This page explores the community engagement subgroup for team Daula. We aimed to create sustainable social entrepreneurship opportunities, spread awareness about environmental issues and solutions, and encourage a sustainable community in terms of solid waste management. We strongly focused on working alongside community members and having their input and participation along the way.
Abstract[edit | edit source]
Rural Youth Volunteers in India was a paired program between Lady Irwin College, New Delhi students and Cal Poly Humboldt, California students. The program took place between May-August 2018. Our paired teams divided between two villages: Dula, which focused on waste management, and Taveleghari which focused on water. Within each village, we split into two subgroups: product team and community engagement team.
We began the first two weeks by building rapport with community members and assessing what was already working well within the community. We also developed criteria to guide what we would include in our community engagement activities. These activities included games, songs, street plays, and school activities. To get the most of these activities, we continuously prototyped and improved.
Our findings were that hands-on community engagement techniques seemed to be most impactful in spreading awareness about waste management. Many households upcycle on a personal household scale, but more for saving money than for saving the environment. We witnessed some behavior change in terms of refusing plastic bags and finding use for waste, such as vermicompost. The next steps for Daula's waste management initiative will be carried forth by the core team members that worked with us daily. In the future, we hope to see a more sustainable Daula driven by the integrity of its own community members.
Background[edit | edit source]
(Describe the background of the project. Make sure to cover who, what, why, when and where. This is not the problem statement. It is the background that readers should understand before the problem. Remember that the reader does not know anything about the project, except what you covered in the abstract above.)
We are "Rural Youth Volunteers in India" which is a paired program between Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi and Cal Poly Humboldt, California. Our project takes place in villages of Daula, and Tavelagardhi in Uttar Pradesh, India. We are collaborating with Environment and Social Research Organization (ESRO) and a local partner in Daula, Grameen evam Pariyavaran Vikas Sansthan (GPVS). We are supported by the U.S. Mission to India. The Daula team includes four students from Cal Poly Humboldt and four students from Lady Irwin College who work together for 10 weeks starting in June 2018 and continuing into August 2018.
In the Daula team, we have two subgroups. The product subteam has the task of creating upcycled products out of waste material that can be recreated by community members and has the potential to be sold within the community. The community engagement subteam has the task of meeting, teaching, and involving people in the community with the project.
Our team strives to create sustainable social entrepreneurship opportunities, initiate upcycling of waste within the community, promote sustainability of the project over subsequent years, spread awareness about environmental issues and solutions, with a focus on waste management, and to use only waste that already exists in the community and not to generate more waste in the process. The over compassing aim of this project is to encourage a sustainable community in terms of solid waste management by the technique of upcycling waste into something functional and resourceful. Throughout this project, we work closely with community members and seek their participation in bettering their economic and environmental well-being.
Empathy[edit | edit source]
Engagement team has used various methods to collect information from the community. The process of collecting information initiates with rapport formation which helps to build a good relationship with community members. This process ensures trust and hence lead to mutual learning. Engagement team and product team were synchronized with each other therefore the responses from the community were analysed and shared with rest of the team for efficient and effective results.
Describe your various processes for collecting information. Summarize the results. Include some pictures. Include some specific demonstrative anecdotes.
Interviews[edit | edit source]
The team had interviewed various people of the community in order to understand the dimensions of the community. It was used as a tool to gather information from her community.
Farmers: Cash crop, i.e. sugarcane was majorly growing by the farmers. They use urea fertilizer, irrespective of the fact that it is harmful to humans. There are about two to three vermicompost units in and around the village. All the vermicompost produced in these units is exported to other states of India as there is no demand in their own state.
Women: Women in the community have the skill and the confidence to upcycle products but whenever asked if they would like to come to the centre for a weekly meeting or training session, they would either answer; yes and didn't appear or; they had to ask for the permission from their husband.
School Teachers: The engagement team interviewed around nine schools teachers and/or principal. School teachers showed great interest. They were willing to contribute their maximum for the project. The major finding from the interview was that the teachers wanted give exploration to their students about different issues.
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Interviewed women during the eye camp
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Interviewing community people
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Interview conducted at Government School
Community meetings[edit | edit source]
During the time in the community, we utilized a few community meetings to interact and build rapport with the community members. A few community meetings that were utilized for this purpose were:
Farmers:Farmers in the community were engaged in producing cash crops, i.e. sugarcane. According to farmers, growing cash crop was a compulsion for them as they have responsibilities of their families. It is the source of their livelihood. They use urea fertilizer, irrespective of the fact that it is harmful to humans. There are about two to three vermicompost units in and around the village. All the vermicompost produced in these units is exported to other states of India as there is no demand in their own state. The farmers had knowledge about the ill factor of the fertiliser but they still use it.
Religious community meeting: They main motive of the religious community meeting was to engage with the community. The place as well as activities to be done in the meeting was decided by the community women. The meeting was followed by singing Religious songs and dancing. The result of the meeting was that the engagement team gained the trust of the community members especially; women.
School Visit: Children are the main source to spread the words around the village, therefore we had a meeting with the school teachers of the various school in the community. Majorly; the schools were interested to be a part of the cause. After having the meeting with the nine schools, the team came to a conclusion to engage two schools in the project. the schools were decided on following bases, the relation of school with the local NGOs, location, type of school(private or government) and the enthusiasm of the principal of the school.
Key stakeholders of the community:The important key stakeholders of the community were Hindu as well as Muslim priest, principal of the school, panchayat, opinion leaders, local government representatives, various organizations and people working for social causes within the community. As a result of the meeting, various people as well as the organisation came together or share their ideas as well as experience with us. All this leads towards the success of the project.
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Farmes meeting
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Religious community meeting
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School Visit
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Key stakeholders of the community
Observations[edit | edit source]
Incorporated two types of observation approach, i.e. participatory and non-participatory observation. It helped to gather really important and latent sights of the community. Various non-verbal clues of the community members were taken into consideration while conducting various interviews, meetings, home visits, etc. The team observed the following details:
Occupation: They majorly depend on the primary sector for income generation. Farming is their main occupation. The major crops produced are sugarcane because it is a cash crop. They use urea fertilizer, irrespective of the fact that it is harmful to humans. There are about two to three vermicompost units in and around the village. All the vermicompost produced in these units is exported to other states of India as there is no demand in their own state. Therefore, the team planned to conduct were meetings and sessions where the importance of organic farming has been told. The key speakers were called to address the farmers to extend their knowledge about the making of these compost out of waste materials available in their environment.
Religion: There were two religious groups in the community, i.e. Hindu and Muslim. The geographical area was also divided according. There were sperate Muslims schools in the community. Thus, the team came with few ideas, i.e. to take the Pandit Ji(Hindu priest) and Maulana Ji(Muslim Priest) into confidant as they the influential leaders. Contend were also kept religious neutral to increase the reach as the impact of it.
Gender Gap: There were different classrooms for boys and girls in the school. Under no circumstances, two genders were allowed to communicate or even participate together. The major observation was the existence of deep-rooted patriarchy in the community. Even the female political leader was voiceless and under the veil in front of elder male members of the community. Considering the above observation, the team conducted a few of the meeting with both of the genders separately so that women can also share their opinion with freedom.
Indigenous Knowledge structure: The members of the community have their own indigenous knowledge structure. They produce their own products from waste materials like straws, bangles, glasses, C.D., threads, sack, plastic bags and bottles, waste clothes, cardboard boxes, dow dunk, etc. It was a mutual learning process.
Sustainability:As a result of team efforts and a new group of youth individual emerges from the community named as Plastic Free Knights. They become the core team who were responsible for the long-life of the project.
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People Participation for the cause
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Self-reliant: A door-mat from used plastic
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Lack of waste-management
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Community members have their indigenous Knowledge structure
Literature Review[edit | edit source]
I think we might skip this just this time... feel free to wait until I arrive to complete the literature review subsection. Introduce the literature review briefly and then use heading and subheadings for topics. This should focus on information… NO PLAGIARISM![1] Copy and paste from this Practivistas India/literature review template.
Definition[edit | edit source]
Problem statement[edit | edit source]
The objectives of this project are:
- To assess the needs, resources, and priorities of the communities in relation to waste and it's management.
- To spread awareness among the people of the community about solid waste management
- To engage the community using various methods to ensure the sustainability of the project.
- To initiate social entrepreneurial activities in Daula while working on environmental issues.
(Feel free to include specification and considerations here, or make subsections for them.)
Criteria[edit | edit source]
The criteria, constraints and weights were discussed within the engagement team. The table below includes the principles or standards which were followed during the project:
| Criteria | Constraints | Weight (0-10) |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | Accessible to a vast majority of community members, independent of social stratification (i.e., socioeconomic status, religion, caste, gender) | 8 |
| Environmental sustainability | Atleast do not create harmful impact to the environment and atmost mitigate the risk associated to waste management. | 9 |
| Cost | Costs to complete the reasonability within the budget. All the events or activity should incur cost as low as possible. | 7 |
| Appropriateness | Atleast content should be understandable by the heterogeneous audience. Doesn't offend the sentiments of any community. | 10 |
| Impact | Atleast impact while it is happening at the moment and atmost bring behaviour change among the community members. | 9 |
| Safety | The activity or event should be safe for the team as well as people of the community. | 10 |
| Desirability | People find it useful and atmost it should initiate participation. | 9 |
Ideation[edit | edit source]
[edit | edit source]
- Firstly, to initiate the process, we had group discussions with the people to find out their perspective about waste, type of waste found in the community, what solutions can be implemented in regard to waste disposal. We had discussions with every group of the community including students, youth, maulvi, doctor, weaver, organisation people, social activist, farmer, anganwadi workers, ANM workers, ASHA workers, school principals and teachers.
- Nextly, we went to visit the houses of the people to find out about the products that are already being made by the people such as paper envelopes, rakhis, garlands, cardboard utensils, polythene mats and also talked to the people about their products, where do they sell, how much do they get and who inspired them to make these products.
- We also held an activity day with the female students to get an idea of what they have made using waste materials present in their homes and also prototyped some games like edutainment floor games, kho-kho, songs with the children.
Preparation for fair[edit | edit source]
- We held meeting among ourselves to finalise and discuss about what all things to plan to engage more and more people including students, schools elderly and lot of people of the community.
- We also prepared some songs on harmful effects of plastics, waste, waste pollution, cleanliness and river pollution with the core team members.
- We went to the school and prepared the children for the street play activity by selecting the students taking their auditions and by preparing them by enacting the dialogues of the play and rehearsing the songs.
Spreading awareness for first fair[edit | edit source]
- We made posters for the fair to be held on 21st July, and gave it to the core team members to put them in every school and the temple and mosques within the community.
- Nextly, to make people more aware about our project, we visited different schools present in the community, went to the priests and the maulvis and also went to the temple to engage elderly ladies.
- We also took E-Rickshaw and played the announcement and the songs to make people aware about the project, fair and collection of plastic bottles, plastic bags and cloths from the community.
Awaring and engaging community about project[edit | edit source]
- We also held 2 community meetings to know about the community's vision and perception about the products which were being thought and also introduced our project to more people.
- We also held a compost training workshop with the people and explained them about our project, in which 2 people only joined us on time while the others came afterwards.
- We went door to door to make the people aware about the initiative and also to collect plastics from the community to make the products.
Initiating behaviour change[edit | edit source]
- We also worked on the behaviour change of the community, by teaching the children of primary school no.1 of class (3-8)th about environment curriculum, in which we taught them about compost, waste management, food web and seed germination and also the songs created by the core team.
Held fair event[edit | edit source]
- We held an environment education fair in which we showcased the products like plastic stringers, tiles, grocery bags, clipboards, pens and played some edutainment games like compost toss, floor games, showcased flipbook and had a photo-booth for the community people.
- We mobilized many people from the community including children, youth and elderly people, but were not able to mobilize the people with the mindset towards the waste management and also there was lot of crowd which was impossible to control.
Preparing for second fair[edit | edit source]
- The core team planned and discussed about the rally and the fair with our team.
- We also held street play in 2 schools of the village, that is, Adarsh Inter college and Primary school no.1.
- We held a poster making activity in the Adarsh Inter college with the 9 and 11 grade students and also with the students of Yash public school to select the posters to print it on the flex and put in the community and schools to make the community people aware about the project and the second fair.
Second Fair event[edit | edit source]
- The core team held a fair in which the team-re participated as volunteers. We were given duties. In the mela, the products made by us and the community were also showcased in which they brought some photo-frames, flowers, friendship bands, wall hangings and many more. Also, people took pledge, school children showcased their street play and posters, people sung songs and had discussion on the plastics in the fair.
Prototyping[edit | edit source]
Describe your various processes for prototyping for function and desire. You will need to make some executive decisions on what to include and what not to include. It is important that the major prototyping tracks are described, including the ones that ended in 'failure'.
Street Play[edit | edit source]
The aim of the street play was to engage a wide audience in a fun dialogue about waste management. It was designed to spread awareness about the long term effects of plastic in the environment. The script was built with members of the community to ensure the local dialect was used. The goal of this prototype was to test the play's accessibility, safety, and appropriateness. In the first performance prototype, we performed at the inter-college where we recruited the participants. We learned how to properly stage the performers for a majority of the audience to see their faces. Our second performance was on a street by the community center in which we work. Here, we had a large crowd, and confirmed street plays are a good way to reach the general public. It also informed us we need to secure a safe place out of the street beforehand. By the third performance, the street play was no longer a prototype but a final version.
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Street play script writing with community members
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Street play practice
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First performance
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Second performance
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Third Performance
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Final street play performance
Meetings[edit | edit source]
We held many meeting in the community center, which were dual purpose
Postermaking[edit | edit source]
Religious Center Visits[edit | edit source]
Describe the results of each of the prototypes.
Tests[edit | edit source]
Environment Lesson plans[edit | edit source]
For the behaviour change of the children, we planned the lesson plans and disseminated them to the students from class (3-8)th. The lesson plans included compost, waste management, food web and seed germination and also we taught the songs created by the core team.
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The students of 5th class were able to understand the activity and also liked it.
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the students of 5th class were able to tell about source and disposal of waste.
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The students of 4th class took little time to understand the inter-dependence between the animals.
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The students of 5th grade were not able to do the experiment successfully as compared to the students above their grade.
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The children of higher grade consumed less time in learning the songs as compared to the students of the ower grade.
Fair[edit | edit source]
We held an environment education fair in which we showcased the products like plastic stringers, tiles, grocery bags, clipboards, pens and played some edutainment games like compost toss, floor games, showcased flipbook and had a photo-booth for the community people.
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taught the children about the segregation of different types of wastes like recyclable waste, upcycled waste and waste needed for the compost
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The children which were there for playing the game, were below the age level needed for playing the game.
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It presented a story on the use of plastic but people surrounded the people who presented the story to them.
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The students used the mike to present their play, but the voice was not reachable to the crowd.
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There were many children and youth who gathered there to take the pledge
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There were posters displayed on a wall, and all around the mela, which were created by the school children from the Adarsh Inter-college and Yash Public school.
Timeline[edit | edit source]
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| May 28th-30th, 2018 | Arrived in New Delhi, India |
| May 30th-June 3rd, 2018 | American Center and Lady Irwin College Welcome Presentation | Travel and Welcome Ceremony: Baraut, Tavelagarhi and Daula |
| June 4th-10th, 2018 | Community Engagement and Interviews | Empathy/Rapport/Ideate | Tree Plantation | Songs with Children in Communtiy |
| June 11th, 2018 | Create sub-teams to start narrowing down project ideas | Meet with community members to focus in on our project | Class meditation to center ourselves |
| June 12th, 2018 | Men community meeting to get feedback on possible products | Play Kho-Kho game with children | |
| June 13th, 2018 | Select product to prototype | Plan prototyping | Plan testing of prototype | Start prototype with stringer | Meeting with Krishan Pal ji to discuss compost | Meeting with government officials | Site visit and meeting with Satpal ji at his vermicompost site. |
| June 14th, 2018 | Half Day | Planning for the women community meeting | |
| June 15th, 2018 | Off Day |
| June 16th, 2018 | Eid Day| Solar Panel Installation |
| June 17th, 2018 | Start prototyping& Test prototyping | Community walk | Meet Satpal ji (vermicompost farmer) |
| June 18th, 2018 | Meeting with community women | Watch waste management documentary |
| June 19th, 2018 | Discuss compost product ideas | Compost for community engagement |
| June 20th, 2018 | Pick exhibition date | Discuss market and what to prototype | Lady Irwin College professors visit |
| June 21st, 2018 | Yoga day | Class |
| June 22nd, 2018 | Off Day |
| June 23rd, 2018 | Visit primary school |
| June 24th, 2018 | Finalize products for community market |
| June 25th, 2018 | Late Start| Showcase products in community market |
| June 26th, 2018 | Debrief from market| Game day at community center with children | Taught children songs |
| June 27th, 2018 | Prepare for vermicompost training | Vermicompost training advertisement | Split teams | Prep for temple |
| June 28th, 2018 | Worked on Calendar as the whole team| Meeting with NABARD| Half Day |
| June 29th, 2018 | Off Day |
| June 30th, 2018 | Work on vermicompost workshop | Go out in community and advertise project | Work on street play script | Work on primary school activities | Call primary school principal and verify activity dates |
| July 1st, 2018 | Work on primary school activities | Work on street play script | Prepare for vermicompost training | Call interested vermicompost people | Prepare announcement for plastic collection | Visit vermicompost farmer |
| July 2nd, 2018 | Vermicompost training | Work on script for street play | Finish primary school activity #1 |
| July 3rd, 2018 | Work on script for street play | Visit temple and engage with community | Work on primary school activities | Visit 7 schools in community | Prototype announcement for plastic bag collection |
| July 4th, 2018 | Work on script for street play | Work on primary school activities | Prototype seed germination for primary school activity 1 |
| July 5th, 2018 | Product: Tree planting | Practice street play | Work on environmental education lesson plans |
| July 6th to 8th, 2018 | Off Days |
| July 9th, 2018 | Practice street play | Write announcement for fair | Visit possible fair locations | Plan for education fair | Visit primary school |
| July 10th, 2018 | Call primary school principal | Prepare primary school activity logistics #1 | Work on fair poster/finish | Plan fair | Pen making with community members at community center |
| July 11th, 2018 | Auditions at intercollege for street play | Primary school activity 1- seed germination | Work on plastic collection and fair announcements |
| July 12th, 2018 | Mid program Debriefing in Delhi |
| July 13th, 2018 | Debrief from primary school activity | Primary school activity- Parts of a Tree | Perform street play | Distribute education fair posters | Meet Adarsh Intercollege principal about volunteers for education fair |
| July 14th, 2018 | Adarsh Inter-college assembly- announce fair and ask for volunteers | Primary school activity - waste and parts of a tree | Announce fair by rickshaw |
| July 15th, 2018 | Announce fair (e-rickshaw and community leaders) | Call people to invite to fair | Create banner | Modify seed lesson for 6th class activity |
| July 16th, 2018 | Plan american center presentation | Prepare 6th class activity logistics for lesson | Write pledge poster | Practice street play |
| July 17th, 2018 | Day Off |
| July 18th, 2018 | Debrief from primary school activity | Primary school activity -compost | Street play rehearsal in Adarsh Inter college | Call satpal ji about fair, compost, worms | Finalize pledge banner and videos for fair | Work on Presentation for the American Center Debrief/Visit Create fair layout| Fair logistics |
| July 19th, 2018 | <no>
E-rickshaw announcement for fair | Debrief from primary school activity | Visit primary school | Performance of street play | Go through Checklist for the Fair </nowiki> |
| July 20th, 2018 | E-rickshaw announcement for education fair | American Center visit | School engagement showcase of posters, songs and street play | Meeting with core community members |
| July 21st, 2018 | Educational Fair |
| July 22nd, 2018 | Assessment Fair |
| July 23rd, 2018 | Education fair in Tavelagarhi (Daula team joins them) |
| July 24th, 2018 | Debrief Tavelargarhi | Visit primary school |
| July 25th, 2018 | Street play rehearsal at Intercollege | Primary school activity- Web of Life |
| July 26th, 2018 | OFF |
| July 27th, 2018 | OFF |
| July 28th, 2018 | Plastic mold workshop | Identify Key Community members | Meeting with core team members to discuss second fair |
| July 29th, 2018 | Prepare for primary school and inter-college | Discuss Appropedia and assign responsibilities |
| July 30th, 2018 | Teach plastic song at primary school | Computer literacy workshop for core team members - Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel) |Documentation | Appropedia |
| July 31st, 2018 | Computer literacy workshop for core team members- Google tools | Poster making and street play practice at intercollege |
| August 1st, 2018 | |
| August 2nd, 2018 | Day Off |
| August 3rd | Appropedia first draft due | Rally & fair preparation | August 4th, 2018 | <tt><nowiki> PFK's Rally in afternoon | Visit core team member's families |
| August 5th, 2018 | PFK's Environmental Fair |
| August 6th, 2018 | Clean up |
Conclusion[edit | edit source]
(Describe your tangible findings.)
Throughout our time in the village, Daula, we have merely skimmed the surface in understanding the dynamics of this community. When we first came to the village we found there was already upcycling happening on an individual level in many households. We found out the village already had many entrepreneurs and a large population of farmers. Engaging in the community has brought us closer to a variety of people from different casts, religions, and age groups. When a person is involved in the creation of a product, a song, or a street play, it is more impactful on influencing behavior change. This behavior change has been obvious in the core team members we have worked with throughout this project. During our regular visits to two schools in Daula we have made connections through the education of children about the environment and the importance of waste management. Through environmental education lessons, songs about upcycling and a street play about waste reduction children have been key players in spreading a message across their community about the importance of waste management.
Environmental Education Lesson Plan[edit | edit source]
The team found the lessons taught at the school to be engaging, relevant, educational, and fun for the primary school children. One of the lessons taught to 5th, 6th, and 7th class students was on seed germination. Below is a copy of the lesson plan used.
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Classroom portion of environmental education lesson. Discussion on what a seed needs in order to germinate
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Distributing turnip seeds to students for germination
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Students working in teams to create an an upcycled home for their seeds to germinate. The seeds' home consisted of upcycled water bottles and newspaper, with water added regularly to keep the environment moist.
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After 5 days seeds had germinated, with roots, stems, and leaves present.
Discussion[edit | edit source]
Conducting interviews, group discussions[edit | edit source]
- After visiting community people's households, we got to know that there is an existence of upcycled products within the community like mats made from polythene bags, utensils made out of multani mud and newspapers or cartons and envelopes made out of papers.
- Every women in a household knows the art of stitching and most of the people are involved in agriculture.
Community meetings[edit | edit source]
- The community meetings for the product feedback helped us in not only getting the product feedback but also getting a perception of community's preference for the products.
- The needs of not only male but also the female members were taken into account. But, only the male members showed up in the first meeting, so we had another meeting which was arranged for only the female members.
- We got to know that compost was the highest voted product in both the meetings.
Vermicompost training[edit | edit source]
- The preference of both the genders of the community was that there should be a compost. So, a training was held to tell them about the efficient way of making compost, that is, vermi-composting.
- 2 people came for giving the training, that is, Mr. Satpal Singh ji from Doala and Mrs. Darshana Sharma from the Mitli village.
- In the training, 15 people participated and 3 male farmers people told that they will start with the vermi-compost farming. Only male members participated in the meeting and only 2 members reached for the training in time.
Creation of songs[edit | edit source]
- There are 6 songs being created with the help of the core team members. The songs being created are on harmful effects of plastics, waste, waste pollution, cleanliness and river pollution.
Activity day[edit | edit source]
- We invited girls who had made some of their things with the waste materials like a bouquet, boat, bed-room, paintings, flower and many more.
- We also held an activity day with the children aged (5-12)years old where we prototyped a game of "Kho-Kho" with them which was successful and children after playing the game for thrice were not tired and were wanting to play more.
- We prototyped floor games with the children, which were not successful, as the age of the children was very less in comparison to the age required for playing the game.
- Songs were taught to the children which they learnt with excitement, curiosity, energy and in less time.
Visit[edit | edit source]
- We have visited 9 schools of the community, including 3 madarsas.
- We have also visited the religious leaders like a maulvi and a priest.
- We have visited the people who make paper envelopes, garlands, polythene mats, rakhis, paintings, and utensils and wooden molds.
Places of community engagement[edit | edit source]
- Temples- Women engagement was done by dancing and singing bhajans with them.
- Schools-
- Primary school no.1:- The team taught the children from (3-8)th class about the environment curriculum including lesson plans about compost, waste management, food web and seed germination and also we taught the songs created by the core team.
- Adarsh Inter college:- The team taught the students from (6-12)th standard the street play which they performed on the streets, 2 schools and fair. Also, the students from the school participated as volunteers in the fair and also made posters to be hanged in the community.
- Community Weekly markets-To address the community and to know about the preference of the community for the various products, we went to the market where we got to know that people were interested in pens, tiles, grocery bag and jewellery box the most.
- Fair- The people were very curious about the fair and so gathered at the place before the time. Also, there was a great engagement with the community members at the place as lots of children, adults and elderly people gathered. But, there was lack of female members and people who had a mindset towards understanding waste management. Also, it took lot of people to manage the crowd.
- Eye camps- This was the place to build rapport with the people by asking them some basic questions like what do think about waste, some solutions by which we can manage the waste problem and what can be done for its disposal. But from here, we could not get many devoted community members.
- E-Rickshaw announcements- The announcements for the fair and the collection for plastics and cloths were made by using an e-rickshaw. The announcements done through this medium was successful as we could engage many people in the fair. Also, we could collect a lot of waste cloth, plastic bottles and polythenes.
Educational fair[edit | edit source]
- There were 2 educational fairs held within the community, in which the first one was organized by the Team-Re while the other one was organized by the core team of PFK (Plastic Free Knights).
- In the first fair, we only showcased our products and edutainment games while in the other fair, the core team showcased our products with more focus on products created by the community.
- There was a lot of difference between the 2 fairs. In the first one, we delegated the duties to the team members while in the second one, the team delegated us the duties.
- There was a shift in the sense of ownership and responsibility from Team-Re to the core team members from the community.
Although, we tried to cover the whole community, but it was not possible for us to engage with the entire village with a population of 20,000 with heterogeneous people.
Lessons learned[edit | edit source]
Team learning[edit | edit source]
- Consistency, strong determination, patience and commitment in doing work is important, as it is the only medium to achieve goal in time.
- Pre-planning for your days and your goals in advance can help you achieve in foreseeing your goal.
- Communicating the sub-team's plan with the entire team helps in keeping everyone on the same page, seeking their participation and opinion in solving a problem and effective planning for the next day.
- Sometimes a sub-team is not capable of solving a problem, so it should be communicated with the whole team in time.
- Professional relationship needs a foundation of inter-personal relationship to build trust and feeling of belongingness and commitment among the team members.
- To work in a team; duties must be divided among each other according to their traits and specialization.
- Consuming much of the team's time in planning is a waste of time as it takes away the time. from the team members that can be spent in the community in doing action work.
- One should take care of the time as in India, we follow the Indian flexible time. But it shouldn't be so flexible that it takes away all the relaxation time which one has with oneself.
- One should express emotions in words rather than through non-verbal gestures, as it is more open and clear.
- While communicating anything in the group, one should focus on actively listening to the other people rather than on actively speaking.
Professional learning[edit | edit source]
- If placed in the right conditions (plastic bottle home with air vents & wet newspaper) seeds can germinate in just two day.
- People have awareness about waste and its management but do not feel the need to manage the waste, which makes it a difficult task for the team to communicate and mobilize people for behaviour change.
- Respect the culture norms of a community to penetrate into it deeper.
- A lot of people are dependent on the government officials to bring a change in their village's situation, but are not self-motivated to bring about the change themselves.
- Telling the script instead of dictating the dialogues is much fruitful as it helps the students in forming their dialogues in their own languages which helps in acting and remembering the dialogues.
- Involving the school community itself in poster making, street plays, volunteership and other activities and also the youth in planning fair is a good engagement process as it makes a play or an activity sustainable.
- Activities or meetings should be planned in advance to minimize uncertainty.
- Gender dynamics is into play in the village, which can hamper any process, which needs to be kept in mind while organising anything in the community, as the women do not come and also do not speak in presence of make members who are older than their age.
- One can introduce a positive change in behaviour of people by doing things first ourselves, so that they can see that and get motivated by themselves to perform it.
- Effective and efficient teaching happens outside the class, so one should involve the students by other methods where students have a different role to play of not only as listeners but also as an active participant in the process of learning.
- One should learn to involve different people present in the community like people belonging to different castes, occupations, religion, gender and age group, in order to accomplish the goal of community engagement.
- If one needs to do community engagement, then one needs to go with a community member who is very active in the community and whom the community knows and respect.
- Always choose more than 1 ways to communicate to the people like phone calls, announcements, personal meetings, etc according to the time available with the team.
- Empathize with the people, be a part of them to make them, so that they can be a part of the project.
- Do-follow up, as project ends but relationships still continue. Your motivation and guidance can help someone grow and do what they need to do.
Next steps[edit | edit source]
Throughout our project, we kept in mind our criterion of sustainability and impact. We wanted our community engagement to not only be impactful as it took place, but residual after we leave. We took steps to ensure our project's ideas will live on and evolve. Some of these steps included:
- Working our roles out of the street play, so they can perform without us
- Teaching the songs far and wide, and leaving behind lyrics to they will continue to be sung
- Having teacher be present while teaching environmental education lessons, so they can witness our techniques
- Leaving behind germinating seeds and a compost bottle in the primary school, which are activities that continue to engage over a long period of time
- Leaving behind waste management awareness posters created by students around the community
- Connecting interested vermicomposters with resources so they can begin their own vermicompost
Furthermore, our project will continue with the help of our core team members. They formed the group "Mission Clean Daula", comprised of about 15 young men. Mission Clean Daula plans to continue engaging with the community to spread awareness about waste management. They've worked alongside us in all our endeavors and have picked up many useful skills along the way. These include interview skills, project management, and computer literacy skills. Goals of theirs so far include weekly volunteer clean-ups, and having personal conversation with shopkeepers about the use of plastic bags. We are confident they will keep the community's drive to improve their waste management sparked.
Team[edit | edit source]
Daula village's engagement team consists of four members: