As Head of National Fundraising for WaterAid, UK, Alan Machin has long been using the market for the benefit of the development sector, and know all about bridging the divide between the free market and philanthropy. Here, he talks about his plans for the conference:

Why do you think there is a need for this conference?

There is often a certain amount of mistrust between civil society organisations and companies, particularly multinationals. Whilst understandable, this can mean that opportunities to help the poor are missed or underexploited through our own prejudice. We cannot escape the fact that the world is market-driven and that we need to formulate appropriate strategies and responses. This conference will provide an excellent forum to discuss the issues and share collective learning. By the end of the event we will be in a better able to work within our own organisations to determine our responses to a market driven world

What are your thoughts on how to combat poverty in a market-driven world?

We must find ways of engaging companies to change their behavior towards combating poverty and environmental issue that have an impact on us all. There are many good examples of collaborations between multinationals and NGOs that have shown that behavior change is possible and can bring positive outcomes. If we do not engage, we cannot complain if there is no behavior change, we need to formulate our strategies, be proactive, positive and passionate about what we are trying to achieve and go out and do it.

What will you focus on in your session?

We need to engage companies in an ethical way. WaterAid has 30 years experience of working with companies, and we have developed ethical guidelines that I will share and discuss in my presentation.

Your suggestions on what attendees should look to take back from this event.

We will be coming with different expectations and experiences of working in a market-driven world. I hope that we can all take away some real insights and inspirations that will help us to better navigate our way through the many market related issues that we all face in our daily work.

Alan Machin will present his learning and experiences at WaterAid as an example of the fundraising experience and policies of an INGO. The session is part of a workshop titled The Use of Corporate and Government Funds by Civil Society Groups to Alleviate Poverty.

Date: February 7

Time: 4.30 pm – 6.30 pm

Place: The Residence Hotel, Powai

Visit www.povertyconference2011.org for more information.

Fredrick Masinde has over 25 years experience in the Fair Trade Sector and is currently the Marketing Manager of Undugu Fair Trade Limited, Kenya. A good deal of his work has revolved around grassroots mobilisation of artisans, and, thus, using the market to improve the lives of the deprived.

Why do you think there is a need for this conference?

Faced with escalating levels of poverty all around the world, coupled with unequal distribution of wealth, influenced by market driven economic factors, it is critical for various stakeholders to explore alternative means of addressing mechanisms that can result in an equitable and just distribution of the global wealth.

What do you hope the conference will achieve?

I hope that concrete solutions will come out of the conference that can enable all sector players to jointly engage in influencing the world market policies that are pro poor and gives equal opportunities for eradicating poverty in the world!

What are your thoughts on how to combat poverty in a market-driven world?

• Equal opportunities supported by pro poor policies.
• Elimination of unfair market based barriers.
• Fair and equity distribution of income through the supply chain.

What will you focus on in your session?

Sharing the experiences of the Fair Trade model as a means of combating poverty.

Your suggestions on what attendees should look to take back from this event.

• Learning from what others are doing to combat poverty.
• Picking ideas on how they can expand their engagements in the fight of poverty.
• How they can lobby the decisions makers to influence pro poor policies at national, regional and global level.
• Adopting the Fair Trade model in empowering the marginalized and poor.

Fredrick Masinde will present COFTA (Cooperation for Fair Trade in Africa) as a case study in a workshop titled PEOPLE FOR PEOPLE: Market Related Civil Society Initiatives to Overcome Poverty — Fair Trade Initiatives.

Date: February 7

Time: 2pm – 4pm

Place: The Residence Hotel, Powai.

Visit www.povertyconference2011.org for more information.

When plans were announced to expand Mumbai’s overburdened airport, many in the city welcomed the development. But for over 100,000 families living in slums on land surrounding the airport, it signalled the start of a long battle.

In the past few months, thousands of slum dwellers have been evicted from their homes in Khar and Santacruz to make way for a modernisation project that includes a flyover, a shopping complex and parking lots. Others are staying their ground believing they have earned their right to the land over the decades, even if it is not on paper.

We’ve heard modern India’s development tale, this is the dark and controversial other side of the story:

Geizabai: A fight to death

My name is Geizabai Kishan Magede. I came to Ambedkar Nagar [near the Santacruz domestic airport] in 1974 when I got married. In those days, the slum was a swamp and sewage would flow right through our house. We would bring empty mango crates from the market, place them on the ground and sleep on them, while gutter water flowed below our makeshift beds.

Geizabai Magede, Ambedkar Nagar

Eventually, with some money coming in, we tried to build houses and improve our living conditions. Our children did not have clean water to drink, so we would collect water from the leaking water tanks in nearby buildings and filter that water so we could drink it. We paid about Rs 5,000 each to start getting electricity here. At that time, the government was not interested in this area.

I bring vegetables from Dadar market [in south-central Mumbai] and sell them here at a roadside stall. I also work as a maid in some of the nearby apartments. My husband is a daily wage labourer and sometimes does construction work. If the government evicts us from here, how will we start over in a new area? How will people know us or trust us? I don’t have the money to commute every day; if I spend everything on commuting, how will we eat? How will I fund my children’s education?

When Sahar airport [Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport] was built, the government needed construction labourers, so they brought us from the villages to Mumbai. The airport is ours, we built it. Why should we go from here? If they want to build malls, why can’t they build them somewhere else? If they can make big shopping malls and tall buildings, why can’t they make two storey houses for us? Here, where we have made our lives, where three generations have grown up. If the government has to rehabilitate us, we don’t want to be relocated to some far-flung place. And we want proper houses with facilities.

All these years, when we live in such difficulty here, did the government come and check on us?  Every election season, they promise us water, toilets, roads, and clean gutters, but it ends there. How is it that the government never asked us for proof of ownership at the time of elections? After five years, will they not need our votes again? If they build shopping malls and evict poor people like us, who will vote for them? People living in tall buildings don’t vote; people like us go and vote.

If they don’t need us, we don’t need them either. This government is only five years old, and GVK [the company redeveloping the Mumbai airports] has been here for three years. We have lived here 40 years and yet we have no say over this land. Bombay belongs to us, the poor, the labourers. We will fight till death to stay here.

Palaniamma: Who does this city belong to?

My name is Palaniamma and I live in Sanjay Gandhi Nagar, near the Santacruz domestic airport [Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport – Domestic Terminal]. My parents left Salem [in Tamil Nadu] when I was seven because there were no rains in our village, and we came to Mumbai. I’ve been here for 45 years. I grew up here, got married, my three children grew up here and got married. Where are we supposed to go now?

Palaniamma, Sanjay Gandhi Nagar

I have a small space in the Dadar Flower Market where I sell flowers. It is the only way I know to feed myself for the past 25 years. How will I set up this business again in a new area? Everyone knows me here. We’ve built our lives here. Where were the government and airport officials all this while? They should have asked us to vacate back then.

We went for meetings with the officials a few times. They said they would rehabilitate us and gives houses in Mankhurd [a north-eastern suburb]. Some of the people from our locality went and saw the houses there; there was no water, no basic facilities, so we’ve refused to go to Mankhurd.

It’s because people like me sell flowers that the rich can garland their Gods. In the same way, if the auto driver stops driving his auto, how will rich people go to their offices? If the people who clean your bathrooms don’t show up for one day, what will you do? And if there is a problem with your water connection, you need a plumber to fix it. Everything in this city runs because of poor people. It’s because of the poor, that the rich can function. So, who does this city belong to? Doesn’t it belong to the poor? Or is it just the rich? Don’t we have the right to live here?

— As told to Faiza Ahmad Khan and Sima Agarwal

To follow the issue and the people’s movement, check out www.khareastandolan.wordpress.com

For the next three months, Dharavi in Mumbai will be the canvas for an unusual art experiment.

Alex White Mazzarella, a 30-year-old urban planner and artist from New York City, has embarked on an ambitious project to interpret and express the life and times of Dharavi, also famous for being Asia’s largest slum. He is accompanied by Casey Nolan, a photographer and filmmaker, who will document the project and the pair’s journey in Dharavi, and how they use art to ‘tell the story of a settlement’.

Working with Acorn India, the plan is for Alex (pic, left) to paint and Casey (pic, right) to film, the two will also be collaborating with other artists, including two filmmakers from Mumbai. Eventually, they hope to also engage the Dharavi community in the art and make them a part of it.

In a phone interview with Mumbai Action just days before they were scheduled to arrive in Mumbai, Mazzarella talks about ‘Artefacting Mumbai’:     

Where did the idea come from?

I see art as an extension of city planning as a record of expression. I love the idea of exploring a city and a culture, and life in that city.   

By basing this project in Dharavi, I want to express the story of people’s lives in a community, beyond just the poverty; of course, the hardship and the struggle but also the togetherness, the dependencies, the social support.

Why Dharavi?

Because there are large contradictions. I come from a Western society where the emphasis is on being successful and rich, but at the same time people are on anti-depressants. I want to explore the question of ‘What is happiness, what is wealth?’ I want to get out the sense of strong communities where these Western ideas don’t work.

What do you have planned?

Lots and lots of paintings that I will hopefully be able to show in an exhibition back in NYC in February. There will also be a documentary of the project being made by my partner, Casey Nolan. We will be working with a couple of Mumbai-based video artists (see details) to create work for installations.

A photographer from Holland is going to conduct photography workshops with the local kids and have them take photos.

We hope to get the community involved in creating art pieces and paintings from recycled plastic and other products. Starting off with smaller projects, we hope to create a huge mural on the tops of people’s house, one that you’d be able to see from the sky.

What do you hope the project will do?

In Mumbai, I hope the project will make people see something they never saw before. Maybe it will generate pride and renew interest in Dharavi and its people.

Back in the US, there is a lot of interest about seeing an unknown life up close. There could be strong reactions to it, and I’ll be happy if the art gets people to think about things even a little bit and do something. If even one person starts thinking differently about themselves, how they live, how they connect with people, it’s something.

Personally, I hope to learn, I want to soak in the influence and energy of Dharavi and I want to see my work change.   

For more information, visit Artefacting Mumbai

– Aditi Seshadri

Cristen (in red) takes a workshop

Cristen Andrews has a unique solution to the world’s plastic bag problem, and she’s been travelling around the world – and through Mumbai — sharing her idea with people. This is her story:

My name is Cristen Andrews, I’m from Austin, Texas, and I promote recycling by crocheting single-use plastic bags into fashionable, durable, reusable items. While I think plastic bags should ultimately be eradicated, I crochet with them because it’s a good method of recycling these bags that would otherwise end up in the streets, landfills, or the bellies of animals.

I have been crocheting with plastic bags for a few years now – making things like backpacks, shopping bags, hats, floor mats, water bottle holders, and drink cosies. While I have sold a handful of things online and at various craft fairs, it’s mainly just a hobby. My primary interest is sharing this concept with others. And over the past few years, I have taught occasional demos and workshops to inspire others to recycle plastic bags in creative ways.

Last year, I embarked on a year-long trip around the world. While the trip wasn’t about crochet teaching, I did quite a bit of it during my travels – teaching various impromptu workshops to people in places like Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Iceland, and Australia. I wasn’t in any of these countries long enough to do this on a larger scale, but there has been a lot of interest in my idea and I’ve always envisioned turning my concept into a self-sustaining project – one that has a direct impact on improving the lives of underprivileged women and their families.

During a previous trip to India, I noticed a tremendous plastic waste problem. I also noticed the large volume of ragpickers and slum dwellers living off the small income they can generate by recycling the country’s trash. They generally avoid the thin plastic bags because they are lightweight and therefore have a low resale value. So I decided that if I could teach them to perform basic crochet stitches and create simple bag designs, they would become skilled artisans capable of transforming waste materials into fashionable products. I’d then help them market their products to an upscale audience so that they can earn fair wages for their labour.

Thanks to Hostelling International who granted me a small travel scholarship, a crowd-sourced funding site for artistic endeavours called Kickstarter, and all the amazing people who donated crochet hooks, the opportunity to return to India happened sooner than I thought. And Miguel, my partner, and I spent this summer travelling through Mumbai, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Delhi to try to kick this plan into action.

During our travels, we connected with various NGOs, community groups, and individuals dedicated to similar goals. And we managed to teach 13 formal workshops in addition to several more informal ones – showing about 600-700 people the basics of plastic bag crochet. All our workshops were unique and each was tailored to the specific audience. Sometimes we taught at schools interested in incorporating sustainable living activities into their educational programs. Other times we taught women excited about learning a new handicraft that involves waste materials and doesn’t require the use of expensive machines.

We weren’t sure what to expect when we embarked on this trip, but fortunately the response has been great. And now that we found enthusiastic people who can directly benefit from this project idea, we’re inspired to take the next steps forward. This project is very much in its baby stages, but we’re currently in the process of developing a product line (Gamesh Bags), creating a web site (GameshBags.com), and exploring marketing opportunities. It’ll likely take some time for us to streamline production and work through all the kinks, but we’re confident that it can be a success.

For project updates, visit my blog: www.BagsBeGone.com  

For a complete listing of workshops held in India, check the Events
page: http://bagsbegone.com/events-workshops

For enquiries about future product availability, please contact me: cristencrochet@gmail.com

– Cristen Andrews