Exchange Visit to Yachuli area

Best Practices team from Mechuka and Koyu Korang areas were in Yachuli area recently. They reached Itanagar from their respective villages on August 24 and on to Yazali on 25. The team from Mechuka had reached Itanagar via Along accompanied by Kago Yam, the Project Supervisor there. Similarly, Takhe Meena, Project Supervisor led the one man team from Koyu area to Itanagar via Pasighat.

The Best Practices Project Coordinator, Pura Aiya accompanied the team from Itanagar and they reached Yazali on August 26. Punyo Rina, Project Supervisor of the area was waiting for them. The same evening, they trekked the fifteen kilometer path to Rubdi where the women groups and male volunteers welcomed them. The team, dead tired after walking for hours together through serpentine jungle path was rejuvenated withe cultural programs in the Nyishi village in the evening.

The teams had extensive exchange of ideas and shared the works they are doing in their areas. They later visited Kuch-Kuth village as well and came back to Yazali the next day. The came back to Itanagar on August 28 after a brief visit to Ziro.

The teams, especially with women from Mechuka villages were quite impressed and happy with the trip. They were a bit scared crossing a dilapidated hanging bridge on their way to Kuch Kuth from Rubdi. The wet-rice cultivation system of the Apatanis inspired the women and they are determined to replicate such practice in Mechuka as well.

No woman from Koyu area could make it this time. Apparently the women were willing but their husbands were worried about the landslides and roadblocks. An energetic Gaon Bura of Kakki village represented the area.

Read this for a brief news report about the trip.

Mobilizing Human Energy

Men, women and children thronged the jungle trek from Yazali to villages of Kuch-Kuth, Rubdi, Delipaj, Komp Tab, Lich-Lith and so on. Some women with their babies hanging by their sides while they worked with spades and daos.

The cleaning and repair of the trek used to be initiated in the past by a group of young people in the past, but it was long overdue this year. With overgrowth of bushes along the narrow path and the path having broken in some places, it was getting more and more difficult negotiating it. It was especially difficult for the women and children. That is when the Women's Action Groups (WAGs) formed by Future Generations Arunachal decided to mobilize the communities for a cleaning drive.

The WAGs were formed in these villages as a part of the project "Identifying Best Practices to Empower Arunachal Families" in selected sites in Arunachal Pradesh. Yachuli area is one of them - the other two sites being Mechuka and Koyu.

PHC Review Meeting

The half-yearly review meeting of the Primary Health Center, Sille, which is being managed by Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh was held in the Circle Officer’s Conference Hall at Oyan today. All the Panchayat leaders, Gaon Buras and other senior leaders of the area attended the meeting.

The leaders who spoke in the meeting representing their villages were all praise for the staff of the PHC, who have brought significant changes in the morbidity and mortality pattern of the whole area by improving the clinical services, regular outreach activities and training of mothers on basic health care. The shape of the PHC now is ten times better than that in 2005 before FGA took over the management, said Nalo Tasing, Anchal Chairperson. Okyam Gao, Zilla Parishad Member, agreed with him said that the leaders of the area should work together to get an X-ray unit for the PHC. She added that the NGOs should be working in more difficult areas and FGA should keep on improving their performance since Sille is well connected with road.

Nakek Moyong, Zilla Parishad Member (Bilat) explained about the purpose of the government’s PPP project and congratulated the people of the Sille-Oyan area for getting their PHC managed under the project. Byabang Rocket, Chairperson, Master Coordinating Committee (MCC), FGA gave an overall view of the works being done by FGA in other parts of the state. He recounted various misgivings about the organization in early days in places like Palin when it was misunderstood to have political agenda. He urged the leaders not to repeat the same mistake since FGA is working with the welfare of the people of Arunachal Pradesh as the only motive.

Aying Perme, Circle Officer, Sille-Oyan, who chaired the meeting congratulated FGA for good performance and urged the leaders to continue making contributions in managing the center.

Earlier, Dr. Tage Kanno, Executive Director, FGA explained about the purpose of the meeting and said that involving the communities in managing the PHC is one of the main objectives of the organization, and the meeting aims to elicit more participation in the project. He added that FGA hopes that the communities themselves should be able to manage the PHC whenever the PPP project comes to an end.

It may be mentioned that FGA has been managing the PHC, Sille since 2006 when it took over from the government. PPP project is one of the innovative project conceived by the government of Arunachal Pradesh as a part of National Rural Health Mission and has been nationally acclaimed for its success in improving rural health services.