Start of a Beautiful Partnership

by Dan Morrison

Friday November 14, 2008 at 6:09am, EST

The road to Kapurashi was was long and torturous on the tailbone. After driving for 10 hours from Ahmedabad by car, we turned off the main highway on to a dried out riverbed. Heenaban, SEWA coordinator and my lifeline in India, confirms this route would not be possible during the rainy season. By the end, we were within 25 miles of the Pakistani border. Kapurashi and other villages in the area were founded in 1971 as families migrated from Pakistan to India to avoid communal violence.

The road to Kapurashi was also started in Cape Cod MA, on Christmas 2007, when Kate & John, former teachers at Lyons Township High School near Chicago, IL, decided to partner with Kapurashi to fund critical water and sanitation projects - well repairs, toilets, soak pits, roof rainwater harvesting tanks, and farm ponds.
On October 5, 2008, Kate, John and over 100 friends, mostly current and former Lyons Township High School (LaGrange, IL) teachers gathered at a Chili Fest to raise $9,000 for Kapurashi Village.

As we entered the village, the first attention grabber was grass-roofed and mud walled houses (about half the houses are mud and grass, the other cinderblock). The second was the large cell phone tower and Vodaphone sign stationed right in the middle of the village. This explains that why my cell phone reception is better in rural India than in Washington, DC (but not the $1,500 AT&T tried to charge me for 1 weeks worth of calls and email…).

As we walked to the village meeting, there was a large 5x5 foot hole about 6 feet deep – the beginning of a roof rainwater-harvesting tank - one of over a dozen projects Kate, John, and their friends funded through 1Well. Throughout the day we also saw the beginning of sanitation units (toilets plus sink/shower) and soak pits (large 8x8x10 foot pit connected to toilets to bury and filter sewage and waste water). The first installment of funds arrived in mid-October, they rest early November and the work was already well underway.

Danuben, a village leader and ex-serpench (mayor – a women serpench is rare), greeted us along with over two-dozen village women and their young children. She expressed her feeling that these projects were “as if part of my body. I will take care of their physical and spiritual health as if they were part of me.” We talk about how SEWA will work with Kapurashi to measure the impact of the project, and Danuben and the others speak of their dedication to successfully implanting these projects in hopes of future collaboration.

Sanduben, a village leader, shares that, “after a long life of seeking clean water in vain, Kate and John are helping this journey come to an end. We can now improve our life and our children’s future. We thank you all from the bottom of our hearts.”

Sitaben, like many others in the village, owns a small plot of land, “but I never farm it because water is scarce and we never know if we will have clean water at home.” With a more secure water supply, Sitaben now hopes to invest in growing guvar (green beans), mung (pulse used to make Dal), bagra (millet), and sesame.

1Well is working with SEWA and Kapurashi to measure the impact the project, but the immediate benefits – liters of water collected by roof rainwater-harvesting, health improved though sanitation, etc. – are only part of the story. The real impact comes from the indirect benefits created by the ripple effects of having clean water, earning an income, and the opportunities time and choice create.

Metaben, a SEWA coordinator living in the near by village of Sonalnagar, explains that, “reducing our need to fetch water means we can work in the fields and practice embroidery to earn an income.” This in turns means, “we can start saving, pay for our children’s education, get insurance and live a more secure life.”

Life in Kapurashi is still tenuous and we cannot “engineer” these results, not do we want to. All Kapurashi and Kate and John can do is partner together, allowing Kapurashi to take advantage of opportunities right in front of them, but always lacked the resources to pursue.

As we stood in Kapurashi’s fields overlooking the site for the farm pond, which will help improve soil moisture and crop quality and quantity, we called Kate in Cape Cod, MA and John in Palos Heights, IL. The people of Kapurashi asked why Kate and John kept thanking them. I will let Kate and John reply to them directly, but I think part of the answer is Kapurashi allowed them to come together with their friends as a community and participate in something they all believed in. Kate and John, we welcome your thoughts in the comment field below.

The parting story about Kapurashi is Lailabhai. Lailabhai is an engineer from Kapurashi who is managing the construction process. Danuben tells me that he is volunteering all his time. We also learn that villagers have volunteered to do all the digging and construction work. 1Well did not ask for this and expected the labor and engineering costs to be part of the project budget. But we hear the same from Kapurashi as we heard in Vachharajpur and Sedla – “we are Kate & John’s partner and this is our contribution to the project. Their investment was money. Our capital is time and labor.” 1Well looks forward to following this burgeoning partnership.

For a chance to partner with a community in need of small but critical projects, visit www.1Well.org and browse our Available Projects or make a contribution to a Project in Progress.