction; the ways we became more conscious of our work; the scholarships given to students who are excited to go to wherever they are going; the parents involved; the obstacles-turned-opportunities; the strangers-turned-board-members who are excited to add their piece to the puzzle; the board-members-turned-strangers who have grasped their own deeper calling and feel ready to plunge into the unknown with it based on the learning they experienced in CLP. As said by civil rights leader Rev. Howard Thurman, “Ask not what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive... then go do it. Because what the world needs are people that have come alive.”

This is not an organization of numbers-- this is an organization for the pursuit and engagement of life. Let us hold ourselves to no other standard than the ways we bring life, engage life and discover life within ourselves and our global community.

In gratitude for your support,
Samantha

UCR Magazine: CLP and Samantha Featured

2009-11-16T09:44:00.001-08:00

CLP Featured in UCR Magazine:
http://magazine.ucr.edu/1009/default.asp?tpgid=47251125&sn=112009

Article Excerpt:

"Living the Promise"

Samantha Wilson, who graduated from UC Riverside in June with a bachelor’s degree in global studies, is now coordinating a new brand of university-fueled volunteerism.

In the fall quarter, UCR started a pilot program connecting undergraduates with community groups to do needed research and provide other services. Faculty mentors will work with the students.

As the new coordinator for undergraduate research in the community, Wilson said she is “seeking out opportunities for students to connect to community organizations and entities to find ways that their research, their participation or their presence works for social service or social change, and benefits the community in a new way. … I look forward to mentoring students to organize and develop power with the community through collaborative action and research.”

Although Wilson is a new graduate, she is hardly new to community service. While a UCR junior she founded a nonprofit called Child Leader Project, working to encourage education and leadership globally.

“I wrote a proposal to do a values-based leadership program at a school run by a micro-finance institution in South India and received $10,000 from the Donald A. Strauss Public Service Scholarship Foundation,” she wrote recently from India. “It began at one school in South India, and has now spread in a rather organic way to three different youth communities across the state of Tamil Nadu. By the end of this summer, we will have approximately 85 students in our programs in India.”

The nonprofit also has connections at UC Riverside and at two area high schools in Riverside and the Jurupa area. “We want youth in the U.S.A. and India to expand education as a lifelong and visionary process of creativity, compassion, exploration, discovery and collaboration,” Wilson said.

Her goals for Child Leader Project: “To bring people together and make a difference in the way we operate as a society, as communities, as schools, families, friends or individuals. We want to re-imagine our world, not simply duplicate it, its injustices, its distractions or its preoccupations within the organization. Therefore, our goal is not money and a killer resume; our goal is social change.”

A team of UCR volunteers went to India in 2008 and taught Indian students about the opportunities of higher education along with other leadership values. “All volunteers for CLP pay to go to India on their own dime — and work very hard when they arrive,” Wilson said. “CLP is far from a vacation: late nights on public buses traveling to and from field sites, all-day programming with high school students, language barriers, heat, mosquitoes. However, the sorts of people that come on a CLP trip are really incredible people — I’d confidently say they are visionary and these sorts of challenges are more like quirky joys to them.”

She has spent summer 2009 on her third trip to India. Two high school exchange students, one from Riverside and one from Jurupa, have also visited. Wilson hopes to leave a permanent program in place, in which Indians teach other Indians. “Children, youth, young adults, adults — people everywhere are aching for meaning and connection,” she wrote from India. “This is what CLP strives to create: a space where we collaborate, create, and connect.

“Although I have graduated as a student, this cycle has not changed. I am still carrying around books and notes and a laptop, still e-mailing professors, still revising and changing what seems to be a lifelong thesis on these ideas,” she wrote. “And I think UCR will be a hotspot for these sorts of things in the future — hopefully the new office for research in the community will be the gathering place for that sort of creative action.”

Leaving Monday... Reading List for the Summer!

2009-07-03T21:24:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving for India on Monday. Unfortunately, in the midst of preparing for departure, I've managed to become ill with "Strep Throat." Nevertheless, I've also had the opportunity to prepare my reading list and make a calendar of arrivals and departures for our team of volunteers.

(1) "Yes Means YES! Vision of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape" by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti- Essays on rape and women's sexuality. I have been given a grant by the Unitarian Universalist Women's Federation for the development of a creative work on conversations about women and organizing in India. These themes and topics of power and consent and sexuality will be useful fuel for the mental fire.

(2)"The Color of Freedom" by Laura Coppo, an oral biography outlining the lives of two Tamil Nadu social activist-revolutionaries, S. Jagannathan and Krishnammal Jagannathan during the time of Mahatma Gandhi and Indian independence.

(3) "Education for Critical Consciousness" and "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" by Paulo Freire. CLP grounds a lot of its operations in Freire's writings on liberating education and the power of reflection and action.

(4) "Deschooling our Lives" edited by Matt Hern provides examples of alternatives to traditional schooling, which may unlock some creative thinking for CLP activities and pedagogies. Thanks to my mentor, Kat Norman, for lending this one (and the next one) to me!

(5) "Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling" by John Gatto also provides a critical examination of the public school system, the banking system of education, and the connections between the industrialized workforce and the crippling of creativity, enthusiasm, and liberation within public education systems.

(6) "The Revolution will not be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex" edited by Incite!Women of Color Against Violence. This one is critical of traditional organizing and organizational development in "capitalist America." Thanks to Patrick for the recommendation! I just got it in the mail today-- right on time!

Other possibilities...
- bell hooks, "Teaching to Transgress"
- A biography of Che Guevara, "A Revolutionary Life"
- "The Autobiography of Malcolm X"
- "AIDS Sutra"

Moving is Discovering!-- June 21, 2009

2009-06-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

Moving is a process of discovery-- I've been finding old notes, photographs, yearbooks, dried flowers, buttons, nails, pens and folders of overly-detailed class notes from four years of undergraduate education.

I've also found a lot of CLP notes, from India to California. Some from plane rides in between the two. Some cryptic, some anthropological, some poetic.

Some without titles. Like this one, scribbled across three sheets, ripped out and attached to a list of "Social Service Activities" compiled by the Lights of India in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu in August 2008...

-----------------------
Untitled, Undated Field Notes (India, August 2008)

Why do we do it? Where? How? Purpose.
Marriage moment: Why don't you work locally? Why do we have to choose?
What are you doing with your life?
I'm unifying mind and action.

[Thinking Florida.]
--> Fantasy world.
--> Letter from God.
--> As I looked beneath me, I was making the road.

The weight of that moment-- to do international organizing the right way requires it to consume you. I want to let it consume me. Studying in endless hunger. Read till it becomes you. Stay up late... creating, becoming, developing.

Service, activism, social justice is a full-time job. There is nothing compartmental about it.

Flexibility. Fearlessness.

These are real lives. Where is US where is THEM ?

[A new definition]: Self-activism: a radical confrontation.
(Real social justice is transformation.)

You should get somewhere and feel fearlessly stupid.
--> Humility.
--> FEARLESS HUMILITY.

"You are a CRAZY American girl!"
--> Identity.
--> Foreigner.
--> Female.
--> Unmarried.

[[Enigma]].

Higher education in India... let the market provide?

2009-03-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

An interesting article from the Economist:
(http://www.economist.com/specialreports/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12749787)

Special Report on India: Creaking, groaning- Dec 11th 2008

"Primary education is a particular worry. It is hard to teach illiterate Indian women basic hygiene. Illiterate men are not equipped for productive employment. Yet in 2001 only 65% of the population was literate, optimistically defined, compared with 90% in China, even though every Indian government for the past two decades has vowed to fix primary education. The current government is no exception. It has increased the overall education budget, but not much. Last year it represented 2.8% of GDP, about half the figure in Kenya.

At least almost all Indian children now go to school: a survey of 16,000 villages carried out last year by ASER, an NGO, put the enrolment rate at 96%. But it also pointed to the appalling quality of education on offer. Half of ten-year-olds could not read to the basic standard expected of six-year-olds. Over 60% could not do simple division. One reason is that, according to a World Bank study, only half of Indian teachers show up to work. Half of Indian children leave school by the age of 14.

Let the market provide?

Or rather, many of them turn to private schools, on which poor Indians spend 2% of their incomes. Many of these are wholly unregulated, but apparently no worse for it. A study of a Hyderabad slum, by James Tooley of Britain’s Newcastle University, found that of 918 schools, 35% were government-run, 23% were private but officially approved, and 37% were informal. The private schools were better. In a standardised test the informal private schools actually came out best, with an average mark of 59.5% in English, compared with 22.4% in the government schools.

Clearly the government should support the grey market in education that its own failings have given rise to. It should make it easier for private schools to get approval. Their teaching materials could then be upgraded and standardised. ASER’s survey also suggests that, with a few sensible steps, big improvements are possible even in state-run schools. By making teachers accountable to local governments, Bihar, India’s most unlettered state, roughly halved its truancy rate last year. A draft law awaiting parliamentary approval would make similar changes across India.

Higher education is another candidate for reform. In the past five years the rate of enrolment in higher education has taken off, from 7% to 13% of young Indians. But the quality of teaching at India’s 348 universities and some 18,000 colleges is generally poor. NASSCOM, the IT industry’s lobby group, reckons that of the 350,000 engineering graduates who emerge each year, mostly from private colleges, 25% are unemployable without extensive further training, and half are just unemployable.

In response to an urgent need, the central government has announced plans for 30 new centrally run institutions. These will not be first-rate. In a recent ranking of the world’s 500 best universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University, only two were from India. But the new central institutions will be much better than most Indian public universities, which are run by state governments. In these places the teaching is mostly dreadful, syllabuses are outdated and facilities can be a health hazard.

Many private establishments (which must be affiliated to a public university and cannot be run for profit) suffer the same deficiencies. With demand for higher education outstripping supply, they have little incentive to improve. Cumbersome and politicised regulators add to their woes. Getting approval to open a nursing college in India can take years even though there is a dire shortage of nurses, with only 30% of nursing jobs in rural hospitals filled. Almost the only investors who would submit themselves to this process are the politicians who control it, and indeed many of them own universities.

In a recent paper on India’s higher education, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Devesh Kapur call it “the collateral damage of Indian politics”. For corrupt state-level rulers, a tightly regulated university system has many benefits. Politicians, or their lackeys, collect bribes for appointing faculty, admitting students and awarding good grades. They insert their supporters to run the racket. Having destroyed a public university, they then grant themselves permission to open a private one from which, illegally, they milk profits. India’s politicians would clearly be mad to reform this system."

CLP: Its time to "Barack" and Roll

2009-01-23T14:07:00.000-08:00

"To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it."

- Inauguration speech, President Barack H. Obama

On Inauguration Day morning, I sat with my family over a glass of champagne to celebrate Barack Obama's first day as the 44th President of the United States. For most of my political life I've known only the experience of George W. Bush-- I've known of resolutions and legislation with which I disagreed on issues of importance for education, women, environment, and international peace. I've seen war. I've seen Guantanamo. I've seen tax cuts that, when paired with ignorance and arrogance by a government intended to set some limits on greed, have resulted in a hallowing recession-- if not depression-- at the same time I plan to graduate with a BA in Global Studies and Religion. The Assistant Director of CLP is preparing to move to a cheaper place as her department store employer makes hints at bankruptcy. Students at UCR may have to take unexpected time off as their parents can no longer afford to send them. Grants? Who knows what will happen with those.

What is it like to grow up in a depression? In relationship to my fellow American citizens, I enjoy relative plenty-- two parents with secure jobs, and no debt in my name. Miraculously, I started a new, well-paying job this quarter as an English Tutor, and although my family has made the decision to "tighten down the house" in fear of a possible lay-off of teachers and education staff, I keep an image of the "New Deal" in my head-- heck, if anything goes really bad, I'll start doing manual labor on a development project-- but not in India, in the USA.

But what about India? What do times like these mean for our responsibilities and relationships abroad?

India has its own set of stimulus packages. An individual within our partner organization, ASA-GV, a microfinance institute, has noted a general sense of concern for the stability and sustainability of their organization as well.

Even in the face of our economic crisis, a crisis that is transnational and interconnected to the economies across the world, I feel our obligation and our responsbilities remain. I have still seen the generosities and willingness of people to be "risky" on "development investments." What better savings, what better investment, than the education of youth and young adults in India and Southern California? These our are youth, our children, and we strive to fulfill our responsbilities to them, to uphold the worth of their future, even in the face of our self-created crisises.

When Obama mentioned "non-believers" in his list of the religious constitutencies of the USA, my brother-in-law smiled and giddily exclaimed to the family-- "Yes! Thats my president!" Finally, a president that validated and spoke to the feelings and beliefs of their constituency-- even a constitutency they may not agree with or relate to.

For me, Obama was "my president" when he described working "alongside" people from across the globe to "feed hungry minds." What better way to describe what CLP strives to do? Work alongside people all over the world to feed hungry minds-- including our own.

With a new sense of connection to our own leadership, our work certainly continues.

Gates on the future of aid:
http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_story=11ebb33e58a9ff8214910041ef6052e744cfdece&rf=bm

India's Primary Education:
http://audiovideo.economist.com/?fr_story=245b1271041e7d13684d8e8f331abac64f28cf3b&rf=bm

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T22:03:00.001-08:00

Happy New Year from India!

As I write to you from my balcony in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu on the almost idyllic tropical morning of January 1st, 2009, I hope this email finds you safe and celebratory on the eve of the New Year in California!

After over 30 hours of travel including a six-hour lay over in Dubai (which also included a series of encounters with intoxicated Japanese businessmen, a Starbucks with drinks in Arabic, and an Irish Pub), “Team CLP Phase III” safely arrived in Tamil Nadu, India last Sunday. Since that time, Shady Grove Oliver, Shirley Del Aguila and I have also effectively spent too much personal income at the sunny beach enclave of Mamallapuram on our way to begin work and planning in Pondicherry, where I write to you today. Since our arrival, we have been accompanied by our mother-daughter duo/NGO-partners, Amala and Vasanthi (“Ma”) as well as Ma’s close friends Krishna (“Uncle”) and his friend, Keke.

We’ve had quite a week since our departure from California last Friday.

On Tuesday, December 30th, we embarked on a two-hour bus ride from Mamallapuram to Kanchipuram for a collaborative and exciting meeting with the Rural Institute for Development Education (RIDE) (www.rideindia.org)—a non-governmental organization (NGO) that works specifically to take children out of labor in the silk and stone industries and into one of their twelve “transition schools” before facilitating their entry into the government system. Considering 80% of this area depends on this industry for a living, their 25-year effort in partnership with state and federal government, NGOs, and interested local and international individuals, has been pivotal to decreasing child labor in the wider Kanchipuram area. According to their research surveys, almost 40,000 children were in child labor in the silk mill industry in 1996—a number, they have argued, that has decreased to less than 1,000 thanks to the collaborative work of the organizations listed above (i.e. government labor department providing free machine looms rather than hand looms, enforced laws on advanced payments curbing the willingness of parents to allow children to work, and active outreach on the part of a network of NGOs).

Our future collaboration with RIDE is incredibly exciting—over a two hour meeting, we discussed their work in education and women’s empowerment as related to labor, as well as our work and our ideals with higher education, social justice, and international dialogue in CLP. Upon a viewing of our newly created 10-minute film about our first leadership camp (thanks to the invaluable work of Eamon Conklin), Mr. Jeyaraj was almost moved to tears (having been selected to attend a similar program when he was in the 10th standard that he said “changed the course of his education”), and his wife and him eagerly proposed that we do something similar with graduates from their Child Labor Bridge Schools.

Upon a tour of their “Training Facilities” set in the more remote, rural area of Kanchipuram and surrounded by community gardens to feed the women and children that attend their meetings, we have agree upon a series of “Leadership Programmes” in the Kanchipuram area for Summer 2009 to serve the 15-20 students now aged 14 to 17-years-old who are graduates of their Bridge Schools and have successfully completed 10 years of government education. Futhermore, Mr. Jeyaraj is eager and excited to send information about our organization to other NGOs in his area, with his hope that our program for international dialogue, creativity, social service, peace, and higher education for underserved communities will expand across the South Indian states of “Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala” and someday “all over India, and all over the world!”

After a three hour bus ride from their facilities to our “home base” in Pondicherry, we have spent December 31 in net cafes, coffee shops, and Amala’s Beauty Parlour working on our Leadership Mela for our “Lights of India” who will be spending time in Pondicherry studying higher education, culture, and leadership from Jan. 5 to Jan.8 of next week.

While Shady and Shirley ran around preparing materials for next week’s curriculum and washing our already desperately dirty clothing, Amala and I spent most of our day on her motorbike going from university to university to seek support from principals for tours and lectures about higher education at their facility. We received a warm welcome from the principal of the government-run Tagore’s Arts College—a series of buildings and winding dirt paths that instantly reminded me of my time at the University of Hyderabad in 2007. Although their students will be on holiday, the principal, Dr. Abraham, connected us to two lecturers and administrators from the nearby Polytechnic Universities to provide lectures of higher education and admission to their schools. We will be meeting with them tomorrow, Friday, to firm these plans.

We are also thankful to a myriad of other people who have come out of the community to help us in our task: this includes a friend of Keke’s who does IAS (Indian Administrative Service) coaching for aspiring IAS officers—a number of which are in our Leadership Class! As well as Amala, who will prepare a short presentation on the history of French and British colonization of Pondicherry, so that we may host a analytical discussion on culture and identity to draw parallels to the experiences of our students in Southern California through Shirley’s curriculum, and the 40 packets made by students at Patriot High School in Jurupa Unified School District (thanks again to Toby Walker for his assistance with that component).

Upon leaving the Arts College, Amala and I travelled to Jipmer Medical University, which includes a fully-functioning hospital to meet the needs of the surrounding community. Her uncle works there as a medical social worker, and we were seeking his support to speak to our students (many of which who are aspiring doctors and nurses) about his social work experience at the medical school and in the medical field.

His office, quite appropriately, sits in the middle of the emergency room ward. Outside the building, people were seated and laid all over the street and sidewalk—some surrounded in families, others alone—but almost all moaning or crying out in pain. As we walked into the ward, human bodies laid in all corners of the large, high-ceilinged room, and injections and small operations were taking place right in the public hall way.

I had not been in an Indian hospital since my contracting “malaria” in November 2007, and the smell of the hospital and wounded bodies sent me into a spin, as everywhere I looked people were lying in pain—all, seemingly, on the near edge of death.We decided to sit outside and wait for her uncle to speak to us. Just as we sat on the steps to ward, a small van pulled up with two women inside—one laying across the back seat, the other standing over her crying.
Amala pointed her out to me—“Look, she has been burned” she said.
“What?” I looked over. Her whole body, naked, was scorched, and she wasn’t moving.
“She was cooking and her dress caught fire.”
“Amala—we both know that she doesn’t get caught on fire by cooking.”
Amala responded quietly, “Yeah... I know.”

Domestic abuse between women and men or women and other families often consists of these cases—men (or their families) throwing acid on their wife, or, as the wife cooks or is in the kitchen, men will throw gasoline on their wives and set them on fire—resulting in a purported “cooking” accident.

Hospital workers rushed down from our doorway with a “Burn Victims Unit” stretcher and pulled the woman from the van, rushing her past us as a crying woman followed, reaching out for the victim’s charred hand.

The security guard caught my shock, and, pointing to me, said, “She will die in a few days.”
Amala followed up, “Yes—even with treatment, she will not survive.” Still horrified, I looked to the security guard.
“How often do you see these cases come through?”
“Maybe… 8…9…10 a day.”

The two men driving the van watched the stretcher pass through the doors of the hospital, then, returning to their car, drove away.

I don’t know who the men were. I don’t know who the women were—if they were wealthy, educated, or poor. I don’t know if she had children or what will happen to them now. But I know that the scene was all too familiar to everyone around me, that the woman’s experience was quickly termed a “cooking incident” even though everyone knew what really happened.

Was that the possible fate of the girls in our program? Can this program provide our girls an opportunity to overcome it? Even more importantly, will our program lead to men with different perceptions of women? What are the unseen results and implications of our program in this sector of society? Will our students feel moved to challenge this problem— like the women and men in California who feel called upon to challenge domestic violence or inequality?

As Amala and I drove out of the hospital, still surrounded in bodies upon bodies of people seeking treatment, and continued our tasks for the Leadership Program, I was reminded of something Mr. Jeyaraj told me, smiling, as we left his office just the day before: “Samantha, Child Leader Project is really Child Activist Project—one question you should think about this week is the great implications of making children feel capable of being activists.”

Mindful of this question, I feel that these are the moments that show us, full force, the implications of our work, the importance of the work, and the worth of the work.

So, from these activists in India to you activists back home—thank you again for your support and help with this project. We hope to “see” you January 5, at the UU Church of Riverside, where the Social Justice Committee and CLP will be hosting an international teleconference with our students from here in Pondicherry. Contact Theresa Gilbertson at theresa@childleaderproject.org for more information on how to get involved.

And, now, let us all work for a more just New Year.

In love and action,

Samantha Wilson
Child Leader Project
www.childleaderproject.org

We're on our way to India for Phase III!

2008-12-25T14:41:00.000-08:00

Its December 25th, and I am in my office putting final touches on our preparation for India.

This is an exciting trip: we will be taking students to the capital city of Chennai to visit a university, an NGO, and do teleconferencing with folks in Riverside, CA. We will also continue our photography curriculum with the students, as well as initiate the new piece of the program in which we will deliver the 40 packages from students in the USA to their new pen pals abroad. I am excited to see how the students will react-- what they will have questions about, what they will assume to be true or untrue.

A student placed a VOGUE magazine in one of their packages. I was initially struck by this-- a little frustrated, as I feel I've been trying to show a different side of America that is not based in media, but in real lives of the people living here. But I guess VOGUE has a place in that-- it operates in our daily life. It operates in the way in makes people feel, dress, act, or think-- about life, themselves, or our world. One student wrote about how much they love education in the USA, although our curriculum will discuss obstacles to higher education faced by the communities who made the packages. There was candy. There were family photos. Sunglasses. A recorder. A camera. Books. College pamphlets. CD's. All of these are America, I am also learning this. VOGUE still functions strongly in my life-- it makes me act in a way that actively tries to reject something I feel VOGUE communicates. That action, that rejection and resistance, is also America.

This also provides a new curriculum opportunity: what is "high" media in India? I found a 50-pack of "Bollywood" Postcards at Cost Plus World Market and purchased them to do an activity... I don't know the activity yet, but I could see one like a bright aura around those cards. They will also be useful for the students to articulate their own ideas about media and photography and how it communicates "Indian-ness" to the rest of the world. They can use the postcards to write to their new pen pals. It was a good investment.

We also had a great blessing this week. To pay for another set of 20 cameras, we did a last-minute money drive via internet to get enough donations for our students. In 3 days, CLP supporters donated $250 to our camera-cause, which is MORE than enough to buy cameras and pay for developing. I feel so grateful to these individuals and their kindness-- I feel encouraged and supported.

But the blessings continue: the UU Church of Riverside has donated $1,000 to CLP. We were presented the check at their Christmas Eve Service/Fellowship with a great applause and wonderful show of energy and support from the congregation. They will be sponsoring a teleconference on January 5th, and the students and my team will speak the the community from their sanctuary in an international display of community.

I am frantically packing, and I'm hoping I'll be able to solidify things in India once I arrive. I am concerned about our ability to arrange all the meetings with the Universities on time, and we are certainly engaging in some last-minute space arrangements. I will keep you updated on how this unfolds, particularly because we have received such support from our Riverside community.

One meeting is for sure! We will be collaborating on a social justice component with RIDE (www.rideindia.org).

Happy holidays-- and happy New Year!

Samantha

Patriot High School Presentations

2008-12-17T22:45:00.000-08:00

December 17, 2008

“On the contrary, reflection—true reflection—leads to action. On the other hand, when the situation calls for action, that action will constitute an authentic praxis only if its consequences become the object of critical reflection.” – Freire 52-53, Pedagogy of the Oppressed

I am thankful to have finished my finals last week—but the work is never over, it only transforms. As Dr. Clarissa Estes says in my female-family-holy-text, Women Who Run with the Wolves, “If we realized that the work was to continue the work, we would be much more fierce and much more peaceful.”

I realize that the work is continuous. A continuous process and a serious of cautious and excited “Yeses!” to all the ideas and people and themes that emerge from the woodwork of the project.

This passed week, with the generous and outstanding help of UCR undergraduate Toby Walker, we made nine CLP presentations to the AVID and LINK Crew classes at Patriot High School in Jurupa Unified School District, speaking to over 200 students about CLP’s work in India, and challenging them to participate in their own community. Patriot High School (PHS), located in a predominantly Latina/Latino community, supports several programs that encourage high school graduation and higher education attendance with their students through AVID and LINK Crew organizations.

My experience was overwhelmingly positive: teachers were very encouraging and receptive to the project, asking questions and providing ideas on how students may participate.

Our “assignment” (or, as teacher Kristin Podgorski describes it, “our opportunity”) is to create an envelope that will speak to their experience as a youth in Southern California.

The “opportunity” is as follows (later adapted and improved with help from UCR undergrad, Kevin Eldridge):

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

International Peer Leader Assignment #1

“My Life, My America” Envelope

With your individual student profile, you will create an envelope that will be hand-delivered to the student in India, and this student will get a chance to respond to your message this December and January.

This envelope should include the following:

1. Letter of Introduction: “My Life”

- Include your full name, age, grade

- Information about your family

- Your ambition (career) and higher education goals

- Your interests, hobbies, favorites

- Why do you want to go to college? Why is it important to you and your family?

- Ask questions to them based on the profile you are given

What is similar? What is different?

What questions do you have for them?

What are you curious about based on their student profile?

What makes you curious about India?

Feel free to write more if you would like! Be sure to ask questions you would also feel comfortable answering.

2. “My America”

Your task is to “show” this student what you think America is. What is America to you?

a. Write one short paragraph about what you love most about your community and your life in America. What do you love and what do you want to share about your culture, your community, and your school? What makes it special or different? What should someone in India know about Jurupa, California, or USA?

b. Write another paragraph describing what you feel should be changed about your community, your city, your state, your country, or your government. What flaws do you perceive in the USA? Often times the most pressing problems are the strongest sources of motivation. What do you feel motivated to transform about this country?

c. Include any photographs, items, notes, pictures, collages, stories. Teach them new words, show family photos, or describe your favorite things! Be creative!

* Please include your Indian student’s name on the outside of your envelope.

** On the back of the envelope, include your contact information at PHS (Full name, teacher’s name and period)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We may have over 90 of these returned to us for our students in India! Wow!

We also had several students approach after class and express interest in participating in a more concrete way. This may result in a possible student organization on campus and a fundraising event with the students there.

In other news, we’ve purchased our domain name (www.childleaderproject.org), have new webmail accounts for our workers (samantha@childleaderproject.org), and a PayPal account where you can donate to us directly!

A New Era of Updates

2008-12-11T22:00:00.000-08:00

Hello CLP-Supporters,

Welcome to a new era of posting by Samantha Wilson.

I notice that I am reluctant to post here-- I only want to post the most professional, most polished, most accomplished statements, when, in reality, life is not like that, let alone attempting to start an NGO.

I pledge to post more regularly, particularly during this "Holiday" season which will consist of reflection, analysis, and new actions for CLP. We have taken many steps forward over the last 10 weeks, and I am eager to reflect on those steps here and post as often as possible.

In the meantime, I'd like to post my "Heck yes! I'm a professional NGO-Woman!" photograph, compliments of UCR Media Services:

"Whoo-hoo! I'm excited to post more frequently!"

This evening has been spent organizing the home office. This is the process by which I realize how much this little proposal has grown into a fledgling organization. I smile at a particular folder I had purchased with my friend Hannah last April 2008, where we stood together in Office Depot and debated whether or not to get the "1.5 inch" binder or "3 inch" binder.

"Do I really need all that space?"

"Probably-- if we know anything about you."

I definitely did need that space-- and then some. I have taken over the entire office desk in my family's home (with gratitude to my mother and step-father for their generosity), filling the drawers with papers and articles and curriculum and emails and notes from meetings.

This Winter we have some exciting things to do:
- Finish all the Non-Profit and 501(c)(3) paper work (signatures!)
- Start our newsletter
- Execute the second India-phase of the project (Dec. 26th-Jan. 10th)
- Strengthen our connections to UCR through on-campus involvement in "UCR-CLP"
- Strengthen our connections to communities of faith and social justice
- Seek new partnerships and programs with AVID classes in the Inland Empire

I must express immense gratitude to the help of Theresa Gilbertson and Emily Nudge-- two women who have been my greatest blessing in this ongoing process.

More on the way as I continute to clean. We also look forward to a new website around the corner!

To 501(c)(3) or not, that is the question.

2008-10-18T22:27:00.000-07:00

"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart,

and try to love the questions themselves...

The point is, to live everything.

Live the questions now.

Perhaps, then, you will gradually,

without even noticing it,

live your way into the answer."

- Rainer Maria Rilke

We are on the eve of something new in CLP: I have researched and discovered the path by which we can incorporate as a Non-Profit in California, and then become tax-exempt as a 501(c)(3) organization. This process, however, takes anywhere between $700-$1200, and I am beginning to realize that my physical, mental, and emotional investment in this project will be represented within this moment of financial need.

Where will this project go with 501(c)(3)? This project will go for grants to continue its work. This program would find a little office somewhere, or it would be the main source of income for a little apartment that belongs to Samantha Wilson (while she simultaneously does something else in order to live). This program would raise the money so that those individuals who can't afford to go to India CAN afford to go to India. This program would expand to Mali or Nigeria. This program would develop internships with the UC system to host university students to work at these schools across the globe. This program would bring international awareness into US classrooms. This program would develop a scholarship fund for its international participants.

This program would invest its life into relationships of mutuality and respect. This program is an "investment" program-- it are no concrete, measurable short-term effects, nor does it seek to achieve any.

CLP Short-Term Effects:
- Students are engaged with local and international peers through art, academia, and service
- International relationships and organizational partnerships and exchanges is established
- New ideas are discussed and new modes of learning are practiced by both parties
- Hope for the future is encouraged and given importance and legitimacy

Long term? We are developing a program that invests in everyone it comes into contact with. A program that writes letters to its student, that sends thank-you notes to its sponsors, that works diligently to place real directional power into the hands of those citizens it is trying to invest in. This program invests in its relationships. This program is about people in relationship with one another. This program is about whole-humanity and honoring all that is human within other individuals. I want a program that doesn't feel like a machine. I want a program that feels like a group of individuals working on behalf of the better good, in relationships of real exchange, of humility, of eagerness to serve human beings in their entirety.

Wholeness. Relationships. Investment.

THAT is social change.

And THAT is the Child Leader Project.

And thats why we're going after 501c3.

***Note: Italicized words are ideas that will be elaborated on later.

Update 3: August 30, 2008

2008-10-15T23:01:00.000-07:00

Our first day

Hello everyone!

Just another update from India!

We finished our work at the school! The program went well and the kids enjoyed it: they described us as "kind of like teachers... but kind of like us!" And this is exactly what we wanted: something dialogue-based where the thinking and doing was in the hands of the students. They studied conflict resolution, values-based leadership, higher education, and a service project!

For their service project, we cleaned the steps of a temple on the top of this beautiful, green hill. The kids carried brooms and baskets and spent an hour in the sun cleaning the steps. It ended in a water-fight of sorts-- which was a blast! The kids were really taken back by the experience: many had never done a "service project" before, and many were talking about social work by the end of the week.

The Leadership Team: "LIGHT OF INDIA!"

I will return to the school in two or three weeks and do more planning with the students. They will be operating as a leadership organization until I return in December. The name of the organization (they voted) is "The Light of India." They will be focusing on environmental issues (planting trees and awareness programs on plastics), distributing free note books to poorer children in the area, and cleaning public spaces.

But, for now, we're going to the coast! We need a break! We will be spending three days in Pondicherry before Aniee and I return to help the bank and finish up our meetings. After Aniee leaves, I will be focusing entirely on my thesis research on micro finance as a platform for social change.

I love you all-- again, thank you for the emails! It is such a joy to open my account and see your names! Really-- thank you.

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

With love,
Samantha

In our classroom, last day.

Update 2: August 27, 2008

2008-10-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hey all,

We're still alive here out in Madupai, Tamil Nadu! Whoo-hoo!

The kids here are super polite. Too polite. British polite. When you ask, "How are you?" they stand up and say, "Fine, ma'am."

I've beaten that out of them. When I walk into the classroom and I ask, "How are you?" they stand up and say, "We're FANTASTIC!" I love it!

Anyways, a few useless updates:
1. The kids are beautiful. All 20 of them.
2. I'm in love with them.
3. I'm getting better learning all of their names, but only short names, because I'm terrible with names.
4. Today we did higher education planning-- the principal spoke for awhile, then we did some talk about service work. Tomorrow we do a community service project at a temple!
5. My co-coordinator in India, Mr. Arumugam, is amazing and I'm alittle in love with him, too. He studied social work, so you can see in his freakin' eyes that he loves doing this stuff.
6. I'm so thankful for Eamon Conklin. I'm glad he is on this trip. We've been taking film and photography like crazy-- lots of good photos to be seen when we return. He's sitting next to me now, singing Bright Eyes. Good traveling companion.
7. Internet is sketchy as hell. So is international calling.
8. Indian food is growing on me. So are saris.
9. Mosquitos are NOT growing on me. I'm really bitten up. C'est la vie.
10. Again, kids are incredible. So much to say.
11. We had an hour long prayer service this morning. It hurt to sit for that long. Felt frustrated that I couldn't do the cross-legged thing so well, but, c'est la vie to that, too.
12. They opened student canteen today! AND they let us be the "special guests" at the opening ceremony! AND they let me cut the ribbon!

Thanks for all the kind emails and "inspiration." I have so many pictures I want to show-- sometime soon, I hope.

Love and faith your way!

-Samantha

Update 1: August 23

2008-10-15T22:59:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends, Family, and Mentors—

Hello from Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India!

The team (Eamon and Aniee) and I have arrived here safely—we spent a rather rushed day in New Delhi/Agra, and had the opportunity to see the Taj Mahal. It was incredible.

India is so different this time. This time, there is a feeling of being armed with purpose. Not only am I free of culture shock (how easy I slipped right back into my pseudo-Indian-accent and my head bobble), but I also feel like I’m here for a reason. Having purpose removes so many obstacles and fears. Furthermore, what else could the “divine” throw at me? Last time in India, I had a terrorist attack AND malaria! If I can handle that, I can handle this!

The bank we are working with is incredible. They have been so helpful and so kind—and very prepared. They have obviously read everything I have sent them, and they have placed it into report-form! Today was our first meeting at the bank: there were about 10 people total, including the Chairman of the bank, Mr. Devaraj. We had a three-hour briefing on the project and the programme for next week. Eamon was able to film the entire meeting for us to review later and take notes on.

We went to the Taj! (Click to enlarge to Taj size)

Mr. Devaraj has been working on this project for over 30 years—Activists for Social Alternatives (ASA) was the original program, based entirely on development programming (schools, public health, etc.) Devaraj then moved to North America to do schooling, learned about credit, and returned to India—right about the same time microfinance was happening in Bangladesh with Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Devaraj spent 10 days in Bangladesh studying this model of banking before he returned to institutionalize it here with ASA, thereby creating ASA-GV (Grama Vidiyal). (More here: http://www.gvmfl.com/)

Technically, the Child Leader Project falls under “ASA”—we are a development program, complimenting the work of the bank. The school we will be working at is forty minutes away from Trichy in a very rural area between here and Madurai (a big Hindu pilgrimage site). The school was built 10 years ago to accommodate the families there, and now has over 800 students. The school, however, operates at a deficit, and the chairman very excited to hear about the scholarship/tuition piece of our program (all money we raise in the USA will be given to the 20 students selected to work with us here).

On that note, they have selected 20 students! I saw the list of names and was so excited! They will arrive on Monday morning with their parents in tow, and we will do a one hour parent-student orientation. We planned an activity where students and parents will get up together and share the hopes and dreams they have for their children. What an exciting prospect! How wonderful it will be to hear these ideas!

On a personal note, they are very excited I will be here until September 20. They are enthusiastically willing to help me with my thesis research in whatever ways are needed—they even want me to interview recipients of loans in some of the most remote rural villages of the area, and are allowing me to follow them to bank meetings where they collect the loans given out to the women’s circles! They even told me about a special “women’s empowerment song” that they will help me sing at each meeting! I must of looked so excited when they told me I could come and be a part of that, because they all started laughing and smiling at one another! Their model is based nearly entirely on the Grameen Model—from the “14 decisions” to the meeting structure of the women, everything.

Yay! Microfinance!

I have much more to tell you all about, but the power in the bank has just gone out and this computer is operating on a special battery. I’m on a count down till it dies! However, we should have wireless when we move on to the campus from our hotel on Monday (isn’t that wonderful? We will be living on campus with the students!). Expect something long, excited, and slightly drawn out. :-)

On a personal note: Wow. I can’t believe I’m here. My heart feels like it may burst with gratitude for this opportunity: to be at this microfinance institution, in India, working with these women and their children. Everyone here is so excited about how we can work together-- it is obvious that we all feel so grateful for what we are offering to one another.

Thank you for your support and kindness—I love you all very much.

I look forward to emailing you again soon!

Samantha

(PS: I have blind-copied everyone on this email, but please feel free to send this along to anyone I may have left out-- I rather frantically put the email list together before the power died!)

Updates: Little India, Press Enterprise, and More Preparation

2008-08-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Update from Samantha Wilson

The UCR ARTSBlock Little India Field Trip (July 30, 2008) went really well: students seemed to have enjoyed playing dress-up, and everyone did their best being adventurous with Indian food at lunch. In true Indian fashion, I way-over-ordered food for everyone and we had plenty of left overs on our table! Nevertheless, students seemed to appreciate the opportunity to have an adventure in California: a "rediscovery" of California, if you will. The footage from the film and photography they took during this excursion will be shown to the students in India to incite conversation and creative, media response.

Elaine Rugus of the Press Enterprise wrote an absolutely beautiful article about the work we are doing with the students at ARTSBlock. She was able to attend the closing session on Thursday, July 31, 2008. After some discussion about civil disobedience and the parallels between Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, we took a walk to Downtown Riverside and sat by the Gandhi statue. The statue was made in India and commissioned by Riverside City Hall. As we sat around the statue, we discussed leadership in the context of service and social justice. Using the quote below as inspiration, students read the quotes around the base of the statue and wrote briefly about what their "life's message" would be.

"Gandhi's life was not governed by policies: it was governed by principles and values. The best political leaders have their country as the source of their passion. Business leaders have as their passion the organization, whether it is through customers, products, or technology. Gandhi's life was driven by his religion: truth and nonviolence and a life of service to others. When a journalist asked Gandhi for a message for the United States, especially for African Americans, Gandhi responded, 'My life is its own message.'" -Keshavan Nair, "A Higher Standard of Leadership"

Students had an opportunity to reflect and write on this quote and the quotes around the base of the statue as I spoke with the Elaine. Their reflections were very empowering and exciting-- it is a truly outstanding moment to see youth empowered through relationships of mutual respect. Through mentorship and one-on-one, intentional community, youth feel important, and in these moments, that importance arouses a sense of great optimism and strength.

Luckily, I accidentally ended up with some of the student's papers. Here's what I read:

"This is what I believe: we need to look outside the box. We need to see and learn the truth. I will stand up and look outside the box. As a people we need to step up to the plate and stand up for what we want and what we believe in-- that every body in this world is equal and we should not be seen as different by color."

"Some people say 'you can't make everyone happy.' My goal is to make everyone happy and at peace with one another through positive changes, beginning with myself and how I live my life. However, this can never be truly possible unless everyone works together and we can work for change and peace."

In preparing for this lesson, I stayed up one night and read from Martin Luther King's autobiography with special attention to the chapter that reflects on his experience in India ("Pilgrimage to Nonviolence"). During his stay in India, he was once introduced to a group of high school students as "...a fellow untouchable from the United States of America" (131). As a result of his trip to India, MLK's "understanding of nonviolence became greater" and his "commitment deeper" (134). It becomes clear that the trajectory of the Civil Rights struggle in the United States was deeply influenced by the independent India movement of Gandhi Ji. Currently, present day movements within India that strive to challenge caste discrimination can re-examine the Civil Rights struggle and anti-racism movements in the United States to seek new tools to fight these forms of oppression. These connections can be explored further by the youth who participate in these programs: with Indian youth exploring USA racism, and American youth exploring caste, students see parallels between their struggles and the struggles of communities on the other side of the world. This begs the question: how can we work together?

The Press Enterprise article is available here: Press Enterprise- The Child Leader Project.

I have recently returned from a 10-day road trip with 13 other young adults/young adult allies exploring different Water Justice issues in Northern and Central California (http://uuroadtrip.blogspot.com/). This provided a welcome opportunity to redirect my attention towards other aspects of my life-- particularly the ones that fuel this project: my spirituality and my social justice community. This also provided me the opportunity to practice my workshop-leading-organizing-time-making skills before I run off to India. I do not do very well with "self-care:" rather than resting and recuperating from 10 days of community organizing and massive amounts of caravaning, I spent today on the laptop and at the white board, making lists, sending emails, shuffling papers, and moving stacks of books.

This evening, however, I was given the blessing of an Indian dinner with Ms. Rosetta Isaac. She is the newest mentor and supporter to the Child Leader Project, offering her services and insights to the project in whatever way is most helpful. She heard about the project through the PE Article-- I'm beyond thrilled to now be in contact with her. During our dinner, however, we spent some time discussing impacts: what are the most important impacts we can make in India in such a short amount of time with these kids? What is the goal? On this, Rosetta spoke passionately: the goal is to provide ALL students, regardless of caste, the opportunity for a holistic and personalized education. I may not be able to get each of these students into school, but I can devote my time and energy into developing relationships that empower and that communicate importance and respect.

Rosetta said, "Your theme should be: I Can Do It!" I rather like that!

The Child Leader Project is about recognizing the intrinsic and extrinsic values of education. Intrinsically, we are providing students opportunities to explore their personality, their desires, dreams, and goals. We are providing theme glimpses into academic fields of social justice and creativity. These opportunities, although students are not expected to be social activists or artists, are imperative to the full and balanced development of one's personality and the expression thereof. Extrinsically, we are working on placing these students into direct contact with opportunities for higher education in an explicitly goal-oriented way.

Looking towards the future: what does the Child Leader Project have to do with "sustainable communities" and democracy? Tomorrow I meet with a professor who is developing a sort of internet-based people's parliament through the UCR Institute for Research on World Systems (IROWS). Furthermore, I'm beginning to brainstorm on how to approach the research/thesis-writing piece to this project. I am in the process of developing some basic research questions and goals to be "armed" with after I've completed the project and I'm there as a humble University of California researcher. To this end, I need to buy the James Spradley book on "interviewing" and brush up on my anthropological "skills."

On a personal note, I'm horribly exhausted. I hope this post doesn't sound too much like a tired person trying to sound overly academic and not-tired. If it does, its a moment for humility!

Good night!

Notes from Arts Block Preparation

2008-07-27T15:25:00.000-07:00

Update by Samantha Wilson

The On-Going Preparation...

Next week, we will be taking a field trip with the Arts Block high schoolers to Little India in Artesia. We will have a short introduction, then visit a clothing shop and have an Indian lunch. We are seeking to tie in different themes for this project: ArtsBlock is moving on towards a "Race" theme (looking at notions of difference, privilege) that we will tie into introducing the students to India and international dialogue. After our field trip on Wednesday, we will do a debrief at the Gandhi statue in downtown Riverside-- a statue made in India, with a whole scene of Martin Luther King carved into it. In fact, there is a fantastic Martin Luther King statue down the road. Perhaps we will incorporate that, too.

Below are some of my preparational materials for our upcoming events next week:

A. Little India Field Trip:

Wednesday: 9:30AM-1PM

- Contact clothing store (Did this!)

- Contact restaurant (Did this!)

- Short presentation or sheet for students to read as we drive there

- Photography Scavenger hunt:

Some initial ideas include…

1. Ganesh

2. Bindhi

3. “Difference”

B. Our Joint Message: The Child Leader Project & UCR ARTSBlock MGV

Our goal: Youth leadership and social change through cross-cultural dialogue, creativity, and education

Gather at the Gandhi statue:

· Caste and race

· Who was Gandhi? How does this fit leadership? What is a Gandhi statue doing in Riverside? How does this fit race?

Video Clips:

- Gandhi: Civil Disobedience: Salt March/Arrest/Nonviolent Attack on Salt Works: http://youtube.com/watch?v=u_Gasq6qfzU&feature=related

- MLK, disobedience/marching/tactics/journey set to music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w61QB8_KOuc&feature=related

Notes from viewing the videos (common themes):

1. Civil disobedience (used non violent tactics)

2. Community change/organizing (Who has power? In the clip about Gandhi, he says “They are not in control—we are. That is the strength of civil resistance.”)

3. Define “terrorist” (both, US and British forces attempted to deny these organizing activities on the basis of “terrorism”)

4. Human Interdependence/Interconnection: whether economic (i.e. salt, clothing in Gandhi’s case) or human interconnectedness (i.e. the quote about our mutual liberation—in the MLK film he states that his work was not only important for “The American Negro but for the whole country.”)

UCR ArtsBlock "My Global Village" Collaboration & Leadership Camp Details

2008-07-24T19:46:00.000-07:00

UCR Arts Block Collaboration

Update by Samantha Wilson

Yesterday, I attended the “My Global Village” workshop being held at the California Museum of Photography in collaboration with UCR ARTSBlock (click here for "My Global Village" website). This program provides high school students with opportunities to view films and other media materials to create artistic responses. I viewed their film about Graffiti (they went into the community and cleaned up graffiti under a bridge in downtown Riverside). It was very exciting to watch it knowing that this film would be shown to Indian students next month before they go into their communities to do similar-intentioned activities!

The high school students seemed very excited about the prospect of participating in this project. They have viewed the film, “Born into Brothels,” and as I showed my own personal pictures from my first trip to India, they would comment knowingly about different scenes, or maybe make comparisons between the kids in my photos with the kids they saw in the film. Following a discussion about India and Mali (I recently met a young man who runs an NGO in Mali—the kids were able to see his project and hear him describe some of his activities), we stayed with the students and did a “Leadership Worksheet” where we were asked to describe two people we considered leaders and list their qualities. We had to select one person we knew personally and one we didn’t know personally. I selected my Religious Studies professor and an attorney that works for people’s rights at Guantanamo—it was a very helpful exercise and provided everyone an opportunity to share something of themselves. Many people selected family members!

Next week we will be taking this same group of high school students on a field trip to Little India in Artesia. I plan on contacting local businesses this weekend to see how we may be able to plan ahead a bit with local community members to talk to the students about India. This will be filmed and shown to the students in India as well— those responses will be interesting! We will have Indian students in Tamil Nadu viewing a film made my Riverside students about their personal interactions with an Indian community in Southern California!

This is getting really exciting, very creative, and very inclusive—I would like to see more community members get involved in some capacity.

In other news, I feel more and more like I’m running a real NGO. I worked on budgets and expenses today, as well as sent out MORE (these are endless) emails updating various sponsors on my latest activities.

I’ve also made the 5-day leadership camp more complete. If I find a way to upload those notes onto this blog, I will do so immediately. But, in the mean time, here’s a list of some of the Indian student’s activities:

- Small group meetings to provide more one-on-one time with students

- Workshop: “What is leadership?” (Looking at global leaders, local leaders, qualities, etc.)

- All-Student Workshop: “My Global Village: International Creativity and Dialog” (This is our collaboration with Riverside. The Indian students will view these materials and then respond in similar artistic mediums.)

- Workshop/Training: “Conflict Resolution and International Peace-Making: Peace-making in our communities and our world”

- Workshop: “Intro to Higher Education in Tamil Nadu”

- Workshop (Introductory courses into different fields, ideas):

o Medical Anthropology

o International Affairs and Global Social Change

o Media Communications

- Service Projects

- All-Student Workshop: “Community Organizing: Activism in the United States and India”

- Life Skills Education

- Closing Ceremonies: Performance / Presentations / Photography Show / Awards Ceremony with family

In the meantime, Eamon and Aniee have both been working diligently on different aspects of the program. Eamon is developing the curriculum for “My Global Village.” Aniee has been the fundraising queen while developing her own curriculum as well. I’m blessed to have these two.

My bedroom is my office

2008-07-11T13:00:00.001-07:00

Update by Samantha Wilson

My office/my closet:

I have been working on the Child Leader Project from my bedroom in Moreno Valley. The picture above is my closet. To the left, we have a remarkably glorious map of the subcontinent and surrounding countries (graciously donated by a young woman from UCR's Rivera Library). The right acts as a calendar, showing the next 12 months of my life on this project: time spent in India, breaks, Finals weeks, other events, etc. Next to that are five sheets of paper marking each of the phases of the project.

Calendar and Phases:

The five phases are as follows:
- Phase 1: India: Leadership Camp and ArtsBlock Collaboration
- Phase 2: Awareness and Fundraising in Southern California
- Phase 3: India: December Leadership Summit and College Field Trip
- Phase 4: Final Fundraising and Thesis Write-Up
- Phase 5: Next Steps for Sustainability and Follow-Through

These pages are split into three sections: "Project," "Thesis," and "Other."

I began this process in order to create clarity in my mind: I simply can not think about steps for sustainability in April, contacts for my thesis write-up in December, or January's fundraising activities right now-- but I can't forget them, either! This space allows me to jot down things I'll need to think about at different times.

Currently, Phase 1 has a list of tasks for preparing curriculum, fundraising for travel expenses of Aniee and Eamon, and books I'd like to read before I leave for India. This bibliography gets longer by the minute. The books are selected for a variety of reasons: 1) they may enrich my understanding of the area (helpful for both, thesis and project), 2) they may be useful in curriculum for the high school students or for my team, 3) they may provide me a much-desired sense of inner-peace in the process of all this hard work.

Need to Read for India Bibliography as of July 11, 2008:

1. Violence & Compassion: Dialogues on Life Today. His Holiness the Dalai Lama w/ Jean-Claude Carriere
2. Soul Work: Anti-Racist Theologies in Dialogue. Ed. by Marjoirie Bowens-Wheatley and Nancy Palmer Jones
3. The Economics of Microfinance. Beatriz Armendariz and Honathan Morduch.
4. Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire. Rajmohan Gandhi. (Signed by R. Gandhi himself!)
5. In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India. Edward Luce.
6. Religion Against the Self: An ethnography of Tamil Rituals. Isabelle Nabokov.
7. The Encounter Never Ends: A Return to the Field of Tamil Rituals. Isabelle Clark-Deces
8. Selections from Sadhana: The Realisation of Life. Rabindranath Tagore
9. Participant Observation. James Spradley
10. Interviewing. James Spradley.

Certain books I've read that I'll be using (as a framework to think from, thesis material, curriculum, or inspiration!):

1. Creating a World Without Poverty. Muhammad Yunus.
2. Banker to the Poor. Muhammad Yunus. (This one is "required" reading for all people working on this project with me.)
3. Just Peacemaking. Glen Stassen.
4. Everybody Loves a Good Drought. P. Sainath
5. Rules for Radicals. Saul Alinsky.
6. What is Activist Research? Article by Charles R. Hale
7. The Interpretation of Cultures. Selected essays by Clifford Geertz

Films:

1. Born Into Brothels. Directed by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski

I'm leaving the "office" now to meet with Aniee Sarkissian, an assistant to Phase 1 who has been doing extensive fundraising today for her trip. We will be discussing her activities and checking in on her curriculum development. She will be running a workshop at the leadership camp that speaks specifically to the intersection between income/inequality and access to health care-- essentially a medical anthropology workshop! This is exciting: we will be able to talk about the truly revolutionary work of Dr. Paul Farmer, a medical activist who's work I was introduced to during my stay in India last year.

More to come!