“There is no power for change greater than a community discovering what it knows and cares about.”

The transformation from within is a very crucial process for the development of any community, which enables them to look with positivity and resourcefully. 

Gram Nirman is one such program of Caritas India which demands self-transformation and realization by the people to lead the process of change in their community. The program is a direct implementation by Caritas India with the financial support of Caritas Australia in eleven districts in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states.

To facilitate the process of change of people led development in the community, an induction cum orientation and Program Design Workshop of Gram Nirman was organized by Caritas India in Ranchi, Jharkhand for the next phase implementation.

The workshop was marked with an induction cum program orientation of the program staff, who have been recently recruited for direct implementation in rural pockets majorly inhabited by the tribal population for their socio-economic well-being.

Fr. Jolly Puthenpura, AED, Caritas India welcomed and felicitated Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, (Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi Archdiocese) and Fr. Bipin Pani, Director, SIGN (Regional Forum, JH) to the program. The workshop was opened by the light of the lamp and the inaugural address by Bishop. Theodore Mascarenhas, SFX, who congratulated the staff for being part of Caritas India. “ Caritas which is based on the love of God and invited everyone to share the same with the community wherever we are working,” shared Bishop Mascarenhas. He also stated that if we accept the love, it will enable us to be committed and honest in our work. He concluded with a request to all staff to continue the work of God with whole heart and soul and reach out to our brothers and sisters who are in need.

Director of SIGN (Regional Forum, Jharkhand), Fr. Bipin Pani reaffirmed saying all our programs are based on human service and aimed at creating good human beings in the society so that they can further contribute in the growth of their families, community and the nation. While congratulating the new Gram Nirman staff, he encouraged everyone to partake in the process of change through Gram Nirman program and work towards the development of the tribal people who are deprived of their needs.

Fr. Paul Varghese, Executive Director of Caritas India called all the new staff as facilitators and animators who are going to make difference in the community through engaging in the process of change. He further said Gram Nirman means ‘making a village, which includes a process i.e. being with the people and understanding them in all aspects. Hence, he stated that this process of change demands self-transformation from each one of us and this will happen only when we become one with the community. He further added that these five days’ orientation on Asset Based Community Development Approach (ABCD) will help us to learn method and techniques to be one with the community and build Asset Based Community for them.

Along with method and techniques, Fr. Paul emphasized on the need of professionalism, that he defined as an integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes. He concluded his message requesting all to reflect and learn together in these five days’ workshop the ABCD of the program, skill and attitude to build up collectively a team so that we can make the change in the communities and country based on ABCD approach.

Mr. Chanthea Nou, Program Coordinator of Caritas Australia also joined virtually and addressed the new staff. He briefed about the partnership of Caritas Australia and Caritas India. He said that the development facilitators and the learning of the ABCD approach will help in facilitating the community to achieve their development. He assured that Caritas Australia will continue its accompaniment to Caritas India in future for community development.

The new staff were also oriented on HR Policies, Manuals, Guidelines, IAP [JD], Program and Admin Finance- SOPs and volunteering by resource persons from Caritas India.

The weeklong workshop shared about Caritas India’s Key Strategic Pillars (KSPs) by Mr. Samir Stephen Kujur, the Operation Manager of Caritas India and emphasized that KSPs of Caritas India needs to be incorporated in all the programmes. He also oriented participants on the direct implementation of Gram Nirman program, its design and reporting and documentation.

The core focus of the workshop was on the People Led Development (PLD) approach wherein people are centre of the development and design their development agenda by shaping it with appropriate analysis of existing resources and defined their growth in a positive and promising manner. Hence the staff was trained on Asset Based Community Development approach, methodology, explaining the concept of half glass of water, Mr. Samir said that water represents the available resources of the community, and the empty space of the glass to be filled by the community. He also trained participants on the process of community-level data collection and planning and visioning of development pathways for proposal planning and budgeting through a demonstration dividing all into groups.

Practical sessions were arranged for participants with communities in two villages representing different stakeholders like the young children youth, adult, middle-aged and elderly members for data collection and planning and visioning of development pathways.

This field exercise in the programme design workshop encouraged active participation of the available stakeholder including adult men, adult women, elder men, elder women & youth groups. The field visit helped the community to categorize the assets into a Human asset, Physical Asset, Natural Asset, Social Assets and Financial Asset and each stakeholder kept one of these assets to develop the plan for next three years. Moreover, prioritized the activities/plan that would be carried/achieved first and last. The senior citizens were the best to develop the community/village development plan due to their experience and knowledge.

After the field visit, all groups consolidated the planned activities of two villages of each stakeholder. Having consolidated all groups segregated the activities and assembled them into the 4 KSPs (Key Strategic Pillar) of Caritas India and developed a winning proposal. This ABCD/PLD approach exercise is done with 40 staff of Gram Nirman from Jharkhand & Chhattisgarh during programme designing workshop organized by Caritas India from 25th to 30th January 2021 in Ranchi, Jharkhand.