Education for Freedom
– a small update
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It has been half a year since the Education for
Freedom project officially started and despite delays, caused by
the dramatic changes in the political situation during the past
couple of years, BASE has been able to initiate considerable
groundwork. Recently, we received the final result of the OD
campaign and have now made thorough planning for the activities in
the coming year.
Papers, meetings and groundwork
The past six months have been hectic and
turbulent. Few employees have carried the burden of finalising
Baseline Study, Inception report and a revised project document,
the first one was made two years ago when applying for becoming an
OD project. All documents have been scrutinised, revised and
thoroughly discussed in many parts of the organisation. It has
been a priority to found the project as solidly as possible among
stakeholders, wherefore numerous meetings and workshops have been
conducted between members, politicians and staff in BASE,
centrally as well as in Bardiya. All these discussions and
information disseminations are immensely important for creating a
feeling of ownership.
The project is comprehensive with multiple
activities and it takes time for people, who are not schooled
within the development rhetoric or have worked in depth with all
the documents on a daily basis, to feel confident about the
content. It has been important for BASE that all questions,
worries and constructive input were given space in the initial
phase in order to prevent sudden fundamental disagreements from
appearing. Several parts of the project will be implemented
concurrently and for most involved stakeholders it will not be
possible to follow all activities with similar intensity, thus we
have made an effort, and will continue to do so through an
improved information strategy, to ensure that everyone have raised
their doubts before the work starts.
Areas, camps and schools have been mapped out
for the six project Village Development Committees (VDCs) and
discussed with the BASE committees at different levels. This
visualisation is of utmost importance for the process of
understanding. All parts of BASE have thus been involved in
discussions and should accordingly be aware of roles and
responsibilities. Moreover, the district and area committees have
made comprehensive investigations of the livelihood and
educational conditions in the project VDCs in order to select
those areas with a large population of ex-kamaiyas and lack of
education opportunities.
Cooperation and coordination with officials
BASE has also succeeded in initiating
cooperation with the District Education Officer (DEO). The DEO is
a vital person for a successful and trustful coordination and
later handover of BASE’s model education centres, training
methods, materials etc. to the government education system. The
current DEO is very interested in the project and symbolically
signed the project document as witness. Furthermore, he will be a
member of the BASE Education Advisory Board (BEAB), with
representation from MS, BASE and government officials, which is
supposed to meet on a quarterly basis to discuss and monitor the
progress of the project. Also the District Development Committee (DDC)
and Local Development Office (LDO) have been open to the project.
This is vital for getting the government support necessary for
making the project sustainable. Ownership should be felt broadly,
in ex-kamaiya camps, among BASE’s grass roots, in the communities
as well as in the government system.
In the preceding months BASE has established
contacts with the Basic Primary Education Programme (BPEP), and
been promised support, training and materials. We have already
taken home large amount of materials for education at different
levels and for different disadvantaged groups (inclusive
education, flexible and out reach schooling, NFE, pre-schooling
etc.) – exactly those areas on which our Education for Freedom
project will concentrate. It is necessary to focus on several
areas in order to ensure education for marginalized children, and
to know what initiatives already exist in order to maximise use of
resources.
Lobby, advocacy and direct ex-kamaiya support
Lively lobby and advocacy activity is an old
signifier for BASE. The living conditions for a majority of ex-kamaiyas
are still severe, with no land, housing, health or school access,
hence BASE helps them pressuring the government to fulfil their
demands of a dignified life, not least for all those ex-kamaiyas
who are still not recognised as such. It is a paradox not to want
to support people in need just because they do not have the proper
papers (lack of which is often caused by lengthy government
procedures).
Another important part of the work carried out
in support of ex-kamaiyas, and thereby indirectly of Education for
Freedom project, is assisting in the establishment of an
independent organisation. Ex-kamaiyas from 5 districts have
registered their common organisation in Bardiya and the central
president is from an illegal camp in the district.
Moreover, BASE has actively helped the ex-kamaiyas
in planning the three-year freedom day, with logistics as well as
developing a memorandum for the government. Many ex-kamaiyas
showed up at the freedom day in Gulariya despite the fact that the
monsoon season is the only period with work in the fields and the
rain furthermore makes it difficult to travel. They continued
after the freedom day with sit-in strikes at the Land Reform
Office and the DDC still supported by BASE. However, results still
remain to be seen.
As the situation in the camps has for long been
critical BASE has supported with mobile health clinics and seeks
to pressure other organisations like GTZ and DFID (German and
English development organisations) to provide health aid.
Another advocacy activity is the initiated
cooperation with the Kachahari theatre group in Bardiya. They have
been intensively trained and made aware of the Education for
Freedom project content in order for them to be a leading actor in
activities for initiating debate and raising awareness in the
camps. The purpose of this form of theatre is to focus on
conflicting issues and, through letting people’s own input guide
the performance, to open new spaces for solutions and
possibilities for action. There are several ex-kamaiyas among the
theatre people, who are also district and area committee members
in BASE. They have already performed several times in ex-kamaiya
camps, in Gulariya and in a school – all with focus on the
predicaments of education.
Currently we have had a three days workshop for
detailed planning of the activities for the coming year. Education
for Freedom will run simultaneously with an organisational
capacity building programme, both supported by MS, wherefore
strong teams with a mixture of staff and members, will be build
and trained within each area of work: model education centres,
community mobilisation, information and documentation, monitoring,
planning, and not least lobby and advocacy.
A lot has happened during the first six months
although primarily paper work and discussions. This is, however,
essential for the practical work to succeed. The new partnership
is signed, new staff is hired and new offices have been build on
top of the existing ones. As the motivation is also high,
logistics can thus be said to be in place for the main work to
start.
Finally, we recently came up with suggestions
for a reporting/information system with OD in Denmark so that we
can continue dialogue during the project.
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