Chennai Day 1

After a productive and enjoyable week in Delhi (during which I saw just a little bit of Delhi outside of the hotel where orientation was conducted), yesterday I arrived in Chennai. I was pretty exhausted so luckily the travel was easy. Kingfisher airlines is very comfortable and the food is really excellent.

I'm staying in a private room attached to my office for now. It is comfortable. My only complaints are that there is only one outlet in the room and there is no hot water. Not too bad! This morning I went for a walk to start to get to know my new surroundings. I started by heading up to the roof of the building where I'm staying. I was surprised to see the ocean so close by!


Less pleasant was this view. Trash is a serious issue.


After a morning walk I had enjoyed the staple southern Indian breakfast: idli (like rice cake), sambar (dal), vada (like fried lentil patty) and two chutneys (coconut and onion). It is a delicious morning meal and I don't imagine I will tire of it any time soon.

Today was my first day on the job. Yes, the work week is six days! So much for scaling back...

My organization, which I've been asked not to name directly, works with women who are "the poorest of the poor" in Chennai and the surrounding villages. The specific groups they target are domestic workers, adolescent girls and single women. Single women largely consists of women who are widows, these women may face social stigma and economic deprivation.

My "job" for the first few weeks is to immerse myself in the activities of the NGO and learn as much as possible about what is going on in the community and in the NGO's programming. Beyond learning about these issues, we've identified three goals for my time: I am going to help create databases of program participants for program design and evaluation purposes, I will work on revising the existing promotional materials, and lastly I will work with the management and staff of the NGO to help them adopt some western-style SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely).

After a morning meeting in the office and a peek into the dance class for adolescent girls going on downstairs, I headed out to the field with Chitra, one of the program coordinators. First stop was a field office where some girls from nearby slum areas were being trained in computer skills and sewing skills. Next up, Chitra and I visited two slum neighborhoods. Chitra spoke with groups of girls about sexual abuse prevention and gender issues. Here are a couple of snaps from the visit:
According to the census in 2001, the male female ratio in India is 927 women per 1000 women (the world average is 1045 women per 1000 men). There are many factors contributing to these "missing girls" and one of them is the preference of parents towards boys, which may be demonstrated by giving boys more or higher quality food and better medical care. One of the things Chitra was talking about with these adolescent girls, many of whom will be mothers in a few years, is that they should treat their boy children and girl children equally.