Harvest from 24th April community meeting

25 people met on Monday to learn about progress in the Goa active  citizenship platform and see how they could get involved. The meeting started in circle to hear who had come and what had inspired them to come. Some snippets include:

I feel like people actively need to be in governance. Initiatives like this are ways to form ideas to get citizen participation in governance
to meet more people and work with them
Curious to know what happens in these meetings
we are meeting positive ppl and It has given me some hope. With these progressive meetings we will have come up with actionable projects” I have seen systematic degradation of my state, everything going wrong. I would Love to help
I am doing little not so much for Goa. That is why I am here
as a follow up to the last meeting to take it forward from there
I believe in the core idea behind these meetings i.e. community coming together
Strong disconnect between social movement (strong) and the disconnected middle class/foreigner class/elite class. That problem needs to be solved. This way of organizing people can do a lot to bridge this divide
to see how we can go forward from here
I feel positive even if surrounded by darkness
to be inspired
Here to have better understanding of these issues by attending meetings like this

Progress to date on projects elaborated on 11th feb is as follows (a presentation on progress can be found here)

click here
  • 911 for democracy/Angry Goan Whats app helpline: tech ready to go live. Next step formulation of expert groups
  • Green Wiki: map of issues created. Requires a person to collate information and do back end tech
  • Eu Changemakers room: training and funding opportunity: some projects identified for elaboration in coming months
  • Sustainable village model: Assagaon emerging as a target village for government as well as community members

The group went into open space to see what projects/issues those present wanted to work on.  The following topics were posted:

What message should a state level garbage campaign  convey and what are ideas for a 3 month campaign? Noreen
 

911 for Action: Act 1 issue, 1 action 1 area

Reflect repeat – Vishal

 
Inspiring/Inclusive visions for Goa 2035  (visualising/storytelling/ speculative decision) Ayaz
 

How do we make government servants more accountable/service orientated? – Reboni
Illegal Groundwater extraction in villages – Sheldon
How do I conserve and protect local water bodies in the village? – Nathaniel
Mapping Biodiversity and traditional water sources at village level – Eric
 

Helping Vasco to fight Coal – Shraya
Sustainable village Model  – Felly
Community Currency- or local means of exchange – Salil
Invest in young people(Bop/Top/Xop)

(kids and youth) = Satyam

Groups rapidly self-organised into 4 key conversations as per colour coding above (The Coal conversation did not take place). What follows in the next pages is the harvest of each conversation – highlighting insights, next steps and support needed.

Citizens Helpline focused on Garbage issue bringing public servant accountability- Jessica, Reboni, Noreen, Vishal, Ayaz, Urvashi, Jill

INSIGHTS

  1. Pick one issues → follow up → one issue, one action, one content
  2. An accountability Map, Crowdsourced Rating (Accountability App)
  3. One to One Interaction with the people accountable
  4. University/School Metaphor to Map People Accountable (softboard of people’s faces)
  5. Real Experiences/self -capacity building
  6. Waste Management committee (Patricia Pinto)  Meet*
  7. Play on legacy/respect/of Gov’t officials
  8. Power vs Responsibility
    1. Making it proportional
    2. Implementation of colonial era systems
    3. Remedial measures – why do we need to incentivise someone to do this job?
  9. Time limits to complete tasks (panchayat system)
  10. Study/Learn: Existing systems, rights, RTI, to learn/ implement (rights to service, no paperwork law)
  11. Incentives / Penalties that can be assigned to officials
  12. Rating systems for Government officials -way forward for grievances → anonymous rating for bad officials
  13. Moiranet – Village Networks
  14. Ex-Sarpanches /Ex members → way in for policy
  15. Money / TRD / Incentives with money only
  16. Parallel solutions/ futures
  17. Goa initiatives -Bamboo case study -upcycling/recycling – KONBAC **
  18. True Cost / Overall knowledge encouraged
  19. Saligoa Garbage case Study
  20. Local solutions, smaller radius of impact
  21. Beach Cleaning Terms/ Training / App/ Dristi – Jill
  22. Jurisdiction of Trash? Intervillage Zones of Trash Build Up
  23. Clinton Vaz / Dominic – Resources / Experts
NEXT STEPS

  1. 911 to be done on a particular issue – garbage
  2. Meet Legislators and important stakeholders (Patricia Pinto) and Dristhi
  3. Engage with experts/create or gather detailed roadmaps
  4. Gather Info from Clinton – numbers for various responsible disposal
  5. Translating Jargon to Understandable Policy and copy
  6. get started village meetings like this in a circle. Like Jess said she wants to do it in Moira
  7. Multiple locations : group members locations

HELP NEEDED

– writing for 40 hours

– experts

– Satyam : an app in Bangalore : 60% of Pune waste is mapped in that

– Public Notice of Pollution Control Board – Plastic manufacturers responsible for waste +50 microns

Investing In Young People – Children & Youth: Satyam, Shamorlee, Amrita, Shraya, Tamer

Key Insights

– Children don’t grow up to be engaging or active citizens as a child they are discouraged from asking questions, told what to do rather than empowered to make their choices or decisions
– Method of teaching & parenting for the child – should be empowering, encouraging questioning -specially why, child should be made participant of the learning process. Most importantly, they should have someone ready to listen with attention and seriousness.
– Parents need to be inspired. One challenge that was articulated was getting people who understand children. Group discussed how we are all build to understand children and each other. Everyone can be a listener of the child.
– Best way to engage children is by using various creative tools like painting, story telling, Flim Making, comics – made by them of topics chosen by them.
– Example of Child Participation Model:

1. Shamaollee’s work with children in Karmali village. They suggested local river pollution as a issue to raise awareness and made a play to do so.

2. Tamer gave example of his child Tae’s school play

3. Amrita gave example of Kid Powered Media based in Delhi. Uses different mediums to talk about issues selected by the children. Topics by the children.

4. Alternative Learning platform in Delhi – Amrita was part of in Delhi
Next Steps

– Designing School modules, Aganwadi and Community (Assagao) Programs that have child participation in its core.

(Child Participation in program design – i.e. the class of children chose what topics they will be taught)

Resource – Shreya has a contact in Aganwadi Goa i.e. ICDS Dept. of Goa.

–  Collating and Designing the modules

– Adding the concept of child participation in B.Ed Course (teachers training courses)

(empowering, encouraging questioning -specially why, child should be made participant of the learning process. Most importantly, they should have someone ready to listen with attention and seriousness)
Support Needed

– Directorate Of Education (DoE) Contact

Possible Resource: Shamaollee has a contact for short time. She knows the collector there.
– Corporate / Donors : to fund the program to cover the cost of resource persons going to schools or aganwadi and for bringing out the resource materials (buy/print cost if needed)
– Volunteers : (1) to collate the existing modules, (2) Resource person in working with children

– Experts

– Media Oureach for Experts engagement

WATER:  Water Management : Sheldon, Nathaniel, Eric, Jill

INSIGHTS

  • How to preserve water reservoirs?
  • Need to better understand the legalities for groundwater extraction?
  • Find out who are the governing bodies for water extraction
  • Trees might provide solution to preserve the water table
  • Extreme loss of traditional methods
  • How much water have we actually lost
  • Is this water extraction legal?
NEXT STEPS

  • Data Collection → Build a body of Evidence
  • Do Research and Find out the legalities for groundwater extraction  –
  • Use support groups to put pressure on W.R.D.
  • Find out cost of effective solutions to preserve groundwater
  • Meet with Village elders to find out the traditional solutions
  • Look to see what resources are free from the government regarding the waterways of Goa
  • Create a video or media campaign to alert the community to what exactly is going on and create a means for people to address it ‘

HELP NEEDED:

  • Legal advice on legalities for groundwater extraction
  • Research team on  traditional solutions
  • Video making of awareness video

Sustainable Village Communities: Felly, Salil, Stalin, Tamer, Joanna

INSIGHTS

Few people are talking about the community issues- How to get community involved in sustainable village model?

Money is trust → exchange products

Consumer and Producer in community

Critical Mass 30% → Changes Conversation

Two side of the village good/bad

Precious Asset Base – community mapping

Refine Issue

Reason why is sustainable

Students conceptualize ideal village  – – Child as the main target audience

Event: Mobilize people by creative why

Value Talents and products and trade

Connect the Right People

Exposure visit

Co-creating Communities and the surroundings

Role of Individuals in Society

What does the community want? – Painting the picture with the community members : 10-15 down the line : how will a sustainable community look like?

Convince/Mobilize

Community Driven Activities (festivals)

Identify unsustainable parts →communication/framing How can others feel the same?
NEXT STEPS

  1. Who are the Leaders? – Identify the main people from Assagao
  2. Identify 4/5 unsustainable activities in Assagao.
  3. Framing – recognize the “problem” – what does lack of sustainability mean here? Create Scenarios of Dystopia and Utopia
  4. coming on the same page in a Community Members
  5. Engage critical mass of 30%

After groups fed back to each other, the question was raised as to whether Assagao should be a pilot village for all of the projects discussed as a way of focusing energies and impact. Many felt this was a good idea. There was also interest in the notion of micro-volunteering and enabling citizens to volunteer short amounts of time to dedicated projects of interest/capacity/time.

Summer/Monsoon  Schedule

In the spirit of collective and collaborative leadership we are asking everyone from within the community to step up and be a part of these meetings hosting team over the coming months. The hosting and harvesting team designs the flow of the meeting beforehand, and design/creates the harvest to be shared with the greater community the week following the event. Ideally each host team will have 6 members to fairly share the work.
May June July August September
Achintya Amrita Amrita Joanna Joanna
Amrita Jill Jessica Tamer Tamer
Tamer Moira meeting (shall we have an all Goa civil society gathering : ) ? emerging circlewallas
Joanna

OCTOBER
Training for new Circlewallas  in hosting/harvesting inc translation into Konkani/Marathi

KEY ACTIONS:

  1. Continuity of action in the 4 groups – who feels called to step forward and take responsibility for calling the follow up meeting and apprenticing in the art of hosting and harvesting conversations that matter? Circlewallas will support and mentor you to host your own meetings using participatory leadership practices. We are actively looking for people who wish to learn/practice in this approach to participatory community leadership and engage in supporting their communities.
  2. Engage with (Social work) Faculty colleagues etc to tap potential of college students during the holidays to support.
  3. Need for future meets to engage with more diverse group – eg village level, grassroots, goan youth, south Goa