Call for discussions

For sometime, many of us have been hearing/discussing in some form or the other the idea of supporting special experienced social workers for a period of time (through a fellowship or some other name). The Stimulated Volunteerism paper that Dr. Bhagat has been circulating for a few months also has the idea of a Senior Stimulated Volunteer.

It is time to take the discussions to a more concrete level so that we can start off a new "program" of AID in this direction. Please discuss this topic in your CSH as soon as possible, so that we can all together put this program in place. It might require 2 or 3 rounds of discussion, and we should look at putting things in place in a few weeks.

Please reply to me about your interest in this, and when you can start the discussion in your chapter and who will be coordinating the discussion. We can exchange some write-ups on this if needed.

The exciting thing is that there are already a couple of good possible people with whom we can start such a program. Thus, tt is time that we crystalized our vision about the SV program, layout its concrete details in terms of our time of commitment to the SV, the quantum of support, our expectations, our selection criteria etc. keeping in mind the sensitivities of the personds involved.

To list these points out we need to dicuss:

1. "Vision statement" - the motivation of the program, basic ideas, what do we expect from this for AID in specific and for India's development in general.
2. Identifying and reviewing - the process and guidelines
3. What care we should take as volunteers and chapters to take the program in the right direction, and to make full use of such a program.
4. the details about quantum and length of support. and anything else you can think of!

To start off your discussion, here are some of the basic ideas that a few of people have. When reading/discussing them keep in mind that this program is still in the evolving stage, so please feel free to look from a different perspective, enhance/modify the ideas add your own ideas, etc.

• To support people (consequently their ideas and actions) independent of a project is a good idea. When quality individuals are identified this support will give them more freedom to develop their activities.
• There are people who have consciously avoided the NGO culture because of certain limitations NGOs tend to have. They see AID as a "different" kind of organization that can relate to these issues unlike the usual funding agencies.
• We are thinking of people who have already demonstrated their capabilities as well as potential. Paraphrasing Dr. Bhagat, "these people have the fire inside them that will produce the highest calibre work in spite of themselves". This ties in with the point (a), and we would like to have as much freedom as possible for the person to work in the field once we decide to support.
• The support we provide should not adversely affect the self-reliance of the person's work. It should help the person develop a local support group/ organizational support.
• Our relationship with the person is not governed by the fact that we are providing funds, rather that s/he is sharing his/her work and vision with AID.

Thanks and looking forward to enthusiastic response and discussion, Hoping this will bring out the visionary as well as cautionary sides,

If you have any questions, comments concerns etc. do write to me as a reply to this email for subject title "New direction"