July 2, 2008, continued

Notes on RIDE: (from Y'gal's journal):

 

Jeyaraj started it in 1984. He had been a teacher and journalist for a Catholic magazine which served many countries. He was a union employee and started an agricultural union. He was threatened with arrest by corrupt police.

RIDE started to deal with poverty and caste segregation problems. 1997 was when they first started dealing with child labor. An English man came and did a study with RIDE about child labor and presented it to UNICEF; At that time, RIDE was working with AJWS on helping to end child labor. 

 

Jeyaraj was the first person in his village to graduate from both high school, and college, and to receive an MA. He started the first democratic voting in his village, and the first NGO in Kanchipuram. Now there are over 3000 NGOs in Tamil Nadu. The government "treats NGOs like slaves" and it's very difficult to work with them, however the government of Tamil Nadu is a funder of RIDE (about 5%). 

There's a lot of inequality and some female staff are occasionally beaten by their husbands. Dowries are a big issue in India and there are women that cannot marry because they cannot afford a dowry. RIDE has self-help groups (SHGs) for women, to help them become mroe independent and self-reliant. They provide microloans along with training courses in different areas. "Money is not only life." Money is only one tool. RIDE is clear that along with money, people must understand what develop-ment is, and the importance of using the money correctly. "Capacity building," "mindset," there's leadership training, behavioral training, marketing training, business training-"train the people to train themselves." 

 

RIDE, sometimes by force, takes children out of factories and puts them into schoo. RIDE would go to child labor factory owners and try to convince them to stop, if they wouldn't, they brought court  orders and legal notices, would publicize child labor in factories, get the kids out of work and into school.

100,000 rupees=1 lakh

100 lakh=1 crore

optimal budge of RIDE by lakh (?)

There's resistance in the community. Jeyaraj and his wife Britto have been cursed at. A lady who once cursed Jeyaraj eventually died, somewhat tragically, and a religious leader said it was because she crossed Jeyaraj. 

 

Someone told him he shouldn't construct toilets at the Arpakam school. The same guy (the president of Arpakam?) told him to pay 50,000 INR to build the school. Jeyaraj went to the chief minister of Chennai, who couldn't help. He eventually paid the the 50,000 INR. The man subsequently had a heart attack and can't work.

Indian government is 75% corrupt.

 

People create rumors against RIDE. 

RIDE has three kinds of schools: Night, Bridge, and Primary.