as i see it

The NSS group of our college had been to a camp to a small vilage wawe - mandraj near mangaon .It was quite an experience with lots and lots of hard work and of course lots of fun.
we had actually been there to help an NGO SHARE ( hope u read about it in my last post) with a water project it had undertaken in that village.
We left mumbai by ST bus ( you can guess how comfortable our journey was ) on 20th. We change to another bus at Mangaon and then to a van at Sai to finally reach Wawe around noon.
And we were welcomed there with a hot and delicious lunch.
Our daily schedule included work from 7 to 11:30, rest and lunch until 3:30 and work again till 6.
The work was quite tedious, we were desilting a reservoir built on a river (which was now dry in december ).
The reservoir was created around a year back by building a dam on the river. But during this monsoon the reservoir was completely filled up with loose mud and rocks, which had to be removed.
The work was quite tiring ( believe me we had never worked this hard before). But being there with friends, there was no chance of being bored (especially the ever chattering girls ), and we had a great time out there.
The most amazing thing i saw was the good nature and hospitality of the village people.They were always ready to help and went to great extents to make us comfortable. They gave us room in their houses for sleeping, some came to help us with the work. .
Another development that SHARE inspired was that women in the village have formed a ' mahila samaj ' which gets the womenfolk together and its a platform for voicing their their views and aiding development.
This group actually took time out from their work ( house work, farm work etc) during our visit to cook us meals.
The food we were served over the 5 days was a typical diet of the region dal, tandlachya bhakrya ( rice flour bhakris ) , vegetables, rice (lots of it) and occasional delicacy of puran poli. And to tell you what I liked most about the place ( apart from the people ) was the food. Especially after a whole day of work when our appetite was HUGE, the food seemed five star .
The evenings at wawe very another intresting part of the camp. A cultural programme was organised each evenings where people from the village and surrounding areas came toghether for skits, dances, songs, recitations
performed by kids. And we were really impressed by the performances put up for us and ofcourse we too put songs and dances and got great support from the people. The kids ( some just 5-6 yr old) had really practised a lot and were dressed up in cute costumes, which really made my day.

The camp was a great experience and a very satisfying one. It really made a really great impression on us and convinced us that however small our effort can make a difference. Hats off to SHARE.
bye

SHARE is a NGO working in rural areas of Maharashtra. I found out about this NGO through the NSS group of our college. the work of the NGO seems to be quite effective . Lots of wells, bore wells have been constructed as well as methods for improving the ground water level are being devised , which seem to have eased the water problem to a great extent. The ngo has done quite a lot of work including various water harvesting projects in the region, since water paucity is a major problem in this rural maharashtra.. What struck me was the encouragement and support that the organisation has got from the villages in Raigarh near Mangaon which i have visited (i'll tell you more about my camp in the next blog ) . Seeing the work that was done and the it effeciency the people have come out to paricipate and help out in a way i had never imagined. Getting people to support and help is always the most difficult job for any NGO, and once that is done the job gets much simpler. SHARE has appointed its representatives in each of the areas it works in. These representatives work towards getting together the people, organising the work ans such stuff.Apart from water conservation SHARE also works towards improving the general life of the villagers. It organises cultural programmes in which kids from surrounding villages put up plays, dances , recitations etc which provides them with the much needed exposure. I think this organisation has doing an amazing job of actually inspiring the people to work for their own welfare. This method shows quite better results than just colecting money, clothes, books and stuff and donating it to the people.

I'll start out this blog by telling you about my college Fr'>http://www.frcrce.ac.in/">Fr Conceicao Rodrigues College of engineering ( better known as Fr Agnel or CRCE ).Its located at Bandstand a quite scenic place along the Bandra seaface in Mumbai. It is one of the foremost engineering colleges of the Mumbai University and yes also one of the most disciplinarian colleges here ( read compulsary attendance ). In terms of faculty and infrastructures i would give it full points (especially compared to other colleges in Mumbai) and the enthusiasm with which festivals and other activities are carried out here is amazing. I could go on and on ranting about why i think this college is AWESOME but i'd better not bore you at the very start of the blog. I'll surely tell you much more about myself and my college in future posts so keep checking .