JUNE 2021
The Rural Changemaker
OUT-OF-THE-BOX!
Pre-Order NOW!
Published by The Rural Changemakers e.V. www.rural-changemakers.com hello@rural-changemakers.com
The Rural > https://rural-changemakers.com/trc_deck_120/ Changemakers’ Deck by Decathlon.
If you want to support our activities in Janwaar please donate to: The Rural Changemakers gem. e.V. · Vereinsregister Berlin Amtsgericht Charlottenburg VR 36642 B · Finanzamt für Körperschaften I Berlin · St.-Nr. 27/678/57308 Berliner Sparkasse · IBAN: DE44 1005 0000 0190 7388 98 · BIC: BELADEBEXXX · Paypal: hello@rural-changemakers.com
JUNE 2021
Pre-Order Now! The Rural Changemakers’ Deck by Decathlon.
Together with the Decathlon headquarter in Lille, France, and the photographer Matjaž Tančič we developped over the last couple of months the Rural Changemaker’s Skateboarding Decks. We are very, very, very proud and happy!!! A skateboarder would probably say “We are stoked!” Thank you Jean-Philippe and the entire Decathlon team – the boards rock and the kids can’t wait to roll them out.
https://rural-changemakers.com/trc_deck_120/
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JUNE 2021
Covid Awareness Campaign Download here > https://rural-changemakers.com/bespecial-english/
Covid is not yet finished – it is still ravaging rural India. We will never really know what is going there .... it’s vastly unknown and untold. Together with Lucy Pepper, a cartoonist based in Lisbon, and Rijul Kataria, a long time friend of us, we’ve created a Covid Awareness campaign for the YOUTH in rural India. We’ve seven different stories – each of them tackling a different COVID issue. You can either have each story in one file or each story in single frames.
Community: Together WE can fight Covid!
We’ve prepared three packages for FREE DOWNLOAD: The comics come Hindi, English and only illustrations so that kids can localise in their ownlanguages. The distribution is via social media and we’ve printed posters and posted them in Janwaar and in Panna, the next bigger town.
Text: Rijul Kataria Illustrations: Lucy Pepper
Seven Covid stories – each story in a single frame
JUNE 2021
A Kitchen Garden By Abhishek Singh
The land beside our new skatepark was always meant to become in parts a kitchen garden. We started the project now to be ready to sow the seeds and plant the trees after the first sets in. This will be in the third week of June. Pappu, our local backbone, and I gathered the information needed for the project like the number of people needed, resources needed, cost of the resources and the right time for sowing. Ulrike connected me with Prem Singh, an experienced organic farmer who runs a Kisan School in Banda, UP. Ulrike used to work with him over many years. He advised us on the quality of soil needed for a kitchen garden, the right time of sowing, the quality and quantity of compost to be used, where to plant the trees and so on. Pappu started the work after we had all the information. He filled the land with the right soil for sowing, ploughed the area and laid out beds for the kitchen garden. The first few days turned out to be very chaotic. Pappu built the beds in a wrong way and I only found out later. This happened because I didn’t have proper monitoring in place. I changed
the process. I decided to have, twice a day a call with Pappu, one in the beginning and another at the end of the day. We discussed the work finished, the issues faced, reviewed the photos to ensure there is no miscommunication and discussed the next step in our process. I realized that this way of communication reduces confusion. Pappu is now working on the fence. After that we will wait for the monsoon to sow the seeds. However, our work will not stop. We want the people of the village to learn organic farming practices from Prem Singh. So, we arrange weekly zoom calls with Prem Singh. He will share his ideas, the benefits and the proper way for organic farming in these calls. Two ladies of the village will take care of the kitchen garden. This will provide them a monthly income and once the harvest is done the ladies will cook healthy food with all vegetables for our kids!
JUNE 2021
Better Drinking Water Typhoid hit the village
A few days before departure for the Indian Skateboarding Championships the team met with an obstacle. Asha and Arun, the most senior skateboarders in the village, were diagnosed with Typhoid. Usually it’s them who lead and guide the youngsters. Their experience and the awards they won before put them in an outstanding position. The Typhoid diagnosis was yet only ONE part of the story. Luckily we showed Arun’s and Asha’s medicines, which were prescribed by the local Bengali doctor, to doctors in Delhi. The result was shocking. Some of the medicines are banned in India. With the help of the Delhi doctors we got the right treatment for them and Asha recovered on time, Arun was hit harder and had to stay at home. Our complaint to the CMO in Panna remains unanswered until today. We were afraid that Typhoid was spreading in the village. So we checked many kids and luckily only found a few cases. Relief set in – the caravan was ready to leave.
The villagers are happy with the new filters.
Ashok aka Bobby making a hole in the bucket to attach the filter.
Typhoid once again reminded us of the poor water quality in the village. In summer, when the water level in the wells is low the water quality even gets worse. So we decided to tackle the issue and provide water filters and buckets for all households. Within a week we raised the money to buy 120 Sawyer SP180 filters. We had them before; they are very reliable, easy to handle and clean. And the villagers were familiar with them. In addi-
tion to the filters we bought 100 buckets and in a community effort we attached the filters to the buckets. We asked the villagers to sign a contract and to pay 50 rupees for the 3000 rupees package. We believe that giving things away for free doesn’t really support the idea of taking care. Most of the villagers paid the 50 rupees without hesitation, the poorest families got the filters for free.
JUNE 2021
The Golden Girls The Indian Skateboarding Championships 2021
If there is one BIG EVENT every year for the kids, it’s certainly the Indian Skateboarding Championships. This year it took place in Chandigarh, Punjab. Nine of the Janwaar kids qualifed on Madhya Pradesh state level – five boys and four girls. As usual we extended the team and we invited 14 kids for the travels.
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1 The Golden Girls: Asha, Dilasha and Durga (left to right) 2 Happy smiling faces on the bus. Durga (back) and Chahna 3 The entire travel team at the hotel lobby in Agra 4 Proud Dilasha at the award ceremony
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A few days before departure the team met with an obstacle. Asha and Arun, the most senior skateboarders in the village, were diagnosed with Typhoid. Usually it’s them who lead and guide the youngsters. Their experience and the awards they won before put them in an outstanding position. They’d represented India on the world stage in the World Championships in China. Luckily Asha recovered on time, Arun was hit harder and had to stay at home. Leaving the village with a group of kids always involves a lot of talking to the parents. Besides the administrative stuff (aadhar cards, registration and so on) we assured the parents that we got all the Corona precautions right. We were traveling in our own bus to avoid public transportation, the kids got tested and everyone was wearing masks.
On the way to Chandigarh the kids stopped in Agra to visit the Taj Mahal and the Red Fort, and on their way back they stop over at Prakriti School in Noida, our Open School Project partner. The Championships became a big festival for the Janwaar girls! Asha, Dilasha and Durga, won two gold and one silver medal in three out of four categories. The boys showed great spirit in their performances and left Chandigarh with lessons learned in planning and discipline. Discipline is essential for them to excel in new and better tricks. Planning will ensure they show the right combination of tricks in the three minutes they get.
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JUNE 2021
#SkaterGirl on #Netflix … and what we have to do with it I think what we have to do with #SkaterGirl on #Netflix is best described by Sushmita Pathak who has done a piece for National Public Radio (npr), India. It’s a clear and complete article in which everyone gets a voice. Good journalistic work – not PR. Of course we feel it’s fair to say that the Janwaar story (at least) inspired Skater Girl. The parallel between reel and real is too obvious. Even though the film director denies this, the Janwaar story speaks for itself and you will not find any other rural place/village where such a skateboarding story was written. From Deutsche Welle to The Guardian, from Huffington Post to any major Indian news channel, they all reported on it. Film makers and visitors from all over the world have visited the place called Janwaar Castle and brought this obscure hamlet in the middle of nowhere on the world skateboarding map. Its skateboarders have represented India at the World Championships in Nanjing, China, in 2018 and have won numerous medals in the Indian National Competitions. Year after year.
One girl truly stood out in Janwaar and has become a role model for many other girls. Her name is Asha Gond – and you know her from our newsletter. She ist not alone, but she has taken the lead. A real rural change maker tackling gender equality and new ways of learning. She is an Ashoka Fellow/Connecting Dream Foundation Fellow. She confidently says “I’m THAT girl” (just listen to her rap song) and takes responsibility in so many ways. She is giving talks all over India on these issues and is running a little school in Janwaar which includes differently abled kids. Unlike myself, Asha was never asked by the film maker or anyone of the SkaterGirl team, if it is OK to tell the story. Asha was in contact with the team and the team was in Janwaar multiple times. Only at the very end, when the movie was already shot in great parts, a few Janwaar kids were asked via a casting agency in Delhi if they want to be bystanders in the movie’s very last scene. Asha, as well as the other kids, replied: “If this is our story, we want to be seen and tell our story. We don’t want to be only in the background of the last scene.“
Reel and REAL.
For sure there are various ways to tell a story and a fiction film is not a documentary. Yet – I feel – there are ethical and moral principles which film makers should live up to, especially when they tackle stories of indigenous and/or “underprivileged” people.
And certainly it wasn’t the Janwaar way. And Asha, after being a bit furious and really sad for a few days, is now saying: “Ulrike, I’ve understood when there is a dead end street another street will open!” And already many streets opened – so there is more to come!
I am in ease with my decision to drop out of the contract I had signed with the film makers. Their way wasn’t my way.
I am sure we will benefit from #SkaterGirl on #Netflix and so will the Indian skateboarding scene.