However a week passed and yet we didnt figure what to write because the nature of reporting is such that those that can't be reported are more exciting than those that can. So while reporting is limited to a few lines of the written word, reading has to be to those feelings and topics that the lines only refer to but go well beyond the report itself. Between what's reported and not reported is the story that is really what needs to be reported.
Without putting everybody in further suspense please see What Lies Beneath!.... which when we saw a couple of days ago scared us.... ***
When people visit us we are always eager to find out about the various happenings in AID -- and often times we ourselves may never have met them before. So its a very quick situation where we want to talk like long-lost friends and catch up on each other and at the same time this is the first meeting with the individuals as well. You can imagine our thirst for wanting to know everything about what you all are doing -- how the AID campaigns, programs, funds, projects are doing including details of some of them in various chapters -- and yet we cannot be too forthright as what will you think?
Some suggestions: If those visiting can carry an album of AID activities and volunteers as well as photographs from its projects then it will help us catch up more and will be good to show others on your visit as well. This can be of their chapter alone or also including some from other chapters. If AID is collecting signatures for any campaign, it will be good to bring a letter along for us and others in the villages to sign as well.
If you take photographs in your visits to villages, if you mail copies back to the respective group to be given to those photographed (esplly the rural people) it will be a great joy in the villages -- because people often frame these and keep them for a long time -- they are seldom photographed. In fact they see people coming and clicking away even on random things and the thought must go through their mind, though they may not ask, that the visitor should give them the pictures of them. It also gives them a a different perspective.
Ami Zota from Raliegh, NC arrived in August and has begun working with Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti in Rajpipla (Gujarat). She plans to help in the campaign against industrial pollution, measuring toxics in groundwater in the "Golden Corridor" of Gujarat. Her background in environmental engineering and her knowledge of Gujarati and Hindi languages made her an ideal candidate for this job. It was wonderful to meet her along with the fishworkers of Umbergaon and activists of PUCL at the rally of Sanctuary affected villagers in Rajpipla and later at the Narmada Satyagraha. So far she has been getting acquainted with various social movements in Gujarat, and we hope to hear more from her very soon!
Tracey Brieger from UC Berkeley and Ali Sauer from Trent Univeristy, both graduate students in Environmental Sciences, spent the summer of 2000 studying the Compensatory Afforestation programs madanted by the Narmada Control Authority in the areas affected by the Sardar Sarovar Projects. Both of these Canadian women had prior experience in villages (in Thailand) and also with environmental justice movements. Ali had spent a year in India once before, as well as time in jail, hands tied to feet, without food or water during the A16 protests in Washington. They first studied the minutes of the meetings of the Narmada Control Authority in the Indian Institute for Public Administration (Delhi) and then proceeded to the Narmada valley to talk with the villagers and investigate the effect of the afforestation works on the field. Their report is published in the reputed EPW journal in a recent issue.
Anjali Niyogi from Florida has just arrived and is getting settled with Aarohi, in the Kumaon Hills of Uttar Pradesh (Central Himalayas). A final year medical student, she plans to live in the village of Satoli and work with Dr. Sushil Sharma and colleagues of Aarohi who have set up a clinic there. Her specific interest is to get trained in the midwife program and assist with maternal education programs of Aarohi in the region. We haven't yet heard from her after reaching Aarohi, but since we have visited Aarohi and met the people there we are confident that she will get off to a good start and will keep in special touch with her since she is in a very remote place for perhaps the first time in her life!
Howard from England and Macareno from Spain spent 3 weeks interning with AID-Mumbai researching alternate products for the Eco-Shop and suggested various directions we can think about in procurement, packaging etc.
We greatly appreciate the efforts of Deeptha and her team in the internships program. Previously when we got a huge number of requests from people who for varius reasons did not work out, we almost gave up the program as hopeless. We would like to put more effort into recruiting Indians, particularly second or third generation Indians who are more likely to set aside 6 months or more for this type of work, and who may still be fluent / have touch with an Indian language or be able to pick it up easily. Non-Indians who have some Indian language skills and can travel / rough it on their own have great potential to work well in the village environment.
AID volunteers in Maryland, Raliegh, Boston and Penn State have helped with publication and distribution of Sanjay Sangvai's _River and Life: People's Struggle in the Narmada Valley_, a brief history of the issues and strategies of the movement. T
hrough further visits every month, and staying in the villages throughout the satyagraha (July - September) we have gotten involved in women's savings groups, alternative energy, jeevanshala activities with students and teachers, public meetings and land inspections with Grievance Redressal Authority, street plays, identifying and documenting errors in government surveys, reaching out to villages affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project though not by submergence in the reservoir, and reaching out to the urban Indian public through press, corner meetings, and postcard campaign.
Women's savings groups have started in Nimgavhan and Domkhedi. Due to drought the savings component is very slow. Meetings are also erratic though the women are meeting frequently to fight for their land rights. Women have taken loans and appreciate the group.
The bijli bike developed by AID Mumbai has run very well and provided light to the Domkhedi office, guest house, and meeting-tent from May onwards, throughout the Satyagraha. Nearly everyone who came to the satyagraha thus generated some electricity, and almost every camera took a shot of this activity. New models are being developed by Ronnie bhai and his staff at Himalaya Machinery in Baroda,which we are planning to test in the Narmada jeevanshalas. Many villagers have already placed orders for the bijli bike, as it is cheaper and more effective than the combination of kerosene and cells which they are using at present.
Anil and Madhu of People's School of Energy, Kerala introduced a microhydel generator in Kutavanipada, a hamlet of Domkhedi. Villagers and satyagrahis from all over joined in to construct the 1m high dam, lay the pipes and wires, and also to dance in the streetlight when the project was complete. We are thinking of holding a training camp when the next micro hydel project is underway in the valley so that interested people can get a good overview of the process, on-the-job, from start to finish. Our target group would be activists from other villages or NGOs, as well as interested students, since such training is not usually part of the civil engineering curriculum. An NGO Sakti in AP who we were earlier introduced to by Susila contacted us on reading about the Domkhedi micro-hydel project in EPW to set up something similar in tribal Andhra regions and we are pursuing this with Anil and Madhu.
We have generally been involved with jeevanshala activities, attending teacher's meetings, and occasionally taking special classes with students. For example, after the World Peace Day function on 6th August, we realized that these students had no concept of war or national borders, and therefore introduced them to reading the map and making a map of their village.
We have attended public meetings and land inspections with Grievance Redressal Authorities appointed by the Supreme Court to Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The MP GRA, Justice Sohoni, visited the proposed resettlement sites in June, and Maharashtra GRA, Justice Kurdukar, in August. We submitted evidence to both of these GRAs regarding the improper assessments of displacement and land availability. Further our investigations regarding the basic surveys and calculations of water levels revealed significant and persistent errors which we presented to the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and the press in Bhopal.
There are hundreds of villages affected by the Sardar Sarovar Project though they will not be submerged in the reservoir. We have met with some of these villagers to better understand and articulate their circumstances. The major categories with whom we met are:
Through level measurements we did during this satyagraha we found that there are errors upto 3 m in government surveys. These appeared in all major Indian newspapers and we have extensively written about this in AID News. This has provided NBA with technical proof and backing on what it has always been saying that the government surveys are wrong. We have also presented this personally to the MP chief minister.
We have also been reaching out to the urban Indian public through press, corner meetings, and postcard campaign. Newspapers have picked up on our press releases, and our letters have appeared in Frontline, Times of India, Maharasthra Times, Indian Express, and the Hindu. We felt very glad to see letters of AID US volunteers in major papers as well. The Narmada street play continues to attract audiences wherever it is performed or even rehearsed. We also displayed posters and collected signatures for a petition to review the Narmada Tribunal in a major train station in Mumbai. Since it took over 1 hour for women police to arrive on the scene, we were able to reach hundreds of passengers. To keep the issues and spirit of the Satyagraha alive, we are conducting a picture postcard campaign. We have printed 24,000 postcards with 8 different images of this year's and last year's satyagraha (English, Hindi, and blank) which folks everyhere are sending to the Prime Minister, President, Chief Minister (MP) and Chief Minister (Maharashtra).
Working with the people of Narmada has been a great privilege for us. Memorable moments occur daily. Last year President K.R. Narayanan called the Narmada Bachao Andolan the second freedom movement. This year people have travelled as much as three days each way to express solidarity with the Narmada satyagraha, saying that they are watching what happens here,because they know that what happens in Narmada is what happens to the country.
A clear lesson from the movement is that people's knowledge of geography, natural resources, and development, too long neglected, has to form the basis of planning -- preferably local planning, but even central planning needs to consult local people not because they are "affected" by a project and therefore "vulnerable" but because they are more intelligent and experienced about the goals sought in such projects. When instead, certain segments of society are seen as the "expense account" for the mainstream, when that mainstream is desensetized to all the numbers describing the displacement and destitution caused by wrong planning, this is nothing less than a total betrayal of the freedom movement.
With a decision from the Supreme Court due any time, we must be prepared to understand the impact it will have on the rights of people in the current national and international scene. The courts are a prime target of global capitalists, who see public interest as a "trade barrier" and seek to eliminate litigation in the public interest through international dispute resolution mechanisms specified within global trade agreements. The February 18, 1999 Interim order of the Supreme Court indicates that the completion of the dam is more important to the Govt as a "signal" to foreign investors that people cannot interfere with projects, no matter how poorly planned, than as a means to providing water and electricity.
Therefore we must understand the significance of the Final Order to the Valley, to India and to the movement all over the world for human rights and democracy in the context of increasing corporate power. If the height of the dam is increased beyond the height of 88m allowed by the Interim order
".... At the very least without complete and just resettlement of all those who have already been displcaed by the dam and dam-related works (canals, colony, sanctuary, etc); without a review of the project through a new tribunal and people's hearings, if the work on the dam proceeds, then to such injustice, we shall reply with out ultimate non-violent challenge -- Jal Samarpan (Sacrifice in Water)." -- Medha Patkar and colleagues of the Samarpit Dal, 11 July 1999The conditions set forth by the Samarpit Dal are in fact the conditions which the Court itself ought to be setting for the governments, or which the governments themselves should be demanding. Until its encounter with the NBA, the World Bank thought itself beyond question where development was concerned. The people's movements, not only in India, but also in Nepal and Latin America, Thailand have raised awareness and serious questions around the world regarding the role of the World Bank. When globalization has penetrated the institutions of democracy like the justice system, how can people seek to reform that? Clearly to view the justice system or a Supreme Court decision as unquestionable is to deny our own role as citizens. By taking the responsibilities of the justice system upon themselves, the Samarpit Dal has highlighted the urgent need for guidance from the people to protect the Courts and the country.
Since we wrote the above, the SC judgement has come. We have been very busy with suggestions to NBA on what we could file in review petition and with the actions on the field. For example there has been a change in the dam height (the maxium water level) which has not been pointed out that could go into the review petition.
Suggestions: Those from AID returning for extended periods to India or interns (those knowing telugu only) should spend time here as its an exciting thing we are building up from ground zero and there are lots of things to be done and thought of. Supporters and chapters everywhere should keep separate files for this effort and should visit the AID web-site, illustrated projects where the effort is constantly updated. Having photos and slides handy will help in making AID presentations. Those from India can contribute monetarily to collaborators GRASS (the local group that Suryanarayana, Varalaxmi and village people have started) or AID-India from which we are coordinating the effort.
The other more important aspects of the AID plan we feel that the understanding in the US is pretty good -- for example people are well aware of holistic nature, the spreading nature through involvement with TNSF and NBA type movements, the local nature throgh collaboration with outstanding NGOs and illustrious people for a long time etc. US volunteers have risen to the occassion and have brought these movements and NGOs much closer to themselves and other NRIs through the various awareness activities, solidarity, numerous CSH and public presentations, direct visits to the sites, and through the involvement of full-timers who returned to india.
On the practical side for example if there is a strong collaboration with TNSF then really there is no need to consider any further new groups for funding or solidarity in Chennai or in other districts in TN where the AID-TNSF collaboration is strong and likely to be long-term. Likewise in Mumbai, Srikakulam, Narmada valley.
What is now required is that project proposals from new groups in districts where we already have long-term and deep collaborations be sent to the India partners -- who may or may not want to link with these groups (monetarily or otherwise). For example in Srikakulam we would be interested in looking at proposals with the view of meeting interesting groups but not necessarily with the view of funding them because already we have a large effort and only if we think there is a real India-volunteer input and we can also coordinate between the groups would funding the new one make sense. In TNSF collaborations perhaps the movement is so strong and AID funds committed so much that the people on the field (Balaji etc) may not want to really look at any standard NGOs and so just bringing to their notice and rejecting them (due to lack of funds for that district) if there is no interest from India end would be an ideal approach.
It is these practical management of funds and volunteer time (in USA) that AID should get better at to make headway in the AID-Plan. At least sitting in India this is how it feels. This way you all can put your time and effort in at least doing full justice to a few projects and reasonable and sufficient justice at a working level to all the ones approved.
Currently AID-India has few people who returned for fulltime work and AID-US volunteers who have returned to India to pursue jobs here. Add to this people in India who have joined AID-India and also people from NGOs and movements in India who have a high regard for AID and also volunteer when needed for it in India.
Pretty much how it has worked is that people who moved to India with volunteer experience in the US along with people joining in India in Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore, took up some local rural work or issues and tried to get involved in them. While the new people joining in India are enthusiastic their lack of knowledge about AID implied that at least a few returning people had to be equally serious and committed to get the effort going. The focus on rural issues implied fortnightly trips to villages about 3 hours away (like Kaduchiwadi in Mumbai and Nemeli in TN), or travel within the city itself for the eco-shop idea. The effort has been successful in periods when we had a good mix of old-timers and new-timers but when old-timers stopped coming in any period the effort collapsed. This has been the general pattern.
The approach in Mumbai has been for example to take two challenges: Kaduchiwadi village and eco-shop, both of which would involve non-trivial work and commitment from India volunteers. Both projects were drawn with participation and commitments from volunteers whom AID-India attracted -- like students from IIT, SP Jain Institute, people who found us through the web and came to meetings, friends of volunteers in USA etc. However there was excess dependence on us fulltimers and we found that when we were not in Mumbai but in villages (which happens for bulk of the time)the Mumbai people themselves couldn't continue though they tried. So basically one thing needed is people with experience in AID-USA who are back in India to anchor AID-India in the cities while we fulltimers split the time between cities and villages. The new people themselves are not able to do this since we ourselves are not able to spend even a few months with them continuously in the city. And then they leave on graduation etc. However we did find that there is lot of leadership and talent in the new people joining from India itself and often times the let down has been from the side of the experienced people not able to make to the weekly meetings or fortnightly village visits.
The other AID-India programs have been with involvement of people from other NGOs or movements and the effort focussed on a campaign or a particular idea. This has worked out better because we are dealing with experienced volunteers who were also volunteering for AID-India now. Such friends of AID-India are quite a few in Mumbai and probably elsewhere too and for example the Eco-shop project took off to a better degree when they got interested and involved. So they were able to sell the products from their houses to their friends, even help in looking for places, volunteering if a shop is found etc. Campaigns such as picture post card, projects such as pedal-power materialized as well. We get such "exchange volunteers" because we ourselves volunteer for other causes and attend other meetings etc and the line between one organization and other fades out.
In future what is required is that experienced AID volunteers who move to India serve as anchors in cities with full-commitment to weekly meetings and nearby village visits or local issues, AID fulltimers connect them to villages and to other experienced volunteers in cities, this way we continue to attract new volunteers but keep them involved due to comntinuous commuincation with the anchors.
Certainly AID-India has put for itself in chennai, mumbai and bangalore, tough volunteer agenda and it should continue to seek non-trivial tasks for volunteers to participate in and not dilute its agenda to make that simpler.
One last comment on need for AID-India volunteer base. Since there are also other movements and NGO groups one may feel that maybe there is no need for such a base for AID-India, and that volunteers may simply merge into existing organizations. However we find that owing to decentralization in the approach of both NGOs and movements, what has happened is that there is no single largest body that is significant. In fact in most cases where there are weekly meetings attempted, the attendance is in tens and twenties and even in single digits. Thus even on serious issues when there are speakers or street campaigns and some groups organize them, attendance is not to a high level. Basically the scene in India is several groups and movements coming together on issues and events. Thus the capability AID itself has to attract and manage a modest volunteer base will add an important quality contribution and content to the overall decentralized picture. This volunteer base should however keep itself interested, informed and involved in other movements and groups while some of the things it will be the main proponent of based on its own work, but in an overall sense it should participate in others' events as well -- as there is no lack of ideas and events but the participation from organizations and people has to be improved in them. If there is exchange of volunteers or even a drain of volunteers from AID-India to other groups that will still serve the over-all purpose.
Malnutrition is certainly one of the most serious problems, both in tribal villages and in poor villages. In fact unless we really study it is not going to be easy for us to understand what the average diet in a given village is. For example in the Narmada valley where we have greater knowledge, there is certainly an absence/lack of vegetables. However there is good diary consumption and to an extent of fruits and Jungle/forest products by the village people as milk from their cows is not sold out but consumed locally due to lack of infrastructure to send it packing to the cities. Fresh air and daily walking up and down the hills keeps the people healthy and complete lack of visible family quarrels or worries keeps them mentally at peace and at ease that it definitely contributes to good health. There is reasonably good local knowhow on the sanitation and people without needing any formal training, do not mix the drinking water with where they take baths or go for toilets and despite no formal toilets there are no health hazards in these directions. Due to the dam and siltation their water is getting contaminated and there is cause to worry in future about reservoir induced malaia. However problems arising from lack of nuitrition, or lack of trained health workers and therefore easy access to combat colds, fevers, wounds, rashes, dehydration etc are hard to address without the Andolan which is responding to these through its volunteers.
Thus one thing that constantly bothers us in any village is what is the diet and can people make changes in this and what should such a process be?
In Srikakulam our co-workers like Suryanarayana and Varalaxmi feel that Health is an issue we have to tackle through initiatives in availability of medicines etc. There is a private medical representative in some of the villages and while his kit of medicines and timely visits may certainly be of some help, the injections that he gives in every house by just dipping the needle and syringe for a few seconds in hot water may be doing more harm than good.
It is clear that we have to increase peoples knowledge on what may be ailing them and make them aware of traditional and modern medicines while at the same time emphasizing preventive measures.
At the opposite end of the spectrum is AIDS and some Indian states are supposed to have HIV to a 2% level -- which was the case in Africa 10 years ago where now it is at a 10% level in adults. Many good organizations and groups which are working in village health feel that groups working on AIDS are just doing for the sake of getting foreign funds as many agencies are pumping money in this direction. And therefore there may be a total absence of need for working on AIDS issue in groups that are very people-oriented as they feel that there are much more basic pressing problems -- like mal-nuitrition, TB etc. The recent controversy in Sahayog/Sparsh, the only two groups that AID is interacting with on the AIDS issue just shows how intense the feelings can be. It is heartening to see that Dr Bhagat is discussing a project proposal on AIDS in Pune and certainly AID should be involved in supporting good groups in this direction while we in India should try to come up with some idea of what the take on AIDS is from groups such as TNSF, Medicos friends circle, Sahayog etc.
Suggestions: We invite suggestions on what we should do in directions of health in Srikakulam, Narmada etc.
Thus while we have been involved in education efforts in the Rajahmundry school, the jeevanshalas and the Kaduchiwadi library project and have visited some alternate schools, it is important to understand each effort within the limitations and challenges of the concept.
We feel the best approach would be to proceed with education programs but without thinking of them as being absolutely necessary, and being aware of the limitations and evolving the education program with other programs in the villages. Alternate syllabus and schools definitely are taking on a big challenge and deserve support and collaboration. If we can initiate some such schools in future that would be make us extremely happy though as we have said, it will have to be linked with other things and come out naturally. Sometimes we as well as NGOs and movements due to their limitations may even embark in regular education programs with no alternate content. Example the Rajahmundry school and perhaps even the Lodhar school. Here the innovation is merely that a program is happening in a village where otherwise it isnt, and in case of Lodhar being done extremely well with some alternate science teaching methods but not alternate syllabus etc which is really what we are talking about when we mean "alternate". In such cases collaboration and support is also be important but one should be aware of severe limitations, especially those of us directly working on the field.
We find that both in terms of drinking water and for irrigation we come across problems in villages where we/AID have a role to play. For example in Kaduchiwadi and Narmada valley both tribal villages, people, especially women who usually do this job, have to walk 45 minutes down the hills to get water everyday from the river. In Narmada the problem became even more severe due to siltation from the dam leaving the water muddy and cutting the access to the river in the post-monsoon months due to silt coming between the river and hamlets. Even in srikakulam we were at a muslim hamlet where there was no access to water. In all cases we can help through watershed, water routing by laying pipes, pumps and wells. In Narmada valley to an extent we (though not AID funds) were involved in these efforts. In kaduchiwadi our own experience till that time was too little for us to address the problems, and we perhaps relied too much on the initiative of village people and mumbai volunteers that were both in formative stages. However having seen the work of Michael and Swati, Anna Hazare and NBA we are now in a position to make some dents in the problems as they come up in villages we are involved in.
We do not have any direct experience yet in drought prone areas but sufficeto say no matter where, projects that involve pumping water should simultaneously have components of replinishing the groundwater through watershed, rain water harvesting, tree plantation etc.
Water and energy are coupled since one can be used to deliver the other. Energy is also needed for lighting purposes, local industry etc. Through the pedal power project and other initiatives like human powered water pumps, micro-hydel etc we have begun to make a mrk in the field of alternate energy. we are interested in both furthering these works as well as getting into wind power, bion-mass, biogas etc. We have made several friends and contacts in the alternate world and the future is exciting.
Water and energy projects on a large scale have been termed to be of "national interest" and archaic laws of land acquistion formed by the britishers in 1894 are being used even today to oust people and destroy the environment. There is clear evidence (see for example Abhay mehta's book) that India produces sufficient energy -- the problems are mainly in distribution and in doing the same thing more efficiently by cutting transmission losses. Even in the case of water, work by groups such as CSE, TBS and Anna Hazare has shown that much can be achieved through local water harvesting.
While there still may be the need to bring in some exogenous water (non-local) for irrigation purposes, it is clear that this is not needed for drinking water and even for irrigation it can come through smaller alternatives. There is no doubt that huge projects are centralized and the benfits go to those with money and power rather than being distributed equally or based on the need. The main motivation for large scale projects is not national interest but private interest of powerful people and lobbies and this should all be clear by the enormous literature in the field, analysis by experts and even from our own experience onthe field this is borne out. Thus AID should not join the band-wagon of people who are fooled by arguements of "national interest" and look down upon movements who question them and seek equitable distribution of water and energy. In fact it should do the opposite, as it has been doing, of building solidarity with people's movements that oppose unjust displacement and violation of human and environmental rights and provide in the Indian community in the USA a beacon for those who are both into development on the field and into voicing their opinion even on matters where many may be ill-informed and mislead by the mainstream thinking.
Secondly, it is important for people like us to also subscribe to "green" sources of energy and telecommunications, so that there is less dependence on large dams and thermal energy, like Neerja of California mentioned in an issue of Dishaa, even though it may be slightly more expensive. However that is the true cost of energy and not that coming from a large dam where the poor are subsidizing the rich owing to loss oftheir lands and livelihoods that was never comepnsated nor is it compensatable beyond a certain scale or size of dam.
It is becoming clear to both organizations like AID and NBA who started perhaps by approaching the problems differently, the former which was more into "nirman" and latter which was more into "sangarsh", that nirman and sangarsh, both, have to become an agenda for every organization and movement.
The AID-India annual conference also has been of immense help. The question that naturally occurs is would we have been better if we were all together working from one place, rather than scatter ourselves. While there was no choice in what happened, we feel that what happened is for the best because now we have made in roads into both human rights/envi movements and science movements and have even on occassion tried to provide bridges between them. Also what one of us has learnt has been useful to the other, for example in our case, Balaji's learning of savings groups, helped start them in Srikakulam and Narmada valley. Likewise Venkatesh's work with Datye and other alternate energy groups gave the much needed push to AID-India and our own ventures into alternate energy. Therefore what is best is to leave people to their interests and pursuits but have regular communication and some meetings between fulltimers happen. We urge that six-monthly meetings between us are important and should be maintained and we will do everything from our side to keep this kind of commitment.
Some of the work in this report (if it has to fall in the A or R category) is mainly Aravinda's like for example internships, some mainly Ravi's like nirman part of alternate energy and most are things we have done together. We expect that people reading AID News etc are familiar with what we have been working on that we dont make such details of who is doing exactly what part explicit. Suffice to say that even in those where only one of us may be mainly working other gets interested and slowly gets onto doing that as well and so even internships and alternate energy nirman are things we both do. In a generic sense we are working with many people and any aspect we have reported on intersects with work of others whose names we may or may not have mentioned in this report.
Please be aware that this is not meant to be a report of projects funded by AID, which we visit and have things to say as well, but an overall report on our activities and thinking. On individual AID projects we have sent visit reports or recommendations to respective chapters whenever the need arose.
Thanks,
Ravi and Aravinda.