Project Description and Timeline

Project Description

View BUILD India Project Proposal

Through June, we will be finalizing plans for the summer trip in coordination with the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University, NGOs, university students in the Tamil Nadu area, the Boston chapter of the Association for India’s Development (AID), and family members of one of the trip leaders, Nithyaa Venkataramani, who still live in the state. At the beginning of the pilot trip, which will take place in July and part of August 2010, five team members will spend a week in Chennai to meet with various contacts who will help us to explore local issues in depth and to guide our relationship with potential partner communities. During the subsequent three weeks in Tamil Nadu, the team will live in two to three different rural communities conducting basic needs assessments with the purpose of finalizing a suitable partner.

During the community visits, team members will conduct a basic needs assessment, including a baseline socioeconomic evaluation to collect information on issues such as sanitation, infrastructure, education, income sources, labor trends, and health in order to determine which community best suits BUILD’s mission and resources. Once a community has been selected, the team will work on drafting, in conjunction with local leaders, a Community Development Plan (CDP) based on the specific needs expressed by the residents. We expect to implement the projects as described in the plan over a 1-2 year period, ideally beginning in a second trip tentatively scheduled for December 2010 through January 2011.

BUILD’s most recent project in Guatemala has proven to be a huge success and has in many ways informed the way we are planning to structure the trip to India. Though we do not expect our past experience in Guatemala to in completely dictate our work in Tamil Nadu, the Guatemala project has provided BUILD members with a fortified familiarity with coordinating and implementing a CDP. Our project in Guatemala largely focused on boosting our community’s production of coffee, but also involved the development of the community’s eco-tourism program as well as the creation of a community computer center. We are now well versed in these areas, though we hold no preconceptions of our project in Tamil Nadu. BUILD has found that the best way to ensure the maximum effectiveness and longevity of a project is to first understand the needs of each community we visit during the scouting trip, and from there to then narrow our focus on an area of development dependant solely on those needs that correspond with what we can accomplish as Tufts University undergraduates. We expect that areas of focus may include—though are by no means limited to—energy, agriculture, education, land and water issues, and social empowerment. The interdisciplinary nature of our program furthermore ensures students with varying interests and expertise will be designing and creating the projects.

Through this program, we have a unique opportunity to ameliorate cross-cultural understanding and create collaboration in designing a development project that ensures real improvement in the lives of our community partners. Our program is cost-effective in the long-run: as a volunteer undergraduate group operating with institutional support from the Institute of Global Leadership, all of our funding goes directly into project planning and execution. As university students, we also have intellectual access to various other higher education facilities, whose vast interaction with worldwide development institutions can connect us to microfinance NGOs, USAID, and the World Bank.

Timeline

• April - June 2010

  1. Determine Potential Community Partners
     
     1. Outreach to NGOs and institutional contacts in the districts surrounding Chennai who can facilitate initial contact with potential communities.
     2. Determining 3 communities with the greatest potential for partnership according to the following criteria:
        
        1. Rural area
        2. Industry of the community in respect to the region
        3. Nearby access to supplies/a city for communication purposes
        4. A selective population under 500, or a community of this size
  2. Refinement of a trip plan under the advice of various institutional contacts.
  3. Outreach to potential educational faculties in Tamil Nadu who could help to facilitate collaboration with local students.
  4. Identification of a potential NGO who can serve as the lead collaboration with us.

• July - Mid-August 20120

  5. Direct meetings in Chennai and elsewhere with NGOs and institutional partner organizations
  6. Visits to 2-3 selected communities to conduct needs assessment and socioeconomic evaluations.
  7. Selection of long-term partner community and potential re-visit to community.

• August - December 2010

  8. Work in collaboration with the community to draft a community development plan.
  9. Refining plan with NGO insight
  10. Solicitation of funds, contacts, and sponsors
      
      1. Fundraising
      2. Grant Writing
  11. Logistical planning for first phase of project implementation

• December - January 2010-2011

  12. Initiating groundwork for the project phase in our partner community with BUILD scouting team and 2-3 new Tufts students
      
      1. Further NGO and community meetings
      2. Appeals to Indian companies for sponsorship
      3. Individual student research to establish long-lasting relationships within partner community

• January - June 2011

  13. Collaborative work with community and NGO involved to access resources and proper planning for summer project implementation
  14. Secured funding

• May - July 2011

  15. Execution of full community development plan by BUILD

• July 2011 and beyond

  16. Monitoring, refinement
  17. Continued contact with the community and site visits
  18. Follow-up work with NGO