Indian Adventures Part V: Catching up with development

With the craziness of the last few weeks I haven't had much time to read either the newspaper or development blogs I enjoy. I thought the picture from Bill Easterly's latest blog entry was quite interesting, depicting the number of people on various income levels by region. It is a bit outdated (2000 data) but still quite powerful.

The New York Times recently ran an article about an exciting advancement in preventing HIV/AIDS. A study in South Africa found that a vaginal microbicidal gel containing an antiretroviral medication significantly reduced the likelihood of contracting the deadly disease. The most exciting part about this, in my humble opinion, is that unlike condoms, it is solely in the control of the woman and thus very empowering. The second study - of cash transfers to poor families - clearly demonstrates the link between abject poverty and increased chances of contracting diseases. Worth the read!

Lastly, the LA Times recently featured an op-ed titled "Toilets: a simple solution to world health issues." We often time sideline issues of defecation because it is uncomfortable and impolite. The reality is that many of the world's poor don't have access to toilets, as much as 2.6 billion or about a third of the world's population! Today, as I was conducting interviews in the slum behind Guru Nanek Eye Hospital in Delhi, I witnessed a little boy no older than 3 years old crouching in the middle of the alley trying to poop. He seemed totally impervious to norms of modesty and was just happy to relieve himself. The article claims that "in India more people have access to cell phones than toilets." Modesty and odor is just part of the issue. The boy pooped in the main thoroughfare connecting the slum. Every child and adult without a pair of shoes will walk where he pooped (his mom did pick it up with newspaper thankfully). Diseases spread like wildfire in environments that lack proper sewage, leading to almost 2 million preventable deaths. My friend Jehan, who worked in the same office as Teach For Australia when I was in Melbourne, is attempting to address this issue by launching a non-profit titled Who Gives a Crap, which sells environmentally-friendly toilet paper. All the proceeds will fund water sanitation and sewage projects in the developing world.

Indian Adventures Part IV: Serenity in the Chaos

The weeks leading up to this trip were a whirlwind – a haze of flights, short bursts of sleep, and preparation for what was to come. After I finished my exams, Ari and I went to Croatia to celebrate for four days. Then I was off to the States for a close friend’s wedding. Transnational flights are not my cup of chai but for some friends, the joy of celebrating with them negates the hassle of the commute. That weekend my 89-year old grandmother took an irreversible turn for the worst. With her beloved six children by her bedside, singing her favorite Jewish songs and reminiscing, she went to her final resting place quietly in the night. I boarded my fifth international flight in two weeks to get back to the US in time for the funeral. The agony of the flight, knowing what was awaiting me, speeding through the Minneapolis airport, changing clothes in the cab… it all dissipated the moment I walked into my grandmother’s cherised synagogue just in time for the afternoon funeral. Seeing my family, and especially my mom, I knew I made the right decision to come back. My grandmother was and continues to be a major force in my life. My own beliefs and values are often a reflection of the ideals she espoused. I feel truly lucky that over these last years I have spent countless Friday nights, holidays, special occasions and casual dinners with her. She was a remarkable woman!

This last minute trip to the US meant that I didn’t have much time to prepare for India – mentally or emotionally. I knew it would therefore be really tough at times as it would finally give me the time and space to process all that has occurred. The solitude would be both a blessing for reflection and a curse of loneliness. The day I flew out, a good friend and I talked about these whirlwind moments in our lives, the need to process, and the challenges of doing so in a city as big and hectic as Delhi. I would need to find the serenity in the chaos...

Yesterday was a challenging day but today I found my serenity. My great intentions and plans crumbled when my translator had to cancel at the last minute. The city was at a standstill when I left my hotel as it had started to drizzle. Locals found any covering to hide under – trees, tarps, towels, overhangs. As the city stood quietly and waited for nature to pass, I climbed into my rickshaw and headed to my destination. Our wet journey was cleansing and therapeutic. I smiled to myself knowing that I had finally found my serenity in the chaos. Nature has a unique way of slowing us down, letting us zoom out and refocus. The city too – dressed in mud and puddles - seemed reinvigorated from the hot summer.

Indian Adventures Part III: The Road Block

I have found that you will only get frustrated if you try to get somewhere in a hurry - "dheere dheere" is the way of life here. I gave myself an hour to get from my hotel to my meeting at UNICEF, which according to google map should take 13 minutes. The moment I got into my taxi there was traffic somehow. No joke it took us 30 minutes to get out of my street. Some guy had parked his car on the left side of the road. Normally this wouldn't be a cause of a major hold up but because the entire city is under construction for the Commonwealth Games the street is really narrow. Eventually some pedestrian got sick of all the honking and decided to take charge and direct the two-way traffic that clearly couldn't fit in the now-narrow road. I was getting more and more enraged at whomever was going to make me late. As the rickshaws and motorcylces passed us, my car started moving slowly. It was then that I realized that it was the police officer's car that was causing the hold up! He was hanging out schmoozing with the workers as they renovated the building next to my hotel and was totally oblivious to the parking lot he had created. Uch India!

I managed to get to UNICEF just in time for my 3pm meeting with the Education Advisor. He worked for the government of India before so knew the Chalta Firta program from both a government perspective and a donor's perspective. It was a very fruitful and helpful meeting. But what I couldn't get over was the actual building!

The office is located in one of the poshest parts of town, known as Lodi Estates. The grounds are so beautiful and well manicured. This is my walk-by attempt to capture it. Best part- the 200 employees have a massive cafetaria in there and can just call and order drinks whenever they feel like it. A waiter served me and the advisor delicious chai tea.

In DESTIN we often talked about how UN offices are riddled with extra spending. It is no surprise that those jobs are the most coveted - they pay well, give diplomatic immunity, and provide amazing benefits. I am not saying that UN officials don't work hard but it is probably easier to get away with lavish and at times superfluous expenses. I mean- who is going to hold them to account- the tax payers from the 192 member countries?

Indian Adventures Part II: Rotary the World Over

It should come as no surprise that the moment I decided to go to India, I reached out to two powerful networks that I am a part of - Teach For All and Rotary. The former has been immensely helpful in the planning and coordinating of meetings. Several very kind current Teach For India fellows did some leg work for me before I arrived as often emails will go unanswered, but phone calls tend to get quicker responses.

I knew that if I reached out to Rotary Clubs in Delhi someone would be bound to invite me to a club meeting or have me over for a meal. The Rotary Club of Garden City did just that, and more. They hosted me at their installation ceremony at the Crowne Plaza, a beautiful hotel in south Delhi. The moment I walked in, I knew that I was in the company of great people. The key note speaker, a journalist who admitted to becoming jaded and pessimistic throughout his career, called the crowd a "diabetic's nightmare because everyone is so sweet and optimistic". Just a few of those in attendance included the Moroccan Ambassador to India (who was very amused that I have Moroccan ancestory), the Slovakian ambassador, the leading female fashion photographer in India, and many more equally as successful and influential people. I was in awe by this group and weirdly enough they were super eager to talk to me. Several of them wanted me to come to their next club meeting. One sweet young lady told me that she would take me shopping after I complemented her saree.

The ladies' beautiful sarees

Me with Dr. Singh, the new Garden City RC president

It was such an inspiring evening- with amazing food, a world renowned Indian flutist named Rajan, and great conversations. My interactions with Indians thus far has illustrated that people are generally very optimistic about the direction that their country is heading in, and justifiably so. One of the Rotarians offered to take me home from the event as it was getting late. The car ride back - past slums, street children and destitution- clearly demonstrated that India still has a long way to go.

Indian adventures Part I

The Virgin Atlantic flight from London to Delhi would have been great if the guy behind me didn't snore like a truck! Thankfully passport control, customs and luggage were all speedy and painless. Best part of the journeywas that the hotel I booked sent a car for me (read: old Subaru car with barely working AC). When I first walked outside several things were immediately apparent:

• The heat is like nothing I have ever felt before. Tel Aviv is pretty hot and humid in the summer but Delhi takes it to a whole new level with temperatures reaching 105 and 70% humidity. It is also made worse by the amount of dust in the air- you feel like your lungs have a growing desert in there.
• The smell- it is like old rotting something combined with a bit of sewage. Some places are better than others and I have learned to avoid the low land where all the unidentifiable liquids flow
• The driving- there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of traffic laws. The roads are shared by trucks, cars, cows, auto rickshaws, pedestrians and everything else you can imagine. I have still not been able to cross the street myself so tend to walk in a local's shadow.
• Relatedly, the noise level - I have always heard that Cairo has the worst noise pollution in the world but it seems like Delhi is right up there. Everyone honks (probably because there are no guidelines governing driving). In Israel people get riled up when there is honking but here it is just commonplace, no one gets too worked up about it.

I had my first official day today and I was really pleased with how it went. I was supposed to meet the education director from the NGO that manages the mobile classroom program today. However we left it really loose- it seems that Indians are pretty chill about meeting times (have heard that India time is similar to Africa time). I was nervous it would fall through and I don't have time to waste since I am only here two weeks. I followed the directions through the main bazaar, with the help of a nice boy, to what looked like a building from the 1950s that hasn't had a coat of paint or any work done to it since then. I was shocked at its facade; in the States even the most bare-bones NGOs can't afford to let their building reach that dilapidated state as it would be unlikely they would get much funding. A certain level of seriousness and purpose is displayed via the office. In SBT's case, I went down a stinky alley and walked up two flights to a room without much air circulation. It turns out that most of their funding comes from the government and there isn't much of it despite the great work they do. The office also served as a shelter for street children. These boys stay at the shelter for 6 months and then are either returned to their parents or get placed in a more permanent situation if the former isn't possible.

My meeting with the education director was so interesting- he was telling me all about the structure of the program, the need to motivate their parents to send them to school and the value of education, and the challenges associated with fundraising. I could have listened to him talk for hours. But he had arranged for one of the teachers to take me to see it for myself. Using broken English and a lot of hand gestures we managed to communicate. Turns out the teacher, Sudha, is only 25 years old and has been teaching for two years. The school bus turned into classroom stops at 4 sites each day for two hours. There the kids learn Hindi, English, social studies, science, math and some health. Most of these children have never been to school and often times their parents are apprehensive about sending these kids to the Chalta Firta school. Social workers conduct a survey at the beginning of the year to identify the children between the ages of 6-10 in that area and convince their parents to enroll them. The program currently serves about 125 students. At the end of the year the children take an exam to determine their mastery level and the social workers help enroll them in formal schools. Last year they streamlined 102 children into formal schools! The program has been very successful and the department of education wants to create 20 more school buses. One more will be operated by SBT and the rest by other organizations. There is another NGO, Butterflies, that runs the same program in South Delhi, which I hope to visit. Here are a few pictures:

Today's visit to one of the sites was so inspiring, I had to hold back the tears when I first walked on the bus- to think that this small bus could mean a different life path for these 25 children. Most of them would never learn to read or write if it wasn't for the mobile classroom. I don't think an academic observer is supposed to get emotional upon observing her subjects but it was hard not to in this case as it could literally mean prolonging the cycle of poverty or creating better life opportunities.

Leaver's Gift Revisited

As mentioned in a previous post, I along with a fellow Ambassadorial Scholar from the US, Lauren Williamson, organized a leaver's gift on behalf of the RIBI Rotary Scholars. The purpose was to give back to a local charity and show our appreciation for this opportunity we have been given. The leaver's gift and walk-a-thon, the first of its kind, was a success, although we wish that more scholars would have joined in the fundraising efforts and/or participated in the walk -a-thon. It was a very busy time of year for us all but all in all we are very pleased that we could raise as much money as we did for a great cause. Below is the letter we sent to foundation:

As a culminating event of our time here in the UK, the Ambassadorial Scholars have organized a leaver's gift. Our purpose was to both thank the community that has hosted us during our incredible year abroad and raise awareness about one of Rotary's partnering organizations here in the UK, the Leonard Cheshire Disability. LCD aims to change attitudes to disability and to serve disabled people around the world. Our leaver's gift will benefit two of LCD's diverse services - a home for young adults with disabilities in London and the Schools4All in Africa program which builds accessible and inclusive schools so that children living with disabilities are not denied the right to an education. To learn more about LCD, please visit http://www.lcdisability.org/

For the last several months, Ambassadorial Scholars have been raising awareness about and raising money for LCD's important work. Thus far we have raised £1,700 for the organization, 65% of our goal of £2,500. We are so pleased that many clubs and Rotarians have contributed to this great initiative. If you or your club have not had a chance to contribute, it isn't too late. Please visit http://www.justgiving.com/summerwalk to donate safely. Alternatively you can contact us to get the address of where you can send a check.

Our culminating event was a walk-a-thon at Greenwich park on July 4. Approximately 30 participants - consisting of scholars, Rotarians, grandchildren, friends and supporters of LCD - joined us for the 5K walk. The weather, while not always consistent in London we have learned, was perfect! It was a great day and a wonderful way to celebrate our year in the United Kingdom.

We will forever be indebted to our sponsoring districts and Rotary Foundation for providing us this incredible opportunity. And we are equally as grateful to the RIBI Rotarians and Clubs that have welcomed us into their communities and homes. We hope that our leaver's gift serves as a small token of appreciation and demonstrates our committment to the ideals of Rotary.

Gratefully,

Yamit Taragan and Lauren Williamson

2009-2010 Ambassadorial Scholars

Dissertating

It has been forever since I last wrote an entry but frankly there wasn't much to report on at the time. I spent the month of May and half of June in one of two places- the Goodenough library or the LSE library. I remember thinking when I first sawthe academic calendar that there was SO much time to prep for exams but when it came down to it, I felt like I could have used another week to get ready. In the US you may have a few days or a week to study but in the UK system it is several weeks. It is partly reflective of thedifferent structure- all of our exams, even for those classes that were during first term, were in June. It is also expected that you have a greater and richer understanding of the material. All in all I think my exams went well. I just wish I better understood the system when I started as it may have changed my study habits. Here is a picture with my beloved study group, withoutwhom my core class would have been near impossible!

I have also 'finalized' (loosely interpreted) my dissertation. I will be looking at synergies between formal and non formal education and specifically how mobile classrooms in India are identifying and teaching children who have not attended formal schools. This is especially relevant now that the Indian government has passed the free and universal primary education law. It is my hypothesis that these mobile classrooms are serving as important intermediaries between the parents and schools and are key in building trust in the schools and appreciation for education. For more information on the program visit the DIFD website. I will be going to India for two weeks to conduct field research and see these programs for myself. Am really excited/anxious/nervous. More to come soon!

Spring time in London

Beautiful trees blooming in the Goodenough Courtyard!

Sunning at Brighton Beach, 45 minutes outside of London

"When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure."

-Peter Marshall

Rotary Scholars Leaver's Gift

Quick Overview

The Event: 2009-2010 RIBI Ambassadorial Scholars' Leavers Gift & Summer Walk


Who: YOU, the Rotary family, your friends

What: Fundraiser for Leonard Cheshire Disability and a summer walk-a-thon


Where: Greenwich Park, southeast London, United Kingdom


When: Sunday 4 July 2010 at 10 AM
Why: Service Above Self

Answering a Need

Just walking around any city it is apparent how difficult it is for disabled people to lead normal lives: lack of elevators and wheelchair ramps, ill-maintained sidewalks and pedestrian paths, bustling crowds of people too impatient to assist. Leonard Cheshire Disability (LCD) is working to change that, to provide a way for disabled people to be more mobile and live independently.

Rotary has a long history of partnership with UK-based LCD, including past work on their Schools4All in Africa projects, which improve education for the disabled in Africa and contribute to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals. These are the reasons we have chosen to fundraise for LCD. The money raised will be channelled to their beneficial programmes in the UK and abroad.

The Ambassadorial Link

Rotary International Great Britain and Ireland (RIBI) has a large number of Ambassadorial Scholars studying in the UK during the 2009-2010 year. It has been an amazing, life-changing year and, true to Rotary values, we felt the best way to say “thank you” to the Rotary Foundation was to give back to the community. Moreover, an event of this nature, requiring such collaboration among UK scholars, has never been done before. This will have a great local impact!

Our Fundraising Efforts

Our fundraising goal of £5,000 is a hefty one and our deadline is only three months away. However, we hope to leverage the entire Rotary family – both in the UK and our abroad. So how can you help? Please consider donating to this great cause. Once you decide an amount, the donation process is very easy. Go to the website www.justgiving.com/summerwalk. This is a safe and secure site where you can donate using a credit card. The money goes directly to LCD!

If you are in the UK, you are invited to join us at the culminating walk-a-thon in beautiful Greenwich Park (pictured). The 5K walk on 4 July 2010 will celebrate our fundraising efforts, our health, and our year abroad.

Thank you so much for your contribution and commitment to the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar program!

End of Lent Term!

It is incredible how fast this year is going by! Lent term (aka spring term) ends in a few days. British academic calendar is quite different from the US in that all of the exams are at the end of year, even the classes you had in December. So come June I will be taking exams on EVERYTHING (will think about that later!)

In the meantime, I am sad that classes are coming to an end as I really loved my courses this term. I took a course on emerging health threats and although I am not a science/medical person at all, found the content so interesting. One of my biggest takeaways is the sheer disparity between those diseases that have the highest burden on developing countries and those diseases that get the most funding. Not surprisingly HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis get a disproportionate share of the funding partly because they are more complicated diseases but mostly because they pose the largest threat to developed countries. Kind of difficult to overlook the selfishness associated with funders' intentions.

The other elective course I took, titled Public Management of Development, covered a whole lot of issues related to the development industry (which it is). One of the lectures I found most interesting was about innovative business models whose products or services are targeted to the poor. For more information - look at some of the development blogs on the right.

Highlight of this past week was definitely having three of my best friends from Teach For America visit me. Here are just a few pictures :)

Castles Galore

One of the best parts of the United Kingdom is all of their castles! It is like a fairy tale in modern day. Here are some pictures from a Goodenough trip to Leeds Castle. A word about the castle:

"Leeds Castle passed into royal hands in 1278 and became part of the Queen of England’s dower - the settlement widowed queens received upon the death of their husbands. Over the course of 150 years it was held by six mediaeval queens: Eleanor of Castile; Margaret of France; Isabella of France, Joan of Navarre; Anne of Bohemia and Catherine de Valois. In Tudor times Henry VIII visited frequently, notably with his Queen, Catherine of Aragon, and their entire court on the way to the tournament of the Field of the Cloth of Gold, which took place in France in 1520. Henry’s son, King Edward VI, granted the castle to one of Henry’s courtiers for his services."

Not surprisingly, one of the facets of the castle that I found most interesting was that several of the Oslo Accord meetings between Palestinian and Israeli leadership were held here. Look at the picture with the blue meeting table.

Development Challenges Continued..

Hello loyal reader (the singular form was purposeful!).

Spring term, known as lent term here in England, is in full swing and keeping me busy. My studies continue to help me peel back the layers of complexities associated with the field of development. This term I am continuing with my core course on development as well as starting two new courses- one on emerging health threats and the other on public management of development. I am also auditing a class on basic education in developing countries. A nice combination to round out my education, although quite depressing at times.

One of the challenge we have been talking about in great deal is the sheer number of actors and their often diverging priorities- international agencies, local governments, external governments NGOs, media, donors, and list goes on and on.

For example- the United Nations created the Millenium Development Goals to unite agencies and countries around a set of priorities that will help eradicate poverty by 2015. It is quite clear by now that many countries will not meet a lot of these goals. Supporters of the goals suggest that regardless they create a common thread for which to rally the development community and hold everyone accountable for improvement. However, critics argue that this big picture approach dismisses historical evidence that the most successful programs are often locally initiated and not externally defined. Here is an entertaining quick video outlining the MDGs.

Critics of such wide-sweeping reforms are looking for alternative ways to provide funding for promising initiatives in developing countries. Global Giving is a marketplace bringing together donors and social entrepreneurs venturing to ameliorate social ills. This idea is challenging the old notions of how aid should be distributed and decreasing the number of steps between giver and receiver.

Even the business community is getting involved in development work. The Global Business Coalition recognizes that the corporate sector can leverage its assets - financial and human capital- to make headway on some of the leading infectious diseases that are taking millions of lives each year- HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Launched by Richard Holbrooke, the former US Ambassador to the UN, the network has over 200 participating companies from 6 continents. A recent article in the Guardian discussed the work that businesses such as Coca-Cola are having on communities around the globe.

Let us not forget the newcomers to the development industry. Hollywood stars are constantly in the news for raising money and awareness about their favorite causes. Some laude them for their humanitarianism and others criticize them for impacting policy while not being accountable to anyone but themselves. A group of musicians just re-created Michael Jackson's "We Are the World" to raise money for Haiti.

At the same time modern technology and ease of travel is enabling common folks to move from eye-witnesses to ireporters. As the line gets blurred, journalism as an industry is bleeding into development. CNN's Anderson Cooper recently rescued a young boy who was injured during looting in Port au Prince, sparking intense discussions about the objectivity of journalists in emergency settings.

It seems like development is no longer monopolized by young idealists... others are trying to elbow their way in to the industry.

Cultural awareness

My travels to Spain and Portugal were fabulous and I thought I would walk away with all of these great cultural observations, which I did, but actually this post will be a reflection of a different type of cultural observations. During my time in Israel a good friend came to visit me, and seeing Israel through her eyes made me re-appreciate a few things unique to my country. Sometimes you need someone to hold up a mirror so that you can appreciate the finer naunces of your own culture. So here are just a few of them:

• There are these collective vans in Tel Aviv that are the alternative to buses. The process of getting on a sherut is quite unique- you literally flag the driver down while on his route, he stops mid-traffic and picks you up while others honk incessantly or drives right past you if his van is full (this is not the interesting part, although could easily confuse a visitor!) The thing that amazed my friend is that you don't actually pay when you board the van. Once you sit down you pass up your money via the other passengers. There will literally be several hand offs to get the money up to the driver and then an equal amount to get your change back to you. And this happens each time a new person gets on the sherut!
• There seems to be a general shortage of respect for the elderly in many western countries and Israel is no exception. However, without fail, whenever an older person gets on the sherut, the person sitting closest to the front will get up and move to the back so that s/he doesn't have as far to go. I have seen children, young moms, punk kids on cell phones, and adults all do this for their elderly. Kind of warms your heart knowing some things are still sacred.
• Israel shuts down on Saturdays, the Sabbath. No shops or museums are open and most restaurants are closed as well. So there are much fewer things to do on your Saturday. However this has probably helped foster an adventurous culture where families often go on day trips and picnics. My first Saturday in Israel my family packed up the entire refrigerator and we were off on our adventure. We ended up having a lovely picnic in this national forest between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. I can't remember the last time I did something like that in the States and really appreciated the quality time that we had together; after all isn't that what the Sabbath is all about.

I could go on and on but I will keep this short and sweet. I am so used to these aspects of Israeli life that I don't even think twice about their peculiarities to oustiders. David Brook wrote a compelling piece from a more objective perspective about the finer elements of Israel! Feel free to add your favorite cultural oddity (for whichever culture) in the comments section.

P.S. Just for fun I am including a few pictures from Portugal and Spain: