Let's be proud again!
"Let's be proud again! How changing the dialogue changed a village in Nepal"
Imagine yourself NOT at your desk. Imagine yourself instead in a very poor village in Nepal. The average yearly income for a family of at least 6 persons is £100. They are illiterate, subsistence level farmers who normally spend a few months of the year with not enough to eat. We are going to embark on a major organisational change in this village. We are going to engage the people of the village and awaken empowerment in them so that they will take responsibility for their own village development and not expect to receive money from others (donors, aid organisations, government, and so on). This is a major cultural shift for people who have been brought up to expect handouts from others.
This hasn't got much to do with corporate life, you are no doubt saying. But in fact, we have much to learn from this example. For when we contemplate organisational change we are looking at a change in the organisation's culture. And most of these changes are fundamental and meet resistance. However, sometimes we can still find ways to overcome the hurdles. I would like to share a story of a time when a new method of development worked. This is the story of Phakhel VDC in Makwanpur. At the end of 1998 and early 1999 I was researching alternative methods for rural development. Phakhel was willing to work on their development together with me. It was a community that already knew me for over 10 years. Over the next two years we held several meetings using the Appreciative Planning and Action methodology (originally developed by Mac Odell at TMI and based on Appreciative Inquiry) and we achieved quite astounding results.
There was a core group of people who were almost always there when we had our meetings (a few times a year), but we just worked with whoever showed up. I was later asked to work with the next village as well. The work we did succeeded in changing the dialogue in the village. At the first meeting, a man got up to say, "This really brings it home to me. We've been bloody lazy! For the past 40 years we have been holding our hands out for aid and what do we get? We fight, we can't agree on anything and we don't feel good about our village or ourselves. Forty years ago we did a lot together because there was no one else to help us and you know what? We were proud of what we did! We were proud of our village! Are any of you proud now? No? Well, let's do this together and be proud again!"
At our first meeting about 40 people came, agreeing to work together for two hours. They were divided into three groups; men, women and children. Then they were asked to tell us stories about their good experiences of achieving something together in the village. People talking about planting trees on the ridge above the school, or about helping to build the chautara (a village resting place) or the gompa. They spoke of helping neighbours and working together. Quiet pride was in their voices. They drew pictures of what they had done (although the women were at first not at all keen on using a pen). Next they were asked to build upon that good work and dream of a future village as they would like it to be for their children and grandchildren. Immediately the level of noise in the groups rose as they began to discuss and several people would draw on the paper at the same time. The women dreamed first about each having a water tap close to their homes, the children dreamed of a new school, the men wanted to fix the chautara and plant some trees.
Then they began to design how they would achieve this wonderful future. Which things were to come first? What steps were involved, who needed to help and so on. Finally, everyone who was willing to commit to doing something stood up in front of the group and made their commitment. We had two more steps; we asked the group do something together immediately. For instance we cleaned up the schoolyard once, and another time we rebuilt the wall around the tree to provide a resting-place. In a few minutes, we had achieved a great deal with everyone helping. This is very important because it quickly allows people to see what happens when they work together (in case they have forgotten). Finally we finish with a debriefing and dancing and singing. It is best if people have a fun memory of their work together.
Three years on, I went out to see what had happened. I focussed on the planned secondary school that the villagers reckoned would take them five years to build. It is already finished and in use!
In one of the early meetings, after the women's problem with water had been solved, all the groups were working on the secondary school. One of the women got up to say that she was going to organise a meeting with representatives from each ward so that they could decide where the school should be located (she is currently one of the 11 member committee). She is unmarried, but wanted to do this for her village. The men applauded furiously. They had managed to raise money among themselves, but didn't know how to deal with the thorny problem of where to locate the school. Meanwhile the children had worked out a plan of what facilities the school needed to have. In that meeting a group of approximately 40 people raised 10,000 NRs.
In total the villagers raised about 45,000 NRs in cash - a phenomenal amount for a community of 88 families where the average income of a family of six is about 10,000 NRs (a bit less than £100) a year. This money was the deposit required for teachers' salaries. They sank the foundations for the school themselves - this was ready to build upon by May 2000. Then they approached PLAN International and received a grant for 22 lakhs (2.2 million Rupees or £22,000). They had to provide the equivalent of 15% of that themselves (162,000 NRs). This they did by supplying work at the rate of 100 NRs a day for unskilled labour (75% of the work) and 150 a day for skilled labour (25%) of the work.
Today there is a beautiful school with 8 light and airy classrooms and a library with books and furnishings; there is a playing field and a motorable road from the main road to the school. There are 8 teachers too, 3 provided by the government, 3 paid for by PLAN and 2 paid for by the villagers themselves.
The 11-member committee looks after the school and its upkeep. Although they face problems from time to time (now that the school is finished it is harder to raise money), they seem to move from strength to strength. It is clear to me that they have pride in their village and it is improving every time I visit - with a new health post and a new VDC building that wasn't there a year ago. This is clearly a village to admire and appreciate! And an attitude that others would do well to emulate.
But that is not all! In February of this year they founded a co-operative. The original 88 families from 4 wards (there are 9 wards in a VDC - village development area) had now become over 2000 families in FOUR VDCs! Each member contributed as much as they could and had a vote. This group decided that they would like to have transport from their village to Kathmandu, so they bought 4 buses to ply the mud track from their village to the road head at Pharphing, 17 kilometres from Kathmandu. The price was kept low and it was a wonderful help to the villagers. They are now exploring micro-finance (I was asked to advise on this) and have set up their own village bank. They are looking at buying seeds and fertilisers and many other things for the co-operative and getting bulk deals. All this stems from the work we began, back in 1998, which changed a dialogue.