Past Volunteers at Chaitanya

Siddarth from Canada didn’t speak Hindi or Kannada, but volunteered at Chaitanya for around 3 weeks. He is an engineer and taught some English classes to Chaitanya volunteer teachers and poor children in the centres. He surveyed the livelihoods of people living below the poverty line and he decided to become a Asha for Education Bangalore volunteer assisting in obtaining Asha fundraising for Chaitanya’s activities.

Naveen from California stayed at Chaitanya for 2 months and surveyed the livelihood of poor people here. Some people in the village stay in makeshift tents and use government water supplies that run for only 5 hours per day (not heated). Education opportunities are provided to these people by both the government & Chaitanya. Naveen was interested in solar energy, biogas and hawker’s lighting using batteries & solar and other infrastructure services that promote sustainable livelihoods.

A team from Singapore came thrice and ran computer training courses for local teachers. They conveyed the importance of computers in education these days. Two members came for seven days during the first trip and in the second trip six members (1 male and 5 female) came for four to five days. In the third trip they taught computer education to the 25 government and private primary education teachers for seven days. They based all their work at Chaitanya.

Also a team of five female students from Massachusetts Engineering Women’s University came to Chaitanya for six days. They came on project work in relation to developmental engineering.

Another volunteer came from Italy, while she was undertaking her PhD in rural infrastructure development in Hyderbad. She found that even in Summer Nayakanahatti had a cool climate compared with the rest of India. Another volunteer came from the U.S. and stayed for a two day field trip to Chaitanya.

I am here for 5-6 weeks. In this time I hope to setup internet facilities for the existing Chaitanya computing centre, and hopefully get a functional library up and running at Chaitanya. There is only one point of access to the internet in the village at present, and that is a dial up connection at Ramesh’s house.

Important Points of Interest to Visitors and Volunteers

The Chaitanya main office is located in the village of Nayakanahatti, with a population of 10,000 people. Visitors to Chaitanya in and around Nayakanahatti, will be pleased with the facilities available here, given that it is a village. Within 15km, you have access to 48 surrounding villages, with an aggregate population exceeding 100,000 people. Facilities in these villages need to be improved and that is probably where your work as a volunteer will be most useful. Only a handful of people in these surrounding villages speak English. A few more people speak some English in Nayakanahatti itself, which is where you will be based. Mr. Ramesh Paineedi & his wife, Mrs. Hemalatha Paineedi, one of the founders of Chaitanya will no doubt host you at his own home. They will feed you and take care of all your needs, as will the staff of Chaitanya. The tuition centres are located in 13 of these villages. To get to these villages, Ramesh has a 100cc motorbike (I rode it myself) and a car. The motorbike is preferred because one of the Chaitanya staff can take you to the villages and help you communicate and find your way around. Only Ramesh can drive the car. For some pictures of the office, Nayakanahatti, and the centres, check out http://picasaweb.google.com/CRWCWS/

Dial-up internet & phone access is available at the Nayakanahatti office. Electricity is available at the office and in around half of the tuition centres (with daily scheduled black-outs amounting to around 4-7 hours each day). Electricity is available all night however, giving you plenty of time to charge up your mobile phones, laptops and other gadgets. There are strong, full mobile phone signals on at least 4 networks here. SIM cards & top-ups can be purchased for all the networks (there are at least 3-4 to choose from and their rates are very reasonable compared with most of the developed nations). The signal quality is also very good and reliable.

A number of the villages are obviously economically challenged, with people living in poor conditions. Educational status of the children at the tuition centres ranges from poor to fair in Kannada (the local language in the state of Karnataka), but poor in English.

Toilets are the hole in the ground type, rather than the western style. The facilities are indoors and are kept very clean. You will need to bring tissues ands toilet paper with you from a major town nearby (e.g. Chitradurga or Bangalore). Everybody washes here.

Ramesh & Hemalatha will probably have a room for you to stay in, in their own home, with a very homely and pleasant feeling. They are very welcoming and will do their utmost to make you feel at home. This goes for the Chaitanya volunteers and employees as well. Ramesh is incredibly hard-working, open-minded, helpful and resourceful. He will facilitate just about any reasonable plan you propose if you’ve thought it out carefully in the context of people in the village. Ramesh and his wife, Hemalatha are so accommodating that they offered me their own room while they slept in the lounge room. Plus, the food is home cooked, the water is boiled and both are therefore safe (if you heat anything to above 65^oC for five minutes it is safe from microbes and you are safe from food-poisoning). There are no water problems if you boil the water first. The taste is also reasonable – it’s not mineral water, but it’s not too bad either. If you wish to stay in the local guesthouse, that is also possible. It is best to contact Ramesh directly about this. Ramesh tells me the conditions in the guesthouse aren’t particularly good though.

Ramesh comes from a very poor background and has a very good understanding of people’s needs when he undertakes a project or interaction. He has provided numerous interest-free loans from his own savings to assist people in the poorest areas. He has a fantastic sense of humour and brilliant insights that come from his experiences. He has a unique way of dealing with people and has the rare record of never having had anyone default on the hundreds of micro-finance loans he has provided (without a single missed payment). The micro-finance initiative provides numerous small loans to people for sustainable infrastructure & enterprise development.

Personal security is not an issue and this will be most comforting for women. People in the village are basically honest and there is a great deal of goodwill for Ramesh and his family, being a local school teachers and active community servant. If you are a guest at his home, others will treat you like one of the family. Security of your belongings is also assured (I leave the door wide open and all my stuff is a few feet inside the house).

The village has all the amenities of a small town, with 10,000 occupants, and over 100,000 in the surrounding 48 villages within 15km of the village. Asha tuition centres exist within 7km of all the villages. 700 students make use of he tuition facility. Chaitanya volunteers all wear yellow shirts and have a good reputation in the village, immediately being identifiable and always helpful & caring toward visitors to Chaitanya. There are also very regular bus services from Nayakanahatti village to Chellekere (nearest town) and Chitradurga (nearest city). From both these destinations there are around the clock (24hr) buses to Bangalore (the capital city of the state of Karnataka, the computer capital of India). If you’re interested, the village also has a tourist attraction – a historical temple