Over three days in May, a group of us including me, Mel G, Gene, Sujata, Rahul, Mahendra, Vilas, Shishir, several other CORO and team members came together with seven fellows in Mumbai to look for answers to some big questions: What is the impact of our Quest Fellowship Programme in India? How can we design a process to capture this effectively?
- From left: Pallavi, Vinaya, Mahendra, Sheela, Sandhya, Nadira, Shaila, Mel G, Rahul, Gene, Nasimunissa, Sujata, Liz, Indu, Vilas, Daniel and Shishir
In the capable hands of Gene Early,the team spent a fruitful and highly collaborative time working through some of the key questions surrounding the fellows’ work and impact, with seven former and current fellows acting as willing guinea pigs for our learning laboratory. Through some excellent teamwork and a certain amount of trial and error, we gained some extremely valuable insights. For example, how does the Quest Fellowship Programme in India actually work? Well, here’s the secret formula:
Like a year-long Quest, the Fellowship model is based on experiential learning methodologies. Over the course of 12 months, fellows participate in training, practise using their new skills and knowledge, and take time to reflect on what they’ve learnt with the support of a mentor, the programme team and other fellows. The fellows’ field of practice is their own community. They take up an issue that is close to their heart, build their knowledge of the issue and take action to address it together with other members of their community.
So far, so good. But what makes the fellowship really special is the way it ignites something inside each of the fellows, leading them to see themselves in a whole new light and – as a result of that shift in identity – driving them to do something different, something bigger. And it doesn’t stop at the fellows – as role models for their community they show others that they too can do something different, changing what is possible for the whole community. That’s why we talk about the programme being about ‘empowerment from within’.
Vanmala
Here’s an example:
Before the fellowship, Vanmala (above) saw herself only as a wife and mother. She let her husband speak for her in public. But she saw an opportunity in the fellowship programme and fought against her family’s opposition to join. Finally, they let her attend the first training. During this, she realised she had no identity of her own and needed to create one. She decided it was time to become an activist, a change agent, a leader.
Vanmala was involved in a self-help group, working with other women in her community to pool resources and give out small loans to the group’s members. Through her training, she became more aware of government schemes available to help people in her community to get on their feet, and also realised the levels of corruption that were preventing them from accessing the schemes. Her training gave her the skills to do something about this. She understood what papers were needed to access schemes, how to get proof of corrupt practices and how to use the Right to Information Act to hold officials accountable. As a result, she and her women’s group were able to file 35 applications for loans under a scheme for unsupported women. She helped 20 women to successfully apply for ‘Below Poverty Line’ cards which enable them to get subsidised food and access other benefits. Three of those women are now on the waiting list for homes of their own. All 20, encouraged by Vanmala’s example, have gone on to submit their own applications to the government’s employment guarantee scheme. She’s also working with them to set up their own self-help groups, to add to the 13 new groups she has already set up during and since her fellowship, which ended last summer. All this, and together with members of her original self-help group she has set up a hospital canteen which employs 7 of their members, with plans in place to start two more.
Vanmala used to be known in the community as ‘Yuvraj’s wife’. Now they use her full name, Vanmala Khanrat. Politicians come to her to ask her to support them, seeing how influential she has become in the community. But she’s wise to them now, and anyway she’s busy studying for her school leaving certificate, which she never received. She’s planning to go to university to study social science, and in the meantime has a new job as a community worker with displaced people in Mumbai.
Liz with Indu and Kamrunissa
Vanmala’s is just one of 300 stories of triumph over adversity and the power of community action that past and current fellows in our India programme can tell. The fellows who participated in our workshop told us of wide-ranging successes, from building toilet blocks to getting sponsorship for girls’ education, from preventing underage marriages to getting clean water provided for a community. From their stories, we drew themes that illustrate the broader impact of the Quest Fellowship Programme in India: giving people a voice, influencing unequal power structures, challenging corruption and enforcing accountability, empowering people to claim their rights.
The workshop was the first stage in developing a process for gathering the stories of the hundreds of fellows who will come through the programme and analysing them to show our impact. We will be gathering facts and figures under each of our 7 key programme areas, showing the results of fellows’ work in health, education, livelihoods, social justice, access to basic amenities, women’s participation in governance and combating violence against women. Ultimately, we will be able to show how our work in India is changing social norms and challenging the status quo. Pretty exciting stuff!
From left: Shaila, Mel G, Vinaya, Indu, Sheela, Nasimunissa and Nadira