Barli Institute Growth
2006 Mona Visitors Share Their Thoughts
Patrick Ali writes his thoughts, “The first thing that touches you about the Barli Development Institute for Rural Women is the beauty of the colors. All the girls are dressed in reds, yellows, oranges, blacks and whites. The colors really call out to you. It was interesting to get to know the girls because I really never got to know them. As a foreigner male it was next to impossible to form any type of connection with these girls. If you think about it though, it is not so surprising. They have never left a 10 mile radius of their homes until they came to the institute. Because of this they really operate under very strict customs.”
“It was great to see how smart the girls were in many ways. Just because they were not familiar with knowledge that is common in the West, said nothing about their own practical knowledge. When they were working in the fields farming, I decided it was a great opportunity to take their photographs. So I put my runners on and headed out to the field. It did not take more than five minutes before my entire foot up to my ankle was buried in mud, literally, under the ground. I then looked around and all the students were laughing at me. I noticed that none of them were wearing any shoes and it was obviously easier without shoes. I quickly pulled my feet out of the mud and took off my shoes. That was a clear reminder to stop assuming my cultural way will work wherever I go.”
“One thing that really stood out for me was the love of all the teachers and staff, especially the director and managing director, Janak and Jimmy McGilligan. This married couple had so much love for the institute, each student, and each staff member. I remember one night when two of the girls had to catch a bus the next morning to leave the institute, they came to the McGilligan house and once they hugged Janak the tears started rolling. It was an embrace that depicted not only love, but a deep connection of conquoring struggles and surpassing expectations. Both Janak and Jimmy live on campus and work seven days a week, 365 days a year. They have grown the program together only through a common love for mankind.”
“Another impressive thing about Barli was how environmentally friendly the whole place was. The water we drank, cooked on, and used for irrigating the crops was all rain water. Most of the food was cooked on solar cookers (cookers that magnify the sun's rays like a magnifying cglass to cook). Our shower water was heated with solar power. The concrete path that led to the school was recycled bricks from a torn down building turned into concrete. Not a cent was wasted and the environment was always preserved as much as possible.”
“Personally the Barli development Institute for Rural Women is the best example I have ever seen of a multifaceted approach to Social and Economic Development. The institute remains grassroots while delivering such a pragmatic skill set and direction to the students lives. It really surpassed all my expectations.”
2006 Mona Visitors Share Basanti's Story
“The more I learn about Barli, the more inspired I become,” shares Kristina Gillis, Mona volunteer who traveled with Patrick Ali Javid to Cambodia, India and Tanzania to visit the education projects the Foundation supports. She shares her heart, “I think to understand the meaning of this institution, it helps to know more about the community Barli serves and the beautiful vision for the future the people here are working toward every day. The rural areas of Madhya Pradesh are considered to be some of the poorest in all of India. Infant mortality and female illiteracy rates are some of the highest in the country. People lack basic life-saving healthcare information and services. Girls are not sent to school because of prejudiced attitudes. Lack of knowledge about environmental health and environmental problems lead to drought/flood and cause disease.”
“Barli winds bringing monsoons of change,” explains Kristina. “Monsoon rains from SE Asia fall on the Barli Institute filling the pathways between classes and dormitories with mud and standing water. It is the fifth consecutive day of rain in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. ‘Why are the clouds crying so much?’ Basanti wonders as she remembers her life before coming to Barli.”
“In the village of Vakil ka Pura, Basanti (age 19) would wake up at 6 am to clean house and make breakfast for her family. She would normally spend the day preparing food such as poha and paratha: chai tea and bread stuffed with potatoes, cheese, or lentils. Basanti was responsible for doing the housework and cooking all meals for her father, grandmother, aunt, and four brothers. Because of these responsiblities, Basanti dropped out of public school after fifth grade. Basanti’s cousin Rani (age 15) lived near by in the same village. Rani would get up at 6 am to gather water from a nearby well. Her mother would always help because the water buckets were too heavy to handle on her own. Later, Rani would bike four kilometers to school. Because Rani could ride with her brother, and because it wasn’t essential for Rani to be helping the family, she could go. But that wasn’t true for all of her siblings. Every one of her seven siblings either left school in the middle or never went because they were needed at home. ‘My two elder sisters didn’t go to school and now they are married,’ says Rani.”
“Rani says one of the best things about Barli is the method of training used. Although Rani went to school through eighth grade, she did not have full knowledge of the alphabet and was having problems reading and writing. After Barli’s literacy education, she now feels confident in her ability to read and write and she is excited to put her skills into practice. ‘Reading and writing lets us move ahead,’ says Rani. ‘If we read lots of books, we will gain lots of knowledge.’ ”
“Basanti and Rani plan to apply what they have learned when they are back in their village in a variety of ways. ‘Now that we’ve gone to Barli, whenever there is a need in our village, like we need a hand-pump or a school, we will gather everyone in our community, including the granpanchayat (government head of rural villages), and consult about what can be done to meet that need,’ they say.”
“In addition to some of the basic life-saving health information Rani is ready to share with her community, she wants to communicate to them what she has learned about women and menstruation. Rani says that parents in her village don’t talk about menstruation at all with their children. Also, a common idea in the villages is that menstruation is dirty. It is believed that when a girl is menstruating anything she touches will become contaminated. Thus, for the first three days of her period she is not allowed to cook or touch food. Also, she is banned from any social practices. Rani says she’d like to change these traditional ways of thinking.”
“Rani and Basanti are particularly excited about bringing solar cookers to Vakil ka Pura. Barli’s manager, Jimmy McGilligan, has been recognized internationally for his knowledge and engineering of solar cookers. The 90+ women at Barli Institute eat a majority of their meals from cookers built by Jimmy. Solar cooking is helpful to villagers in that it prevents small children from getting burned which is common with the use of traditional ground-fire cooking. It also helps women who often feel threatened by the possibility of getting sexually harassed or raped when they travel long distances through forested areas to gather wood. Rani and Basanti agree that solar cooking has benefits: ‘It uses no fuel and no wood so it is very good for the environment and it also saves time so we can cook while working.’ ”
“The rain continues to fall in Madhya Pradesh, but with each student trained at the Barli institute, the clouds of basic need and prejudiced attitudes are beginning to part. Women like Rani and Basanti are carrying knowledge back to their villages that are opening the skies to health, education, unity, and the equality of men and women. Like the monsoon season, this knowledge will continue to cycle and with each new generation, hearts and minds will be illuminated.”
2006 Summer Volunteer
Michelle Fitch, a teacher at the Franconian International School, Herzogenaurach, Germany, volunteered at Barli this past summer through the Mona Foundation. This is the story of her experience of searching for volunteer posts, of finding the Mona Foundation, and finally of her summer in India. As a school teacher her initial experience in preparing for her volunteer efforts included some exciting programs initiated by her school class. These resulted in donations to the Institute and a special visit of the Barli directors to her school . . . all this before she even landed in India herself. Full Story
Report for April 2005 to May 2006
The main goals for this year were to conduct two six-month community volunteer training programmes and one year-long program for area coordinators or “grassroots trainers”. There were 151 trainees trained this past year and 12 grassroots trainers. They represent 59 villages of the districts: Indore, Jhabua, Dhar, Khargone, Dewas, and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh and from Manipur, North East.
The training course at the Institute as well as at the extension centers has directly benefitted 357 trainees, about 1,000 family members and village communities. The villages are part of the least economically developed in India. The outreach extension centers have empowered rural women to identify their capabilities and made them aware of their capacity for self-reliance and their role in the development of family and community. 206 women have been trained this year in three extension centers based in Padria, Umrao Ganj, and Pipla Rao.
89th Program Completed!
This year, Barli Institute completed its 89th training course for women, with 400 trainees going through the program at Barli each year. More that 1800 trainees from 450 villages have gone through these programs. These graduates then return to their communities so that development of their families and thus society can take place.
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