Projects - Fida International

Coastal Community Development Programme

One of the first areas to be administered by the British, Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh is named after the Krishna River, which flows through the state. Although this coastal region is rich in land and mineral resources, it remains backward in many ways. Poverty and lack of community awareness and organization have led to a host of complementary problems—low employment, lack of alternative livelihoods, low education, poor health and infrastructure, gender- and caste-based discrimination, and environmental destruction. Our Coastal Community Development Programme (CCDP), an integrated community development programme, works with coastal villages in this region. Started in 1998 in collaboration with the Social Development Wing of Full Gospel Churches of India, the programme initially worked with eight fishermen communities. By 2004, there were 34 communities including 15 fishermen communities, 16 lower caste communities, and three tribal communities. In these coastal villages, agriculture is the primary form of employment and there is little awareness of alternatives. Farmers from the poorer communities do not own land themselves. They lease land for cultivation and are trapped when these lands do not yield enough produce because they still need to pay the lease. Natural calamities such as yearly cyclones worsen their condition. When they cannot pay, they have to mortgage their meager belongings or work without wages like bonded slaves. Because agricultural labor is seasonal, many families have to migrate to the cities for work. People from scheduled and backward castes continue to face exploitation and discrimination with regard to access to facilities and social respect and the dark shadow of untouchability haunts many hamlets. Ultimately, no amount of outrage from the outside can solve this problem. There is an urgent need to empower these people to speak up for themselves at local administrative bodies, to voice their concerns and demand their rights. The level of education remains dismal with the literacy rate at only 37.5 per cent. More than 50 per cent of girls stop studying after the 5th grade because their families are too poor and the education of girls is not a priority. Some are expected to stay home and mind the other children. Others are married off, plunged into adulthood without any means of protection or empowerment—another generation of women who will have to bow their heads in silence. Child labour is prevalent in many areas. Harmful environmental practices such as thoughtless aquaculture and mangrove destruction are destroying the natural resources of the region. What we see as the biggest obstruction to development in these communities is the lack of a unified voice. Without any idea or inclination towards community organization, coastal communities lack the ability to voice their problems or seek solutions to them. Currently, the Coastal Community Development Programme is working in 22 villages with 1,669 families. We work by mobilizing communities to identify their needs and problems and organizing them into Community Health Education Committees, which oversee development projects in their villages. Special Community Health Educators (CHEs) are trained by the committees to visit homes and impart education on health and other aspects of community improvement. The changes filter down from the CHEs to their neighbors and their families, until they permeate through the community as a whole. Besides working with new villages, the programme continues to strengthen existing CHE Committees, enabling them with information and life development skills. Some of our main aims are training women and youth in vocational skills; empowering women through Self Help Groups; promoting micro enterprises through credit loans; improving the quality of education through pre-school and tuition classes; promoting sustainable agriculture practices; and forming a network of CHE Committees to address issues such as Dalit empowerment and HIV/AIDS. Above all, the people remain the prime focus. Their needs form the objectives and goals of the project and they plan the activities. By taking charge of development in their own villages, these people are learning that they can depend on themselves—and shaping their own future in the process.