In working with the Tamil Nadu team of Ekta Parishad in the district of Nagapattinam, the district most affected by the tsunami in 2004, I learnt a great deal about developmental field work. In 2005, Ekta Parishad began promoting agricultural biology among the marginal rural populations in the region, a sustainable development project that respects both man and the environment.
I went to India at the end of October. My first impression of India was like everybody else, that of the city, the crowds, the bustle. But it is when I left this world to move to the Indian countryside, the rural world that I made one of the most beautiful discoveries.
This training was a very rich experience for me, both at the personal and professional levels. I had the opportunity of living in India like an Indian, wearing a saree, riding a moped, eating with my fingers, and sleeping on a mat. For a period of 3 months, it was with pleasure that I became an Indian and discovered the life of an Ekta Parishad worker. There I also discovered the caste system, a relationship with others that sometimes turned violent, although it usually generated a spirit of sharing. I have personally emerged richer for this experience, firstly because of the people I met, but also because I was able to participate in daily Indian village life.
Professionally too, I have emerged extremely enriched by this experience, which was the first time I was able to put into practice the theoretical knowledge of project proposals that I had learnt during my post graduate studies. The training was extremely useful in that it helped me to understand and organize the different stages of project work, evaluate diagnostics, set up and plan projects.
The final balance of these short but intense 3 months is very positive, both at the personal and professional levels. I never forgot Gandhi’s injunction “to be the change that you want to see in this world”. I wish to thank Freres des Hommes and Ekta Parishad for giving me the opportunity to live what I believed in for 3 months.
