Whats
your Name?
Nallathambi
Rajendraprasad short Rajen
How
old are you?
55
Where do you
come from?
I come
from a small village: South Thamaraekulam (it means, we had a lots
ponds full of lotus in my village), in Kanyakumari District, Tamil
Nadu. Now I live in Vembar.
What is your
family like?
I have 7
siblings. I am fifth in family. My father is no more, but my mother
is 85 years, living in my native place. Our families part of village
is called kumbulankundu.
I met Lucy
(my wife) in a place in northern Karnataka. We feel in love
and got married. Than we got a daughter in 1987, who is a dentist in
Bangalore now. Every year on 26 to 28 of December all family has a
get together. (After a long time of calculating...)
When all are gathered we are 37.
What is your
profession?:
I am a
social worker.
I studied
Bachlor and Master of Social Work and Master of Administration.
I had
founded with some more people. I had been director for 5 years
2002-2007, than executive director: 2007-2011. So now I am a only
Volunteer in PAD, now I am honorary secretary of board.
PAD I
support by bringing funds and networking with donors and bigger
forums. For example I was evolved in a green manifesto for over all
Tamil Nadu, which is to copy European green parties and developed a
green movement on state level.
Furthermore
I do consultancy work in different countries and and teach PRA-Tools.
(PAR=Participatory Rural Appraisal = Community centred research
tools)
What
made found PAD and how is your vision in reality?
Well 3
people made me come into the buisness:
My
father worked as a herbal doctor and for the poorest he worked for
free.
After
my MA I got employed by world vision (big international NGO).
But I was not content, because I only implemented what the
organization commended. People should own development projects. They
must decide what happens. Than I learned PRA and found as as the
correct tool for participation.
So
that´s why I went for a new NGO
Regarding
the progress we made I think a NGO has 5 phases:
Preparative
stage, organizing stage, experimental, extension, fading out
PAD
is in between extension and fading out phase. Within maximal 5 years
ISLAND Trust will take over everything. (ISLAND is child NGO of
PAD, fully working by locals, which is founded in order to overtake
PAD´s work)
PAD is totally from bottom (in technical term
grassroots-orientated).
All work took a lot longer than expected, because we
do nothing without Community Participation and as PAD-members are
mainly not from the place we face sometimes non cooperation. But
anyhow what we do is more sustainable.
The
local groups will go on: LG, VDC...
Some
dynamics make that not everybody is keen on social ideas, some
follow their own agendas. But I believe, peoples organization will
and can take over.
That´s
so different to my previous organization.
Where did
Lukas meet Rajen?
Rajen
is the boss of the organization I work with for 9 months.
