Ashok Amin (Ashish) highlighting his work

in the Region of Kutch

The Journey :

I started my journey in 2011 by working and living in the village of Ratan

Mahal in Mandav at Dahod near Limkheda in the state of Gujarat. There I

focused my work on the preliminary education. The Sarpanch of Mandav

village made provision for my food and stay at his place and also supported

with the transportation cost for to and fro. Apart from these there was no

other monetary support. After that I lived in the Anath Ashram called Vishwa

Gram where I worked closely with the children and realized that there is unique

vacuum pertaining to the imparting of preliminary education. There I met

Dhruv Bhat. He is a very prominent story teller and author based in Gujarat. He

is the author of one of the book called “Tatvamasi” in Gujarati language. His

stories have become the part of many textbooks in schools. He taught me the

art of storytelling. That inspired me to write a lot of stories.

Then using the same technique of storytelling and improvising on it, I spent 1

year with Manav Sadhana lead by Jayesh Patel of Environment Sanitation

Institute and worked with the women Anganwadi workers. There I taught them

the art of storytelling as in how to write stories, how to frame them, what do

you mean by the world of storytelling and how to use it as a technique for

educating children, eye to eye concentration, how to keep them engaged in the

stories, development of a child through storytelling, etc. within the structuring

of storytelling how to start a story, its context, its main frame and how should

it end, etc and trained around 3000 women Anganwadi workers. After that I as

well Conducted Shibirs with more than 2000 kids on storytelling and story

writing.

During the Maitri Milan in Pavanar village I met Gopal Dada before his last

days that inspired me to carry forward my work in villages with children. His

guidance made me firm and thus I decided to stop wandering across different

villages and dedicate myself to a particular village for longer term to increase

the impact of my work in deeper sense. I participated in one of the Shibirs

conducted by Gujarat Vidyapith called “Masti ki Pathshala” where Dr. Rajendra

Khemani observed my work and suggested me to be a part of their Gram Shilpi

program.

Since then I have been working in the region of Kutch near Khadir in the

outskirt villages of Bhachau Taluka. This place is almost at the border of India

& Pakistan. I have extended my work here since past two years on the core

issues of Healthcare, Education and Livelihood sustainability. Highlighting the

Demographics of the area, this happens to be the lost world of Harrapan

Civilization which embarked here in Dholavira. It is a very dry region with

scanty rainfall. Agriculture is not the main profession of people within the

region due to tough topography and weather conditions. Also the year 2014

was declared as a Drought year for the region by the Monsoon Department.

There are around 50 Tribal Bhil families in the village of Chaapar where I have

been focusing my work and it consists of around 300 members living of whom

a large chunk of 80 percent are children & youths. On an average a family has

5 children and they belong to the Sindh Sanskriti. The people residing here are

not migrants of partition but the ones with ancestral footprints of Sindh Valley

Civilization. Male female ratio can be termed healthy as of the total population

around 50 percent of them are females.

Focus on Education:

I use informal methods and techniques to imbibe them with value of education

and key learnings. I focus on three areas through “Play & Learn method” which

make them aware

and educated.

Pravas Yatra

Shibir

Bal Mela

Experiments with the Pravas Yatras :

Pravas Yatra is designed for the children of this region and is generally of more

than 7 days. Wherein we also happen to cover different districts and roam

around different parts of Gujarat like Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Bhavnagar.

It is not generally very easy to convince any of the parents. But the Trust build

so far is helping me reach out more. In the initial phase when we did our first

Pravas Yatra there was this incident that someone who didn’t like me much

might have spread the word that I trade with children in the market and sell

them outright. And then all of sudden I end up receiving around 125 missed

calls on my mobile phone while we were busy in the Yatra Shibir where

answering a phone call is not possible during the day time. Thus in the night I

had to make each & every child interact with their respective family members.

Thus bottom-line being that it is not that easy to work with them. The region is

situated near the boundary of Pakistan which makes hostile and worse to roam

around freely without people doubting your intentions because of dark past.

Each and everyone associated with this part of the world must have an I-card

compulsorily always with them.

Thus when we returned back home and when the families heard about the

experiences of their kids from them, some trust was further built up. It started

with 5 kids and now I have been able to win some more trusts and recently

concluded a Pravas Yatra with 12 kids. It is now that finally guardians are

coming forward and suggesting that you must take our kids as well.

Shibir and its Functioning :

During the Shibir we try and collect 20 to 25 kids together and make them

learn so called formally but in the open and closed environment. It lasts of 2 to

3 days depending upon the things covered. And within that there are dropout

kids as well. Dropout are the ones who officially have their name registered in

the schools but do not attend it for several reasons.

Bal Mela :

We try to organize a Bal Mela in an open ground and invite kids from nearby

villages as well to participate. There are stalls which make them learn and

bring awareness certain issues like blind faiths, Superstitions, science, etc. Also

there are dedicated spaces to learn new things through the medium of Art &

Crafts like Paper Work, Clay work or Pottery, Dyeing, Making best out of waste

plastic, etc is something which is thought there. In the upcoming Bal Mela we

would try to link at least 100 kids from the region including kids from other

nearby villages. Out of those 100 kids I will try to take forward my work with at

least 20 out of them permanently for next 10 years upto their 12th Grade. This

is my vision with them.

Focus on Healthcare:

It was the family health issues that I focused to begin with. Thus I used to

accompany the patients in civil hospital for 15 days, to help bridge the

communication gap with the doctors because of the language barrier as they

interact mostly in Kutchi language and not Gujarati. And thus I filled in the role

of a mediator with the doctor and the patient family. We just completed a

plastic surgery of a kid who was burned due to fire. There was this lady for

whom no one was ready to do an operation and she could have died if it was

not done. So we tried and completed that through the help of doctors. Thus

after doing and proving myself amongst the people trust started building up

steadily.

Cases handled personally :

Around 4 cases, one who was treated well from the local hospital, second was

related to the heart surgery at civil hospital in Ahmedabad, then of a lady who

was suffering from brain hemorrhage, and then was of a child of 9 months who

had been burned and we did his plastic surgery just 1 month back in Civil

hospital, Ahmedabad.

Focus on Livelihood:

They are doing a lot of handicraft work. So I want them to not engage in any

other manual labor and they should continue with what they are good at and

what has been their family tradition of work. Thus my focus is purely to engage

more with them through handicraft and help them create a market through

which they can sustain. They make Chappals, Shoes, Mojdis, Leather Bags,

Blankets, Clothing, etc with a lot of patch work and embroidery and everything

is handmade. We have currently adopted 20 families “Antodyay Families”

(Extremely Poor but with rich skills) and are focusing in the areas of Health,

education and livelihood with them. We have recently made a small mandal.

Future Planning

I have not yet decided on it whether I would want

to collaborate with any particular organization.

Main focus right now is to work with these 20

families for next one year and then take it

forward steadily. If it works well then we may

engage with more families and grow on steadily.

But we would work only with the poorest families

for whom even the daily bread is a question.

Agriculture is not their main work and thus it is in

their benefit that they keep involved in their

artisan skills.

Funding Process :

Personally it is a big question for me when it comes to finance. I have a friend

helping me. If we can link the production of these artisans to the market and

their expectations in terms of pricing can be met for both the local families and

my expenses.

Recently on 15th August, 2015 I was

facilitated by the District Collector with an

award looking into my contribution in the

field of education since last 3 years through

innovative approaches in the backward

areas.

The Newspaper Coverage of my work across Regional and English Dailies and

the Book Published named “Green Boy and other Story”

http://www.amazon.in/Green-Boy-Stories-Other-Creators-

ebook/dp/B00EZ00F2E

You can contribute & support our processes

Name : Amin Ashok Bhikhabhai (Ashish)

Name of the Bank : State Bank of India

Account No. : 3022 5714 440

Branch : Infocity, Gandhinagar

IFSC / RTGS / NEFT Code : SBIN0012700

MICR Code : 380002151