To identifying the best practice for empowering the Arunachal families, the Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) Mechuka site conducted day long motivation training on 15^th September last. The aim of the training was to build the capacity of the local people focusing on women. The training covered topics on basic health care, income generation, conservation and above all impact of women empowerment. Altogether, 35 women from surrounding villages participated in the training. It is worth mentioning here that the Future Generations Arunachal is working towards equitable and sustainable development since 1997.

Community Dialogue at Deed

A sensitization meeting about the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) project in health of the Government of Arunachal Pradesh was conducted at Deed today which was attended by all the Panchayat leaders, village elders and prominent citizens of the area. The meeting, chaired by Byabang Rocket, Chairman, Master Coordination Committee, Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) was facilitated by Dr. K. Basar, DFWO, Ziro and Dr. Tage Kanno, Project Consultant, FGA. The meeting discussed about the various aspects of the PPP project under which one Primary Health Center (PHC) in each of the 16 districts in Arunachal Pradesh is being managed by NGOs. The PHC, Deed-Neelam is being managed by FGA since August 1 last.

 Dr. K. Basar, DFWO congratulated the people of Deed-Neelam for having chosen their PHC for PPP in the district. He shared his experiences with PPP and informed that PHCs being managed by NGOs are comparatively better than those managed by the government. Arunachal Pradesh was awarded the best performing state under NRHM due to innovation with PPP in India, he informed.

 Ms. Toko Rich, ex-Chairperson of Lower Subansiri Zilla Parishad advised the management of FGA to provide quality service to the people and the PHC staff to discharge their duties sincerely. She also exhorted the communities to cooperate with the management for the greater interest of the people. Other leaders expressed their concern about the future of the PHC in the light of their bad experience in the past. They were also apprehensive that infrastructure development may be stopped due to management of the PHC by an NGO.

 Dr. Tage Kanno cleared various doubts and misunderstandings raised by the communities. He also informed that FGA participates in the PPP with three main objectives – to improve curative and promotive health care services, to increase community participation in the management of the PHC and to build the capacities of the people, especially the women in health care activities. He appealed to the participants to cooperate with the management in achieving the objectives. Unless the communities have a sense of ownership, any developmental activities cannot be sustainable, he said.

 In his concluding remark, Byabang Rocket said that FGA has been successfully managing the PHC at Sille since January 2006 and hopes to replicate that success at Deed-Neelam and Thrizino which FGA is managing since August this year. It is not only infrastructure but behavior of the people which should be used to measure development.

 It may be mentioned that the Government of Arunachal Pradesh had recently approved the management of PHC at Deed-Neelam in Lower Subansiri and Thrizino in West Kameng in addition to that at Sille in East Siang by FGA. The manangement of the PHC at Deed-Neelam was taken over by FGA on August 1, 2011 while that in Thrizino was taken over on August 4, 2011. The PPP project was launched by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh as a part of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005.

 FGA's plan to scale up the Mothers' Training program to these new areas have already been initiated.

Health Camp

One day health camp was organized at Donyi-Polo Tea Estate (DPTE) by DPTE Dispensary where Medical team from Primary Health Center, Sille lead by Medical Officer i/c along with Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) Coordinator (PPP) was called to examined the patients. The camp was started at 9 am. Adjoining people mostly Tea Estate Labors participated in the camp where 81 beneficiaries blood sample collected for microscopic examination and send to PHC, Sille and 51 beneficiaries were registered under various kinds of ailments viz. Skin diseases, respiratory tract infections, hypertension, gastritis etc. The medical team not only gave curative care but also advices on preventive and pro motive care through which many diseases can be control at home by following hygiene and sanitation tips. It is worth mentioning that the Primary Health Center, Sille is being manage by Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) under Public Private Partnership (PPP) model of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) since 2006. The camp came to end at 3 Pm.

RKS MEET

A Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) meeting was held at PHC Sille on June 10, 2011 in presence of Medical Officer i/c and RKS members. After a long threadbare discussion, the following points were approved by the RKS member for the session 2011-12.

• The selection procedure for ASHA facilitator will be done by the PHC staff.
• Onwards, the post of chairman will be held by ASM and the ASHA will be secretary for smooth functioning of RKS committee.
• Any RKS member who miss the RKS meeting consecutive for trice a times. S/he will be automatically dissolve from the RKS list.
• Regarding RKS fund utilization viz. corpus, annual maintenance and untied fund and execution of planning work will be look after by the MO i/c who is the Co-Chairman (RKS). However, the chairman & the secretary will monitor the work.

In any other agenda, the RKS member congratulated the PHC staffs for their sincerity and dedication in the improvement of work and urging them to keep up the spirit for the welfare of the communities in coming days.
Earlier, Ms Anyak Mize, PPP Coordinator, explained about the purpose of the meeting and said that without participation of RKS members and the local communities , the management of hospital will not be satisfactory. Hence felt that timely RKS meeting and the participation of its member in the meeting is must.

Rural Practicum by TISS

Eight (8) Students and one faculty from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), North-Eastern Regional Center, Guwahati has done their Rural Practicum for the Diploma in Community Organisation and Development Practice (CODP) under Future Generations Arunachal (FGA) from 23rd March 2011 to 30th March 2011 in the areas where FGA is working with the rural communities for equitable and sustainable development since 1997. The objective of the Rural Practicum in the field is one of the many field contact experience imparted throughout the course for the Students to gain an on hand experience of working in the Social and Developmental sectors as a part of their course. They work in the areas the Organization is working and be a part of the activities being carried out by the Organization especially in the rural areas. The FGA has placed the students in a rural areas for experiential learning of different communities and its dynamics. Community development programs are designed to facilitate a locally sustainable process of community change and to build local capacity in order to extend the process of change throughout the state through empowering them. The CODP program in TISS upholds a paradigm of field based experiential learning. In the past also the students from different institution has done their rural practicum work under Future Generations Arunachal.

Exposure visit to Kaziranga

Four day exposure visit to Kaziranga National Park (KNP) was conducted by Future Generations Arunachal (FGA), CEPF and ATREE Darjeeling from 8th, February to 11th, February 2011 for 12 volunteers from community members and hunters from various villages of Apatani plateau, who was activily involved in the wildlife monitoring process at Talle wildlife sanctaury last 2009 to 2010. The team members visited Kaziranga national Park (KNP), apart from that they visited one adopted village of forest department who are activily involved in the process of protection and conservation of wildlife at KNP and they interact with the group members of Natun Danga Eco development committee (SHG) village Natun Danga, how they help goverment in protection of wildlife? and also discuss about income generation activities they taken up with the help of governement and hoteliers and tour operators and also discuss with the forest department on protection and conservation of wildlife and members also visited Ethnic village and now every team members says we can also do it.

Best Practices Training

The training of trainers for selected women leaders in the Best Practices project sites in Mechuka, Yachuli and Koyu areas that started on February 2, was concluded yesterday. Twelve women from the three sites enthusiastically participated in the program. One of the participants was Mary, who has started school after she managed to struggle free of his husband to whom she was married when she was still a child.


On the first day, Dr. Tage Kanno, Executive Director talked about the purposes and importance of the program, the works of Future Generations, concept of development and the roles of communities in shaping their own future. In the following two days, the resource persons comprising of the FGA staff and staff of PHC, Sille demonstrated effective conduction of participatory training. The highlight was field visit to Mangnang village where the trainers interacted with the community members there and saw how each one is playing significant roles in the affairs of the village. The role of the VWW, who have also become the ASHA now, was especially inspiring. In the following days, the participants practiced the skill of participatory training that they had learnt. Each of the six teams tried to perform better than the other. The result was a strong team of trainers in some of the most inaccessible villages in Arunachal Pradesh.

While the training program ended well, an unfortunate incident dampened the mood in the last moment. One of the participant's child suddenly fell ill in the afternoon and expired early today morning. The father had brought the child to Itanagar from Yachuli and was upset that the mother could not be with the child at the time of need. All the resource persons and participants from all sites stayed with the mother till a vehicle could be hired. All the women who had come from Yachuli area accompanied the mother till her home. It was a tragedy nobody could foresee. Losing a child is an irreparable loss, but the solidarity that other members in the program showed was exemplary