COMMUNITY LIVING CAMP

OBJECTIVES:

• To know about the locality and to interact with the people to know about the problems of the locality.

NERAM 2022 ITHIRI NERAM OTHIRI KARYAM COMMUNITY LIVING CAMP from JUNE 2328, 2022 at ARATTUPUZHA, ALAPPUZHA. Social work education is a reinvention of our minds. The practical learning will provide insights into revisiting the inner soul. Field work and the rural camp are the best-known factors contributing to this progress. The social work trainees of Little Flower Institute of Social Sciences and Health (LISSAH) selected the coastal area of Arattupuzha in the Alappuzha district for learning about the life of the community as a part of a 7-day rural camp. The place is a tsunami threat area and had several other social issues. The place was selected through keen observation and understanding. From the initial day of discussion of the camp, the trainees were engaged in the planning and preparation of activities. The invitation programme, cultural, finance, documentation, cooking, sanitation committees and the coordinators and faculty coordinators worked effortlessly for the success of the rural camp. 

The main issues identified by the team were:

*  Livelihood problems

*  Problems during the trolling period

*  Problems of coastal erosion and rehabilitation crisis due to the issue  * Drug issues among youth.

    PREVISITS AND PRACTICE SESSIONS PREVISIT

13/06/2022 

The Faculty Coordinators Mr Aswin Alfred and Ms Priyanka Prakash T and student coordinators Ms Ayana R.S and Mr Ebin P Benny visited the Arattupuzha panchayat (ward11) in the Alappuzha district for the site visit of the 7-day rural camp. The place is located near the Arabian sea and was affected by a tsunami in 2004. The place is still a tsunami risk zone. The team visited the temple hall, Thanal shed, and the NSS hall of the community. The NSS hall was finalised for conducting the cultural programs. The faculty coordinators and student coordinators of the camp explained the pre-visit experience and the faculties of the Social Work Department briefly summarised the rules and duties of the trainees and the responsibilities of different committees. The team also discussed the issues of the Vattachal community and put forward the areas of intervention. The meeting ended at 11:55 am. The ticket for the journey was booked by Ms Jishina M.P.

 CAMP MEETING

 15/06/2022 A camp meeting was conducted to discuss the obligations of each committee on 15/06/2022 at 3:45 pm in the college seminar hall. Suggestions for the name of the camp were given by all students and the name "NERAM" was selected. The name was suggested by one of the student coordinators Ms Ayana R. S. Students were mainly divided into 6 committees (food, programme, cultural, documentation, finance and invitation). Each committee gave a briefing about their updates. Students started practising cultural programme their and its updates were also provided. The finance committee provided all the details about ticket bookings and total expenditure. Faculty coordinators Mr Aswin Alfred and Ms Priyanka Prakash T attended the meeting and gave instructions on various duties and responsibilities. Documentation committee provided topics for conducting survey. ID cards of students were scanned and converted into pdf for the purpose of permission from police station and this was handed over to Mr Ebin Benny student coordinator. The meeting was over by 5:15 pm. After noon time before the meeting was utilised by the students to engage in practice sessions of the cultural activities. 

CAMP MEETING 

16/06/2022 A camp meeting was organised by student coordinators Ms Ayana R.S and Mr Ebin P Benny at noon to discuss the camp activities. The meeting gave instructions regarding module preparation about the POCSO act for conducting awareness classes for school students. Student coordinators divided the trainees into five groups to take sessions in the school. Leaders for time management during camp were also selected. The coordinators announced the student list on different days and their duties. Cultural programme practices were started at 1.00 pm. At 1.40 pm Ms Priyanka Prakash T, the Faculty coordinator gathered the trainees to present the module of the POCSO act and distributed the module to each group. The gathering ended at 2.00 pm and from 2.10 pm street play practice commenced. From 2.15 pm to 4.30 pm the questionnaire for the survey was prepared by the survey team. At 5.20 pm the questionnaire was presented and discussed and corrections were given by the faculty coordinator. The discussion and practice session ended at 6:15 pm.

 PRACTICE AND CAMP PREPARATION 

17/06/2022 The day was completely utilized for programme practice and camp preparation. The invitation committee prepared the invitation card and notices of the camp. The student coordinators and invitation committee invited the college Director, Principal, Vice Principal, HODs of different departments, and teaching and other non-teaching staffs. The cultural program practice began at 1.45pm and ended by 5:45 pm. 18/06/2022 The cultural programme practice started at 10 am. The invitation committee prepared the banner of the camp and from 2 pm onwards screening of different cultural programmes was started. There were about 10 to 12 programmes for screening. Ms Priyanka Prakash T, faculty coordinator took part in the screening and evaluated the programmes. A street play was also practised after the screening. 19/06/2022 The cultural programme practice and street play were done from 10 'o clock and came to an end by 6 pm. The banner for the camp was prepared by student coordinators Ms Ayana R.S, Mr Ebin P Benny, Ms Nihla P V and Ms Sneha Sunil. Ms Priyanka Prakash T evaluated the mock class of the POCSO act. She added suggestions and corrected the mistakes of students and gave an idea about dealing with students in a class. 21/06/2022 A meeting was taken place at the college Director's office at 4:40 pm. Fr. Niju Thalachira (Director LISSAH College) gave his blessings to trainees. The meeting was ended at 4:50pm. After that Dr. Vincy Abraham (HOD Department of social work) gave an orientation about camp to the students. 22/06/2022 The trainees started their journey from west Kaithapoyil, Kozhikode to Vattachal, Arattupuzha at 6:15 am for conducting the rural camp. The trainees reached the railway station by 7:20 am and had breakfast and boarded the Parasuram Express by 8:45 am. From Shornur railway station, the Railway Childline, Thrissur gave awareness to the passengers on the train to report about child labour and runaway cases of children. They are conducting this programme as part of the child labour prevention day on June 12. It is a one-week outreach program that carries out on trains from Thrissur to Shornur. The awareness was given at 10:47 am by a team of five members including the Railway ChildLine programme coordinator Ms Nivedya and Mr Alvin and the BSW trainees. After the session,00 trainees and the food committee served the food for all at 1:45 pm. The team reached the Kayamkulam railway station at 4:45 pm and the campsite by 6:20 pm. After freshening up by 9:30 the trainees had dinner and the evaluation started at 10:30 pm. The trainee's cited a liberal form of evaluation and faculties criticised the trainees to analyse each aspect through proper examination. It came to an end by 1:30 pm.

 DAY 1

 23/06/2022 The day started at 5:00am and after freshening up by 6:05 am trainees had a morning walk along seashore. The morning tea was provided at 6:35 am then newspaper reading was done by Ms. Minnu Mariya George. After breakfast at 9:30 am a meeting was held. Then from 10:05 am to 12:50 pm trainees went to different houses for invitation purpose and distributed notices along with ADS and CDS workers. Lunch was provided at 1:10 pm followed by practice section taken place from 2:15 PM to 4:05 PM along with hall rearrangement for setting cultural programs. After tea break at 4.45pm trainees gathered together for proclamation rally. Then at 5.00 pm cultural program started and trainees done their flash mob also. Welcome speech was delivered by Mr. Ebin P Benny (student coordinator). After that the presidential address was done by Mrs. Jaya Prakash (ward member,11). The program was inaugurated by president of panchayat Mr. N Sajeevan. The keyNote address was delivered by Dr P V Santhosh (Member of Muthukulam Grama Panchayat), then Ms. Priyanka Prakash T detailed about the camp then vote of thanks was delivered by Ms. Ayana R S (Student coordinator) After that the colourful cultural programs began and by 8.30 pm the programmes come to an end. 

DAY 2

 24/06/2022 The second day of the camp began with craft workshop at A.P.L.P School, Nellanikkal. Trainees reached the school by 10:15 am and met Mrs. Vijayalashmi (Headmistress A.P.L.P School,

Nellanikkal) and Mrs. Bindhu (Work experience teacher from B.R.C) and discussed about the activities. The headmistress introduced the trainees to the students, the presence of Mrs. Jaya Pradeep (Ward member,11), Mrs. Sangeetha Jali (P.T.A President, Nellanikkal) was also there. Trainees interact with the students and trained them to make origami (the Japanese art or process of folding squares of paper into representational shapes: the art of folding paper into three-dimensional figures or designs without cutting the paper or using glue) and paper caps. Trainees also played games with the students to develop their motor skills. The craft workshop last for 2hours after the workshop trainees reached the camp site and after having lunch trainees arranged the Karayogam hall for conducting Open Forum with Mr. Karthik ShashI (Social Worker). The Open Forum started at 2:52 pm, Ms. Chrissel Sunil welcomed all to the session. The topic of discussion was ‘The lifestyle of people living in the coastal region’. A.D.S members and C.D.S members also participated in the meeting and cleared the doubts of trainees along with Mr Karthik Shashi. The Open Forum ended at 4:00 pm. The cultural program was started at 6:45 pm and it was inaugurated by Mr Sudhilal (Rtd. Navy Officer, Thrikkunnathupuzha Block Panchayath Member) and addressed by Mrs Jaya Pradeep (ward member,11). The program ended at 8:40 pm. The evaluation started at 9:35 pm. During the evaluation, many problems were raised by the trainees related to adjustments, ego clashes etc. The faculty coordinators provided time for the trainees to solve the problems, and after solving them trainees go back to their stays at 1:00 pm.

 DAY 3

 25/06/2022 On the third day of the camp, trainees went for community interaction among different houses in the community. They were divided into teams of 4 and interaction was done till noon. Students could build a good rapport with the community members through this interaction. Students conducted a discussion about the overall experience of dealing with the community After lunch trainees had an interactive session with Mr Sathyan (Teacher, Viyapuram Govt. HSS School) and Mr Binu Ponnan (a ward member) from 2:10 to 4:30. An open forum was conducted and the main issues and problems of fishermen’s community were discussed and trainees actively involved in the discussion by clearing their queries. After this, trainees went boating along with some of the community members through the backwaters. They clearly explained the facilities in a fishing boat like GPS, antenna, CCTV, etc. By 6:45 trainees reached back to Vattachal and the cultural programs were conducted from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. There was good community participation from the locality. The evaluation was conducted at 10:35 pm after dinner and by 11:20 evaluation was completed. 

DAY 4 

26/06/22 On the fourth day of the camp, a socio-health survey was conducted on the Arattupuzha panchayat to identify the issues affecting the community. Social work students visited houses and did the survey. Although the community is friendly to the trainees, most of the elderly were hesitant in answering the survey while the others actively participated in it. The survey helped to learn about the severe issues of the community. In the afternoon, the Director of LISSAH, Fr. Niju Thalachira and Vice-principal Sebin chiramel visited the campsite and offered blessings to the team. An anti-drug rally was conducted from Kargil junction to Vattachal junction on the same evening and after the rally, a street play was performed to give awareness to the community against drugs. 

DAY 5

 27/06/2022 The fifth day of rural camp began with continuing the survey that was started on 26/06/2022. To understand the problems of the community, trainees visited 168 houses in total in the 11th ward of Arattupuzha panchayat. The survey ended up at 1.00 pm and trainees gathered for lunch in Mr Pushparaj's house at 1.20 pm. After lunch at 2.30 pm, trainees gathered at Karayogam hall and arranged the seating for an open forum with Dr Bineesh. He is a commerce teacher in Mangalam Higher secondary school Arattupuzha. The open forum discussed the earning habit of the fishermen’s community. After the open forum at 5.40 pm, trainees visited "Tsunami Smruthi Mandapam"(Memorial for Tsunami Martyrs) Azheekkal. It is one of the places where the tsunami affected the most. Trainees also went to Valizhazheekkal beach and Valizhazheekkal bridge, which was built after the tsunami in 2004. By 8.30 pm trainees reached the Aashaarisheri family for dinner and after the food trainees came back to the campsite by 9.40 pm. 

DAY 6

 28/06/2022 On the sixth day of camp, trainees were divided into two groups, one group with 10 members going to UP School, and the other with 10 members went to 2 Anganwadi’s (centre no: 16 and 18). At Tharayilkadavu SKD UP School trainees conducted an awareness class on the topic POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act 2012. At Anganwadi trainees interacted with the children by singing and playing. At 1.00 pm trainees had their meal at ‘Amma Thattukada’. After lunch trainees prepared for the closing ceremony. At 6.30 pm the closing ceremony started. The presidential address of the program was given by MsJaya Prasad (ward member,11). The program was inaugurated by Thrikkunnapuzha panchayath president, Mr S Vinod Kumar. Dr PV Santhosh (Muthukulam Block Panchayath member), Mr P Mohan (Karayogam President, Vattachal), and Ms Manjusha (CDS member) also attended the ceremony. The program ended up at 9.30 pm. Trainees had their dinner at 10 pm and got ready for the campfire.

OUTCOME:

• Trainees interacted with the local people in the locality and has done a survey to gather information regarding the problems faced by the people. Students were actively participating in the camp and they have improved their skills in many areas like public speaking, arts, anchoring, communication, interaction etc. Trainees found their felt need and has helped them in imparting the knowledge on the consequences of the disasters that they may face in the near future. Trainees interacted with the children of Arattuppuzha panchayath and they were made aware about the consequences of substance use.

 CONCLUSION

The seven-day rural camp was a self – realisation to the social work trainees. The seven days helped the trainees to understand the practical world, its problems, threats, people, their sufferings of human mind. The journey was a kind of identifying the spiritual and intellectual self. It was a constant discovery of the process of life. 

COMMITTEES 

FOOD COMMITTEE: Anshida Febin (Leader) Ayana R.S Lakshmi M.R Mariya Jose 

DOCUMENTATION COMMITTEE: Meenakshi M.R Mebina Thampi Sneha Sunil Rameeza B.P Marjana M 

PROGRAMME COMMITTEE: Vismaya K S (Leader) Aleena Sunny Athulya E Neha Jose 

CULTURAL COMMITTEE: Josna George (Leader) Adheena Sajeev Anaswara Joseph 

SANITATION COMMITTEE: Chrissel Sunil (Leader) Adithyan P Anjitha P.S

INVITATION COMMITTEE AND FIRST AID: Nivya P (Leader) Nihla P.V Anjitha P.S 

TRAVEL AND FINANCE COMMITTEE: Adithyan P - leader Ebin P Benny Merin George 

PURCHASING COMMITTEE: Jilsha S.K (Leader) Jithin James Chrissel Sunil