Profile of Previous Works-November- December 2009

November 15 to December 8, 2009
Mauloboh and Nias , Indonesia.

In Mauloboh I facilitated a seminar " Community Management Promotion" organized by Caritas Switzerland ; participated by project staff and partner organizations of Caritas Switzerland, Indonesia.

In Nias, I worked for Caritas Keuskupan Sibolga. The first part of the work was to conduct a training to the staff on Participatory Monitoring and Evaluation and second part was Facilitating a workshop on Use of Performing Arts in Community Education and Awareness Creation".

On December 9/09 I am back Philippines. Have to prepare a new consultancy proposal by next two days . By December 2009 and January 2010 I wish to prepare some concept note too.

Testimonial by Anat Prag, Cordaid Liaison Office, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Shayamal Saha is an innovator; he leads those that he works with in reflection, analysis and development so that we are stronger, more focused, and better able analyze our actions to learn.

Shayamal has provided technical assistance to CRS (whom I worked for until July 2008) and CRS’ partners in Aceh, Nias and Jakarta since 2007 in the implementation of a series of Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction projects which aim to strengthen capacity of Caritas agencies in Indonesia to develop an environment of safety and resilience at all levels.

Shayamal’s technical assistance has contributed to supporting local partners facilitate and apply DRR through their work in communities and parishes, developing CMDRR Training and Tools, and consolidating learning to strengthen the work of the partners as they prepare to mainstream the approach.

Shayamal has become deeply involved in supporting local partners develop their institutional capacity through establishment of 14 CMDRR Learning projects in local communities in Aceh, Nias and North Sumatra. Shayamal has equipped local Caritas DRR Teams with the concepts, methods and tools of facilitating the CMDRR process with community organizations.

Through these projects, Shayamal has provided technical assistance through direct field based activities with the partners and in the communities they serve, and electronic back-stopping to the partners. He rapidly immerses himself in the projects, partners’ perspective and local context so that within days of his first technical support he is able to understand and support partners in their learning and reflection, and understand the needs, priorities and challenges as faced by the communities. His skills in engaging partners in self reflection and analysis have provided space and opportunity for a deep learning experience on the part of the local partners. His confidence in Community Organizing and CMDRR application and analysis in the Indonesian context has contributed significantly to strategic developments in the work of the Caritas agencies in Indonesia, with contribution to CMDRR being mainstreamed with the establishment of a platform for capacity building and training network resource team.

It has been a pleasure and honor working with professional as dedicated and skilled as Shayamal, through his approaches he has brought new learning to work of the Indonesia partners and deep insights that has strengthened and developed our shared work.

Anat Prag

Cordaid Liaison Office Yogyakarta

Indonesia

January 2009

Testimonial by Barbara Dettori. Delegate, Caritas Italy to Indonesia

Caritas Keuskupan Sibolga

Kotak Pos 44, GUNUNG SITOLI 22800 NIAS

Tel: +62 (0639) 7000 348

Email: caritas@keuskupan-sibolga.org

Website: caritas.keuskupan-sibolga.org

When I first met Shayamal it was on a Sunday, on his first visit in Nias island. He came with his colleague from IIRR to start a capacity building project for Caritas Sibolga, the organisation I had been accompanying for a long time.

I have to confess that my first impression was not very positive. Probably because I had already sacrificed too many Sunday afternoons to work, and I had hoped that the meeting would not take long, or because it was my first time to hear someone speaking English with a Bangladeshi accent, anyway I briefly concluded that “this man talks too much and it is not even clear what he says”. The next time I listened to him was over a lunch, when he was talking about something about the self. I remember I got lost in his argument on whether “is yourself really yourself?” or something like that. I even got to think that he must have been a bit crazy.

Not long after that I started to realise how far my fast and superficial judgement was from reality. What I had in front of me was not only a real expert of development work, but a truly passionate innovator. As soon as I gave up the hasty impatience, typical of western people, that often brings us not to really listen to the people we have in front of us; as soon as I tried to go beyond my prejudice and really concentrate in his words, I entered a new world, like that secret garden hiding behind a small door which opens up to fantastic colours and adventures. “This man is a genius” was my next thought!

After studying so much development theory for my master’s degree, for the first time I had in front of me a person joining his theoretical knowledge with his many years’ experience in the field and – what is more – for the first time it was not the usual arrogant German consultant wanting to teach everybody, but someone who started all from his village, from his childhood, someone who made of development work not only a theory but a belief, a realistic way to change our world to be a better place.

After that, every time he came I regretted that because of my work, I did not have time to attend his workshops for Caritas Sibolga staff. But I really enjoyed all the meetings and dinners spent together, where each and every of his words were like water in the desert, or, to be precise, like hearing the right things to do in an island where most organisations unfortunately did the wrong thing. I could never forget his tales on how he started to promote gender equality in his village, by teaching girls to ride a bicycle, or his challenge to the studies on the causes of poverty: why not study the causes of richness instead? Not to mention his experiments towards alternative methodologies rather than the classic problem-based approach, that everybody still takes for granted in my country. Why only ask the people: what are your problems? You depress them! Ask them “what are your resources” and build on them.

Shayamal immediately understood the incredible potential that there is in Nias people. The same people who are often judged as lazy and stubborn by NGOs he saw as the agents of change: the project he accompanied was successful also because it aimed at injecting self confidence in the people: you can do it! And the miracle was done. The lazy and stubborn became self-managed and open-minded.

In short, Shayamal represents for me the true passion for a development work that is in constant adaptation to new contexts, innovation and research, and is alimented by a true passion for this work. Although I am much younger and my experience is not even comparable to him, sometimes I get discouraged by the cynical attitudes of the practitioners in this field. Donors-led projects, projects looking well on paper but not in the field, pages of lessons learnt ignored by the next project planning, in spite of the cult of the project cycle. But Shayamal is different: he goes to the heart of the methodology and he challenges you by asking you, but on the field, did you really do it? Because I have done it, and I can tell you the story…

Barbara Dettori.

Delegate, Caritas Italy to Indonesia