Global Learning Festival 2012 - Community Life Competence
A perspective from Aniruddhan Vasudevan
The very last session of the Global Learning Festival was made up of people sharing what they felt about the entire event and extending invitations for participants to visit their projects:
“I hope that the next Global Learning Festival will be held in a Francophone country!”
—Eric Uwintwaza
“ Invite everyone join the Facebook page I am setting up for the Global Learning Festival
—Rituu Nanda
“I invite everyone to a series of knowledge fairs the Women’s Union of Uttara Karnakata will conduct in collaboration with Sarvojana, a coalition of NGO’s working in southern India.”
—Hanumesh Gunnal
“I am from Tamil Nadu. We work with 23 CBOs. This is the first time we are attending a learning festival. When I entered, I felt intimidated by the conversations in English. It felt like I had entered an English film. But I gradually found my bearings. I was surprised by the amount of things I had to learn. I received a phone call from a ‘chela’ (disciple) of mine. She said there were a lot of fun things on the TV. But I was not interested. The only things I could think about were the SALT visits. It was an intense experience. I felt wound up and anxious until I came to the cultural event where danced my heart out. It helped me relax. I want to thank SIAAP for everything. We work with 100 transwomen. We have been able to procure them the entitlements the state gives them. But we do not have the funds to proceed beyond the next year. We do not know what will happen after that. I have a degree in Social work, English and teachers’ training. But I do not know what will happen to me once funding ends. We will have to go back to the streets, to do sex work. I have here with me Selvi, who is a physiotherapist. She is a transwoman and this is Radha who is a Program Manager at India Cements. I wanted them to come here so that you could see the changes that are happening here.
I am not saying this here expecting you to help me secure funding. But any leads would be helpful. I will leave my email address, phone number, etc. We will also be able to conduct a knowledge festival soon hopefully! Thanks for the opportunity!”
—Gunavathy
“I came to Africa for the first time, and I now Ieave from here with two things. I go with the appreciation for the collective strength of the people in this room. I leave with the dream that I will be able to invite you all to an event like this in my own country, which is Congo. When you come, you will be able appreciate the steps that our communities have taken, etc. In Congo, these communities take action using their own resources, not depending on external support. For instance, a community dreamed to have an HIV testing center in their community, and they took action and got it done.”
—Eric Ngabala
“I wish to say two things. The first thing is to thank you. I have worked for a long time with communities, and there has been a lot of satisfaction in it. But I learnt a new thing here. It has made me happy. It has also empowered me with something new. It has given me a lot of pleasure and joy. It has added to my skill set. What do you think it is? When you enter a community, how do you appreciate their strengths? How do you do it right away? I had not known how to do it. I learnt for the first time, how you appreciate an individual or a group. I could see visibly the expansion of the bondedness. Earlier, I could not see how that was going to happen. I thank everyone here for that – SIAAP, India Competence, Life Competence. I offer my services – I am good at writing and conceptualizing projects. I volunteer my services to organizations, individuals, communities…”
—Shyamala Nataraj
“We want to invite businesses, too, to be part of the constellation. Our invitation is…if you know people who work in businesses, if you have contacts, do not hesitate to have conversations with them. You are very welcome to contact us. The other thing is – when you came by our stall, you saw what we are planning. You can also find us on Ning. Second – if you think that you can learn a lot from businesses and business can learn a lot from you, it is a real possibility. Just let us know if you are interested. We can have a conversation on that. We thank SIAAP for planning this event. “
—Boris Alberda
“Thanks. At Plan Sri Lanka we have had our own strategies. Some are similar to CLCP, and some are different. May be we can compare notes and see what works better.
—Menike Samarakoon
“I thank SIAAP and everyone for organizing this festival. In India, we have a saying, “Vasudaiva Kutumbakam,” which means, “The entire earth is one family.” That is how it feels at the moment. Thank you. We are impressed by what we saw during the SALT visits. We are 14 members here from CARE team. We will share our experiences with 400 members now!”
—KK Mishra
“We had very good interaction with people at the Marketplace. We are happy to share our methods and experiences with any organization that is interested. We have already started working with CLCP approach, but with this event, I think I have gone deeper. SALT was great, but it was just a pinch. There is a lot more to do.”
—R Jayachandran
Prabakar and Anand then led us on the new CLCP song —“ Paaraattu thane palaperai uyarthum…”
Following this, we sang together Susanne Mueller and Jan Somers’ GLF poem! —
We are learning, we are sharing
How about you? How about you?
Shall we come together? Shall we come together?
Where and when? Where and when?
The most poignant moment of the day was when Jessica Buisan sang Beyonce’s “I was here…” and broke down towards the end at the thought of having to part ways with all her new friends at the Global Learning Festival!