PAKISTAN ORGANISERS SPREAD THE SKILL!

The recent deadly floods in Pakistan has increased our engagement in flood response activities. However things at our our end are running smoothly.

You must recall that in April 2010 we had conducted a community organising training here for Cordaid.

They are already using these approaches in their work and have also conducted a one day session for their new team. I even saw a big poster in their office with the CO frame/process. They liked the approach very much and have asked Cavish our NGO to train their new staff who are working on an education project".

I am currently designing the training and would impart it as a four-day session from October 4 to 8, 2010 for 24 staff members of Cordaid. I am planning to do a video report of the training and would involve Shahnawaz who has been trained in the SEAPCP Community video workshop last April 2010 in Malaysia.

Today we had a seminar on the "role of police in ending violence against women" where Shahnawaz with the support of another camera-man documented the process by Video. Now based on this we will develop a video report of this activity and will share it with all of you.

So we are not only using the approach in our work but also training others. This way the SEAPCP support in building our capacity in CO processes is also supporting Cavish to generate some financial resources through rendering such type of consulting services to others. This way we are getting multiple benefits!

By: Hassan, CAVISH, Pakistan

Latest from Paul in India!

Some good news from my end!

I have handed over all my responsibilities in our NGO Lokvikas to my team members. In the last 3 months, I have been successful in mobilizing nearly INR 4.5 million (USD99,000) for our NGO and have told my team that now they are the sole decision makers for the NGO. That money belongs to them and the community. I have also shared with them that from now onwards I am not directly involved in the management of the NGO but will help them whenever there is a genuine need.

Now I am planning to start "operations" on a larger scale. I would like to work across India as well as for poor people in other countries. I have started giving my free and voluntary services to the poor people in different parts of India. I am also giving them free "Rights and access" to use the technology on the "Innovation Irrigation Programme of Rainwater" that I had developed for the betterment of the poor people. I hope it will pick up gradually and I will be able to develope more Community Organisers across India.

I am open to share about this technology with anyone who is interested to use it. If anyone needs this technology as well as other support i will give that free of charge but only condition is that they must promise that the benefits should go to the poor.

(Editor's note: powerpoint presentation is available to be sent through email. Please contact Paul directly email: biplabkp@rediffmail.com)

Young Socheat of Cambodia shares his tale of community organising

Hope you all are doing well with life and CO works. Here are some updates from Cambodia:

1. Our lives are busy and crazy as usual. Mr. Sivutha is still the champion of being the busiest man, traveling to the provinces for CO works.

2. We, participants of advance CO course 2009, Mr. Sivutha, Nareth and Socheat are working together with other activist NGOs organizing quarterly CO Study Circle.

3. Nareth and I together with few activist NGOs in cooperation with LOCOA (Leaders and Organizers on CO in Asia); some of you may know LOCOA is developing CO ToT training curriculum for fit Cambodia context.

4. I as Program Officer-CO for SADP (Southeast Asia Development Program) am practicing Quality Process Approach on Community Organizing with local NGO partners at the fields so that during this month I will be at the field together with our NGO partners doing community reflection and planning at 6 target villages. The reflection will be once in 4 months and the following months will be supporting and following up the community plans. As we are trying to build ownership of the community, the plan will be mostly carry out by the communities themselves.

More updates are coming soon either from my side and Narath+Mr. Sivutha

Good luck
socheat.

Cambodia CO Touching Many Lives
The following report is from Hem Nareth, a young and dynamic organiser who has undergone SEAPCP Comunity Organising training course in 2008 and 2009.




Here is my latest achievement of providing CO training to young people who living in slums as well as some staff of Village Earth organisation in Cambodia. I am trying to build inside and out side community organisers and now after the trainings, I have 4 more main steps for them:

1. Practice analysing their own community problems sharply
2 Document these in writing.
3. Start to organize community through existing programs such as medical care (in eviction problems and also use income generation as entry points as well).
4. Monitoring and Evaluation of their own organizing work.

After they have finished the 4 main steps, they could achieve the real experience in organizing and they will also get their certificates. (This course will take about 1 years).

Every 2 weeks, I meet them ( those trained participants) for about 2 hours to consult or assist them when they faced problems or challenges. I also integrated CO session in sustainable development curriculum, it's quite a successful workshop.

Now I am organizing the youngster ( at risk youth) by using music class as entry point. It's quite challenging, they get passionate very fast, and also lose interests very fast as well. That's so hard for me to monitor and motivate them so often!

Will update u later about that improvement, take care everybody,

Hem Nareth

PAKISTAN ORGANISING PUSHES ON!



The following is a brief report from one of our SEAPCP Community Organising Network members Hassan of Pakistan.
Dear all CO's,

Thanks for sharing the interesting training report and thoughts on various CO efforts in your own areas. I am resending the report on the CO training I organized and conducted here in Pakistan. I had shared some photos but the detailed report (available upon request) is attached with this mail. Please do see page 12 on which pre and post training evaluation is given. it was indeed a great success which could be judged from this statement of a participant, Ayaz Abro, from training "i have been working in development sector for over ten years, and in this time attended many trainings, including some on CO, but this training is so the best".



On other fronts, we have organized two youth groups in two districts of Pakistan. The youth groups have been training in using "Puppetry Theater". They would use Puppetry Theater for improving interfaith harmony among Muslims and Non-Muslims in Pakistan. The initiative is similar to one in Cambodia. The focus there is on HIV/AIDS but in our case it's for Interfaith Harmony.

Regards,
Hassan

VIDEO FOR COMMUNITY!


community video activists from all over Asia!


Field work screening and discussion of video with community


Preparing the shots for screening


shooting community member in the field


Role playing to help participants learn interview techniques


Participants come from 8 Asian countries


Actual community discussions in the field


Jo Hann emphasising that video is a tool for community organising


Interviewing organic farmer during field work


Anna Har sharing about developing a video story


Participants engaged in group dynamics in training sessions


Arul Prakkash sharing about the elements of community video


Participant share his views about developing a story



Yoga leading the field work team in urban poor area


Intense discussions continues during the 7 days workshop


Field work interview in the urban poor community


collecting data from community member during field work

It was obvious that in “COMMUNITY VIDEO”, the emphasis is on the word “community” and then the word “video” 20 participants from 8 Asian countries gathered in Kuala Lumpur for 7 days to exchange experiences and learn new skills and perspective on Community Video from 18^th to 25^th. April 2010.

The event was organized by the South East Asia Popular Communications Programme (SEAPCP) an Asian regional network of community organizers and it was the first of its kind to be organized by the organization.

Local host KOMAS is a Human Rights NGO in Malaysia with 17 years experiences in advocating for human rights issues together with grassroots communities. They use creative media approaches such as video, photographs, group dynamics, and other means to design and mount human rights campaign with different groups in Malaysia.

Participants from Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma, Timor Leste, Pakistan, India, Mongolia intensively picked up skills and approaches in using the powerful medium of video film to facilitate and support community issues.

The event also included a 1-day field work experience in 4 communities namely the urban poor longhouse community in North Jinjang, Poor communities in Banting, Refugees in Kajang area, and an organic farm in Batu Arang.

The idea of the field work was to have a first hand experience in using video to document an issue and immediately to screen it to the community for discussions and feedback. This powerful approach did not require much time for editing and other technical demands as in the usual production of a film.

Community video employs simple approaches where the medium is used as a tool to capture images, interviews and live action, which can in turn be shown back to the community to provoke discussions, analysis, planning and ultimately to spur them to actions in addressing their issues.

Facilitators for the workshop were experienced and skilled community organizing and video experts. Anna Har, an experienced community videographer and professional Director has been very involved in supporting and training communities to use video for their issues. Arul Prakkash is presently the Coordinator of the KOMAS Community Video Project.

Jo Hann Tan, SEAPCP Community organizing Coordinator and Executive Director of KOMAS was also there to conduct several sessions especially in discussing the perspective frame and concept & practice of community video. Yoga Atmaja from Kawan Nusa Bali Indonesia was invited to share his ground experiences in using community video to organize grassroots farm communities in Bali.

At the end of the workshop, most participants felt these skill and approaches are very crucial and relevant to their work. Since this workshop could not include many others from each country, it was suggested to conduct echo workshops or replication sessions in different respective areas of the participants.

Meanwhile all participants were asked to continue their work and to share their experiences and short community videos through the internet streaming utility so that all can view their stories and videos. This is expected to happen within the next 2 months until end of June.

By Jo Hann Tan

"A VIDEO PAINTS A MILLION WORDS"

SEAPCP COMMUNITY VIDEO WORKSHOP IN MALAYSIA

A picture paints a thousand words, a video film will indeed paint millions of words! This is the basic spirit that has motivated SEAPCP to develop community video among the grassroots communities in different South East Asian countries about 17 years ago.

Since then, SEAPCP has established community video units and centers in different parts of Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Timor Leste, Thailand and Cambodia. These are set up to mainly support community organising work and not just to produce "beautiful video films".

In these 17 years, the first trainees of SEAPCP community video have already established their own network of community video practitioners on the ground and have used different types of short films, simple cut to cut productions, news bulletin coverage, or just "shoot and show" techniques to reach out to communities.

These simple approaches are different from the usual video productions that takes weeks and even months to produce. They are used as tools for awareness raising, analysis, and even preparing communities for actions. Sometimes images are shot in the morning and shown in the afternoon for discussions and analysis.

To further strengthen the already existing network of community video practitioners, SEAPCP will be organising its first Asian wide community video workshop in Malaysia from April 18-26 2010. This event is for carefully identified participants who have been involved in community organising and also using the video film medium to support their work.

It is hoped that as a follow up of this event, localised in-country workshops will be organised to enable a further reach of participants for each country. Furthermore it can be conducted in their local languages and include more local community organisers to develop the community video tool for their work.

Keep tuned into this blog to get the latest about this exciting event of SEAPCP!

by: Jo Hann Tan
SEAPCP community organising coordinator

Mr. Makoto Arakaki (An Interview)

He was born in Naha city (in Okinawa Japan). After graduating from high school, he went to UCLA, USA to study about the minority issues in America. Since 2004 until now he has been involved in the present activities. In 2005 he established an international Network NGO called “ONE LOVE” together with his students based on the theory of international relationships. He is 43 yeas old and lives in Nakashiro village, Okinama prefecture.

We cannot just be strong leaders but it is essential to build up a closer connection to the other party

Mr. Makoto Arakaki

Pofessor of Okinawa Christian University.

He takes his students to other Asia counties and is also active as a community Organiser.

1. How did you start this activity?

In 2006, my Filipino friend asked me to join a program for local youth to learn to stand on their own feet in the slum areas in Manila. I went and saw for myself the problems there such as gangsterism, drug addiction and others.

I would just cook soup with young people and sell it to their neighbors but actually they could not make much money. So I brought my student there and made them discuss about what they can do together with the slum community people. We started to make accessories like a holder for a hand phone and try to sell it in Japan. I stayed there with my students. The young people there are discriminated against and their neighbors would feel afraid and stay away from them. These young people continued their exchange with my students and gradually they grew more self-confidence.

I participated in a community organizing training program organized by SEAPCP in Indonesia in 2007 and in Malaysia in 2009.

2. A Community Organizer is not a social activist leader?

A Community Organizer can not be a strong leader. CO work is to facilitate people to become aware of the problems among themselves and encourage them to plan a strategy of what can be done.

3. What kind of activity you do in Okinawa?

Okinawa has some significant issues such the US bases, the destruction of the environment and development and others. So we are always in the front line of civil society movement. Many activists support from outside and we help the residents to see the difference between the positive and the negative factors. It is sometimes very difficult to use CO approaches. I encourage my students to participate in these activities including being abroad in the Philippines to improve their awareness about the common issues between them and Okinawa.

4. Do you think need there is a need to build closer relations with other Community Organizers in Asia?

There is exploitation of people everywhere because of the free trade agreement between countries and multinational corporations on a global level. It is essential to build up a closer connection between local people to fight against these big enemies. The participants of SEAPCP training were from Mongolia, India, and other SEA countries. The network linkages remain closely and strong.

(Interviewer: Mr.Nishiyama, Asaha Shimbun)

Working hard to improve the communities

Translation of article published in Asahi Shimbun Japan 1.1.2010

Community Organiser in various places

To encourage the people to seek a solution to the poor and promoting human rights issues.

The activity called “community organizing” is becoming popular in various places. It makes the local residents tackle social problems such as poverty and also to resolve those problems by themselves. More and more attention is being paid to the concept of micro communities especially in European Union countries or “East Asia Communities”. In the USA since the period of a civil rights movement in history established networks that spread slowly in the other regions in the world.

Photo: Mr.Tan Jo Hann(left) discuss with residences front of the longhouse.

The “Longhouses” of Jinjang Utara is located in the suburb capital city Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Toward the end of December, community organiser, Mr. Tan Jo Hann (age 47), President of PERMAS, spoke to some women with their children. One of them sighed “When can I get out from this area?”

Malay, Chinese and Indians are living this area which has a total population of 10,000 people. In this area many children who have stopped school become a juvenile delinquency, unemployed or turn to drugs and alcohol. This place is like a place for social failures among poor people.

In 1970s to 1980s, Kuala Lumpur had many young workers from the outskirts who went to the towns to look for jobs and a better life. In the beginning of 1990s, they got ordered out because of the redevelopment. The government promised them permanent low cost house for the lower income group. But they have not got the confirmation letter from the government about their promised houses even until now.

Mr. Tan started to work with this area in the mid 1990s. He encouraged residents to discuss among themselves and gradually organized them to struggle for their demands for permanent housing and to improve the quality of their lives.

“The main actors are residents and we just support them. Our role is to pass on our knowledge and experiences to the people, so-call ‘empower them”. Sometimes, he had to confront bulldozers from property developer companies wanting to forcibly evict these people.

He was born into a Chinese family in Ipoh a small town in the middle of Malaysia. He is a Christian. When he was a high school student, he thought “why poverty exist?” Why is it that even with Christian church providing services to the poor but still they exist and he could not find an answer.

After he graduated from high school in the 1980’s he met some experienced “Community Organisers” and became a member of a group of 14 community organizers people. They were from different backgrounds working as an employee, a factory worker, a teacher or journalist and other professions. They actively organize the slum areas while working in their usual jobs.

Under the former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammad’s administration, the government employed very strict control on activities which seemed to be against the government. That time when Mr. Tan joined the group he was also restricted by the authorities and police. The group members were sometimes hiding from the Government and Mr. Tan went to University of Philippines to study. In 1993, he came back to Malaysia and re-started his activities especially in the poor housing issues.

Mr.Arumugam is a taxi driver and lives in a longhouse. He is under the guidance of Mr. Tan. Now, Mr. Arumugam is self-reliant and became active as “a local organizer”. He would discuss with local government about the community issues such as resolving the public bus transportation system and they were also successful.

Mr. Tan is one of the founders of a network group “SEAPCP” (South East Asia Popular Communications Programme) which links up organisers in the SEA region. To date Mr. Tan has trained and developed more that 60 organisers in Malaysia as well as overseas. “Now ordinary people can confidently discuss with government ministers on an equal footing. I am glad to see them being changed” he said.

As Asian country economies grow in the region, community organisers are increasingly needed to develop the consciousness of the people.

By Mr. Tsukamoto at Kuala Lumpur

ASAHI SHIMBUN, JAPAN

JAPANESE TOP NEWSPAPER FEATURE SEAPCP ORGANISERS

TOP DAILY NEWSPAPER ASAHI SHIMBUN OF JAPAN INTERVIEWED SEAPCP COMMUNITY ORGANISING NETWORK COORDINATOR JO HANN TAN ABOUT HIS EXPERIENCES AND WORK IN MALAYSIA AND DIFFERENT ASIAN COUNTRIES.

THEY ALSO DID ANOTHER ARTICLE ABOUT MAKOTO ARAKAKI ABOUT HIS WORK AS AN ORGANISER IN OKINAWA.

BOTH STORIES WERE PUBLISHED IN A SPECIAL NEW YEAR FEATURE ON JANUARY 1st. 2010 IN JAPAN! THE STORIES WERE HIGHLIGHTED ALONGSIDE WITH ANOTHER STORY ABOUT USA PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND HIS EXPERIENCES AS A COMMUNITY ORGANISER BEFORE ENTERING POLITICS.