It is with great honour that I embark on the task of writing my Seva Mandir experiences in a personal context, but first let me set the scene: I left Seva Mandir 5 days ago. I am currently sat in a beachside house in Goa, allowing myself the time to recuperate from what can only be considered

as the most challenging, influential and powerful 5 months of my life. Within these 5 days I have allowed myself the chance to reflect and evaluate my experiences within Seva, and now I feel prepared to share them.

I arrived in India on the 11th of September 2009 on my placement with DiA. I had worked previously with another NGO focused on resource investment in rural Kenya, which required a period of volunteering for 3 months in Africa. With these experiences in hand I was considering a career in International Development as a likely possibility for my future. I therefore arrived in India with the confidence of someone who was not a ‘newbie’ to work in development – I (so I thought) understood the concepts of sustainability, empowerment and capacity building. How wrong I was! Seva Mandir provided me with such a huge opportunity to evaluate the challenges of development; to learn from both an organization and individuals who had endless experience within the field.

I was placed on a project to design a Sexual Reproductive Health and Gender training module for the Youth Leaders of the Youth Resource Centers. As a foreign, non-Hindi speaking, white, middle class British girl I should have been incredibly wary about starting such a momentous task. Instead I relished the challenge! Project partner, Samvit

Why the training module?

Throughout much of India and particularly in more traditional areas such as Rajasthan discussions regarding sexuality and sexually related diseases are a taboo topic. They are viewed as a personal matter not to be brought out into the public or even the familial sphere. Furthermore, gender should be placed hand in hand with discussion regarding Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) - the difficulties regarding gender equality, domestic violence and gender empowerment are so prominent in Indian society. It is therefore crucial that comprehensive information dissemination and education regarding Sexual SRH and gender is performed to breakdown these ingrained stigmas and practices.

The youth of India can be seen as crucial target population for education regarding Sexual Reproductive Health and Gender. Over 35% of all new HIV/AIDS cases in India are reported in the youth population. In 2004 only 67.7% of female youth in India were literate, compared to 84.2% of male youth. Peer Education is a method of using young people to undertake informal or organized educational activities with their peers; it can be a useful tool to discuss issues of SRH and Gender.

The Seva Mandir Youth Resource Center (YRC) programme is ideal to develop the capacity of Youth Leaders as peer educators to reach out to rural youth in Southern Rajasthan. It provides a forum for the youth to come together and interact with one another, thereby encouraging and enabling a continuous dialogue with and between young people. It gives a safe space for the youth to facilitate learning, critical thinking, and confidence building, in an environment free from caste, religious and gender bias. It is within this context that Seva Mandir commissioned me to design the training module. While the Youth leaders had previously performed activities to facilitate learning and encourage questioning on SRH and gender within their YRC it was not standardised. It is for this reason that a formal module was commissioned, to provide extra support and guidance to develop the capacity of the Youth leaders as peer educators.

Where to begin?

Entering into Seva Mandir as a new volunteer is like entering into a maze, with no concept of where the beginning was, where the map is located, or where the end point is. Unfortunately, I made it harder on myself as I was naturally infected with the ‘Western bug’ that demands purpose, targets, tangible products. I soon learnt my lesson….

The organization is a strange conglomeration of over 300 employees with such divisions as ‘blocks’, ‘zones’, ‘coordinators’ ‘incharges’, ‘units’, which at first seems impenetrable. My situation was further complicated by three factors. Firstly, I was sandwiched directly in between three different departments: health, education and Women and Child Development. Secondly, the coordinator of the YRC programme had left Seva Mandir for further study and no replacement had been found. Thirdly, as a non Hindi-speaking British volunteer I was unable to communicate with the beneficiaries or the Youth leaders who were the direct target audience of my module.

The latter point was fortunately solved early into my project timeline. I was partnered with an Indian Volunteer called Samvit - he became my best-friend, my sparring-buddy and my confidant in the months we worked together. I cannot fully appreciate the extent to which his local knowledge, his seemingly easy method of communicating with the youth, or his grounded nature helped during the project development.

And so we embarked on the task of: understanding the YRCs, understanding the youth leaders, understanding the needs of the beneficiaries. With several trips to the field I was overwhelmed by the potential of the YRCs. The youth leaders were the soul that was breathing life into the programme – they had the enthusiasm, local knowledge, motivation and power to truly engage with the youth beneficiaries on a fundamental level. I felt honoured to be given an opportunity to facilitate and build their capacity as change-makers in their community.

Developing the Module

It became apparent that Sam and I had to learn from the expertise already present within Seva Mandir regarding SRH and Gender. While we had engaged with the youth in the field, we still needed the background on Seva Mandir’s current work and what it prioritised for the direction of the project.

We performed endless meetings with various members of staff throughout the module compilation. This was one of the most humbling experiences in my whole Seva Mandir career. To be treated on an equal platform with experts within the field, to be nurtured and talked through the challenges of the work by heads of department, was highly beneficial. It was incredible to be given time by men and women who had countless other responsibilities, and yet they were willing to build my capacity as a foreign volunteer.

It soon became clear that the essential thing to prioritise was providing extensive training for the youth leaders and to ensure that the YRCs themselves were well stocked with tangible resources that could be used as educational aids by the youth leaders. Many days were therefore spent attached to a computer screen researching, writing and designing the module ‘toolkit’ that could be given as resource to all the YRCs. Furthermore, we utilized the expertise of current Seva Mandir staff by organizing training that used people from across the health, WCD and education departments.

Throughout this period I felt drained by the level of energy required to kick-start the module development process. Given the nature of the Seva Mandir hierarchy it was necessary to coordinate across departments which didn’t necessarily have much formal internal co-ordination themselves. Inevitably I was placing an extra work burden on various people’s schedules, and occasionally this led to resistance. Furthermore, once I did engage employees in the module development, it was then necessary to incorporate their suggestions and inputs within the module design. A big challenge!

Training

Nevertheless, the challenge was met. By mid-December the module had been drafted, re-drafted and then translated into Hindi. The training had been set to the 6th of January - the only task left was printing the module and toolkit to be given to the Youth leaders during the training process. This last hurdle proved (almost) insurmountable. Liaising with printers, getting quotations and meetings with designers took over my life. The only reason why the module was printed successfully was the miraculous arrival of Abhay, the new YRC Coordinator. He provided the authority and power that was needed to drive the ‘final task’ through.

Youth leader trainees

The training started and I had the delights of a 5 day residential itinerary with 24 youth leaders. It was incredible to see their enthusiasm and receptiveness while discussing such complex issues as SRH and gender. They partook in the training with honesty, sensitivity and respect. It is a credit to both them as individuals and Seva Mandir as an organization that such a reciprocal learning environment was created. Furthermore, in a selfish way I was able to see the fruits of my labour finally harvested: I saw their knowledge improve, their excitement about receiving the resources, and their inputs on how the module could be adapted for the YRCs.

One of my overriding memories of my experience in India will be the final day of training. The Youth leaders had been given the module, the toolkit, and the training on how to perform activities with their youth. They were set a competition whereby they had to actively use the module in leading training sessions themselves. I was able to witness them adapt the module content, speak with unabashed confidence, and engage truly with the difficult material. The final prize-giving ceremony saw them being rewarded for the hard work they had relished during the 5 day training. I want to acknowledge my admiration for them and their power in commencing with the implementation of the module in the coming months.

And now?

I can now reflect on Seva Mandir with the distance and fairness it deserves. During the module development and training I was often frustrated by the beaurocracy, inefficiency and hierarchy that seemed impenetrable to an outsider. I now realize that these things will inevitably creep into the structure of any large organization with such intangible and difficult aims. Seva Mandir works in a holistic manner across 600 villages with over 300 fulltime staff and a further 1000 ‘para-workers’. The Head Quarters staff has to oversee these programmes, while juggling funding proposals, long term plans and budgets. No wonder they occasionally did not have time for me!

Throughout these frustrations I can honestly say I found a home within the organization - a large family that had the generosity to provide staff bonding sessions, heart-to-heart conversations, endless chai breaks, motivational mentoring, fun parties and of course friendship. I can recall a conversation I had with Priyanka-Ji (the Head of the Health Department), just before I left. She suggested that I had changed in my volunteering period - that to successfully work in community development it is crucial to always question oneself and seek additional ways of personal learning. I would add to this list: patience. Development takes time, nurturing and long term capacity building, to truly be successful. With my personal need for tangible goals and products, a career in International Development suddenly seems highly challenging. I need to embrace the mission of personal change, and determine whether I am suitable for such a challenge. Seva Mandir has provided me with this self awareness, and I hope that I can use it to further hone my personal ambitions.

Elizabeth Gunstone, DiA Volunteer 2008