When: April 22, 2011
Time: 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Where: Crane Room, Tufts University, Medford, MA

As part of the BUILD program, students spent two weeks in the village of Thottiapatti, the partner village in India. As a way to create stronger relationships with the children and adults there, informal trainings in photography while on the ground was facilitated. The pictures taken by the children captured the essence of the place and also their view of the world. As a lens to look at the sociopolitical issues of the region as well as the culture of development, BUILD will be showcasing their work as part of a photo gallery event.

The event will feature a Keynote talk by Dr. Jonathan Fine, Founder of Physicians for Human Rights; Tufts' Pulse Dance Team, Indian food from Yak and Yeti, Henna tattoos and Pictures for sale.

BUILD (Building Understanding Through International Learning and Development) is a student-led initiative of the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University. BUILD seeks to immerse students in the theory and practice of sustainable development by partnering with rural communities in the developing world to research and implement initiatives for human, social, and economic development. Over the past three years, BUILD has expanded its reach from its work in Nicaragua to Quetzaltenango, Guatemala and just this past year to Tamil Nadu, India.

The village of Thottiapatti, BUILD's partner in India, is a village of 70 households in the Perambalur district of rural Tamil Nadu, is a community of individuals with a rich cultural and religious heritage. In the local language of Tamil, this is the ur - the people and physical spaces that make up the place to call home. These individuals have a remarkable sense of resilience about them; their life experiences speak for themselves. The majority work as agricultural and brick-laying laborers, do not own their own land, and earn the equivalent of less than $1 a day. In the face of such conditions, families will migrate to different districts and states during the dry months to find work, disrupting their children's educations. BUILD began to work with Thottiapatti in the summer of 2010, and has continued a constant connection and partnership with facilitation and support from partner grassroots holistic development organization, Payir.

Thottiapatti lacks access to immediate transportation, toilets, consistent power supply, medical care, and educational opportunities beyond primary school. These problems are glaring results of extreme poverty, but BUILD students chose to begin their relationship with Thottiapatti by compiling an map of all the assets inherent in this community. Upon return, this information was built on by literature reviews by BUILD and compiled to serve as a background on the most pressing issues. Fieldwork in January 2011 solidified BUILD’s partnership with Thottiapatti and allowed the formation of a collaboratively designed Community Development Plan  (CDP). This project, set for implementation during the summer of 2011, envisions the revitalization of an old central building as a fully functional computer center and community-owned space, powered by solar energy. The computer center will house an innovative e-learning program, allowing children and adults to connect via Skype to Tamil speakers worldwide to participate in a curriculum that is designed for an informal setting. The center will also serve as a space for vocational trainings, facilitated by BUILD and Payir.

We also will be installing two toilets that are low water usage with the ability to compost waste to sell as fertilizer, as well as the design of a product utilizing the traditional artistic skills of many villagers (pictured below) for production and sale to a global market.  The CDP is equipped with comprehensive Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) methodologies for the monitoring phase after implementation during 2011-2012. These projects are the beginning of a long-term partnership with Thottiapatti, which foresees great economic advancement and access to resources over the next few years.

This forum seeks to spread awareness about the sociopolitical issues of Thottiapatti, as a model for rural India. It seeks to educate and also inspire all participants to engage with these issues firsthand, and to support the work of both the people of Thottiapatti and BUILD students. The pictures in the gallery are a narrative of daily life and a representation of the place, which will transport viewers to Thottiapatti to see things through the eyes of residents there. We hope that you will come and support us in this event!