Agents of change

Namma Neeru

2011-03-15T08:18:00.001-07:00

So finally, here is the edited video that I took forever to upload! Any feedback and comments are most welcome!

Namma Neeru (Our Water) from Aajwanthi on Vimeo.

Bottle neer yaake? Malai Neer ok!

2010-11-08T23:09:00.000-08:00

Mr Vishwanath was visiting the School on the 23rd with Vessela Monta, head of International Rainwater Harvesting Alliance for the inaugural function of the completed rainwater tank. I wanted to see the finished tank and show the kids what I had been working on as well, so tagged along. Sadly, It was a holiday weekend and they were not at school but the tank was done and looked great and we had a small and sweet inaugural function that was organised by the BIAF team in C.K Pura. Here is an image of the finished tank. It reads "Bottle neer yaake? Malai neer ok!" (Why do you need bottled water? Rain water is ok!)I thought that was brilliant! Drawing from Kannada Super star Upendra's UB campaign where he says "Yella ok, cool drink yaake?" (Everything is ok, why do you need a cool drink?)!

The bright blue pump inside the kitchen in the school, to pump out water from the tank

Getting ready for the inaugural ceremony

Mr.Vishwanath giving an introduction and talking to everyone about the importance of the tank

After this, we walked around the village to show Vessela the various rainwater harvesting tanks that were there and functioned properly and we were graciously given lots of nice cold water to drink, from each one of these tanks. One of the ladies we visited said that her supply, instead of lasting her most of the year, gets over in 6-7 months because people who passed by, would stop and ask her for rainwater to drink, which she undoubtedly could not deny them.

Mr.Vishwanath, Vessela and Mr.Ramakrishna talking to the lady whose home the tank was in.

Mr.Ramakrishna drinking water from the rainwater tank.

He was kind enough to pump some water from his tank for us to drink.

Mr.Mohan pouring it into glasses

We stopped at a school on the way to Pavagada to see the state of the rainwater tank there. It was a sad sight. The pipes were broken and probably stolen or taken away and the tank looked like this. It had been positioned in such a bad place as well (Right in the middle of the entrance to the classes). Even if it had been near the wash rooms, it could have been used as a water storage tank. This tank was built as past of the Suvarna Jala Project.

"Under Suvarna Jala scheme started in 2007, Karnataka Government released Rs.73.66 crores for providing rooftop rainwater harvesting structures to rural government schools. Out of 45,337 schools in the state, 23,683 have been reportedly identified under this scheme. So far 20,760 schools have been provided roof top rainwater harvesting at an estimated cost of Rs.5 crores.

Last year, Arghyam, a Bangalore based NGO that is becoming well-known in the water conservation scenario, has conducted a efficiency survey of this scheme in seven districts. In Chamarajanagara, Davanagere, Chitradurga, Dharwar, Gadag and Tumkur districts, out of 1269 structures completed, only 140, a dismal 11 per cent was functional.

Based on their survey, Arghyam had made several recommendations to the state government to execute the rest of the scheme in a result-oriented way. Unfortunately, not much by way of positive developments have come about later."

Read the rest of this article from India Together here and here is a video from the Araghyam site which gives the status report of this project. It clearly says what one needs to do in order for this system to work. My project addresses a small part of the larger solution.

Final Outcomes

2010-11-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

We had our final submission a few days ago. Here are the Version 2.0 of the things I submitted. It's not over yet though. Am preparing for my final juries that are coming up next week and trying to crunch this 4 month project into 15 minutes.The thought itself scares me.

Final Toolkit

The hand washing bottle

The project Documentation

Where did the past month go?

2010-10-18T02:26:00.000-07:00

My desk has looked like this for the past one month. Papers with variations of layouts, fonts, different books and sites I had been referring to, for the content for my toolkit. First I had to fixed a size and decided to go with Saakshi’s suggestion of looking at the golden proportion and tried to fix the margins according to that! Trying to fix a size that had minimum paper wastage, the right margins and fonts, etc itself took me a whole week to get right!

After this, I wrote out the text that went in and chose the images that I wanted in the manual, to make a master sheet. Then came the tiring job of fixing a navigation system and layout. I still have to get it proofread but this is a test print I took in college. After Mr.Vishwanath’s and Rustam’s feedback, quite a few things including the cover, have changed. I will be going to the printers for an actual test print and binding to check for errors in the margin and colours tomorrow or day after. I will put those images up once I am done.

Now that this is nearly done, I am trying to work on the video that goes with the toolkit. I am currently trying to shorten and transcribe it and will have to fine-edit and add the subtitles once I get feedback.

A fluoride mitigation course taught by a fine teacher

2010-10-07T00:23:00.001-07:00

I could possibly kill myself for not having found this earlier. Arghyam's India water portal has a comprehensive fluoride mitigation multimedia kit where a sweet old man comes and tells you about the basics of fluoride, fluorosis, solutions and projects are dealing with this. Perfect to show in the rural context or for beginners. What is even better is that it is available in Kannada! It would have been ideal for me to show the kids this. I will take it to them the next time I visit to say hi!

http://www.indiawaterportal.org/node/736#

A lesson on fluoride in groundwater

The villagers responding to the facilitator's questions

The amount of fluoride some food items contain is shown in this chart

Them as teachers

2010-09-26T12:36:00.000-07:00

Them as teachers

Aim: To empower the students and make them share the knowledge they have gained

Closing the loop

Trying to make them retain more of what they have learnt

I went to talk to Arzu about my project a few weeks ago and she told me about this three tyre system. A Political Visionary (One who is in charge of the larger politics and functioning- could be in the NGO or funders in this case), a Conceptual visionary (One who conceptualises the vision which could be me, in this case) and a Practical visionary (which was also me because I was conducting all the workshops and making it happen). Instead, she said, why don’t you empower the children to be practical visionaries? I thought this was a great idea because I saw for myself that I learnt most when I had to teach and work with these kids. This would just empower them some more and make them feel confident about what they have learnt and share it with their schoolmates too. So, I told the 9^th standard students to prepare an afternoon session for the 8^th standard kids. I told them to write down what they would ask them or say to them. Beginning from the basics of what fluoride is, what it is present in and what its harmful effects were and what they needed to do about it. I gave them all the visual aid I had and told them that I was going to be a student and they should take the class and not ask me what to do. We set up chairs outside and they went out to start their lesson. Boy, were they awesome! Better than me any day! They make the little ones jump up with joy and test their respective village’s water that they were carrying in their bottles and stamped them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ water. The standard 8 kids were so excited that they wanted to test their school rainwater for fluoride and found that it had zero fluoride. They loved it. They also told them about rainwater and how to maintain a rainwater tank by cleaning the top of the roof up 10 minutes before they feel it is going to rain. They told them that they have to help each other maintain the tank that is going to provide them with fluoride free water.

Some of them gave up after some time and went back to class while a few stayed back to finish the lesson. This made me figure how many of them understood what I was talking about! I was surprised to find out that even though they were all in the same campus and the 8^th std. Kids have been watching what I do with the 9^th, they had no idea about what it was all about. Fluoride and rainwater was as new to them as when I started off with standard 9. It was great that they were able to share what they had learnt, though they told me at the end that they were a much better class. ‘These 8^th standard kids are still small and irresponsible” they said!

Having fun with soap

2010-09-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

Aim: To build an experience around hand washing and doing so with soap to integrate it with the bottle we had built earlier

Activity: 'Seeing the unseen' was the most effective theme running through these activities. When they see something, it affects them much more than talking about it (like in the case of testing for fluoride). First I spoke to them about soap and what it does. Then I showed them images of virus and bacteria and hands under UV light so that they could see these microscopic germs. It would have been ideal to carry a microscope and show them their hands under them, but sadly I was not able to source one on time. They were really grossed out by the image of the hand infested with bacteria and exclaimed asking if they really had that many germs on their hands!

(Images above are from google)

Then I gave them sheets with my examples and told them to draw their own germ. Something that they thought was on their hand and name their germ. After which, we went out to wash this germ off their hands. Here are some of the things they came up with. One of them named her germ after another girl in her class!

Then I demonstrated a simple experiment using oil, water and soap to show them how soap works and a little bit about the chemistry behind soap. Here is the experiment.

1| Take two jars and fill them half full of water. Add a drop or two of food colouring and shake.

2| Add some cooking oil to both the jars.

3| Add a few squirts of liquid soap to one of the jars. Put the lids back on tight and shake them for about 30 seconds.When you first put them down, there's not much difference between the two jars. The oil and water molecules are all quite well mixed together.

4| After only a minute or so, you'll start to see the jar with just oil and water in it start to re-separate. The jar with the soap in it is still mixed together.

5| After several minutes, the oil and water only jar has almost completely separated again , but the jar with the soap is still mixed! (as you can see in the bottom right image)

Soap, water and oil are all made up of molecules. Some molecules are hydrophillic, meaning they are attracted to water, and some molecules are hydrophobic meaning they are repelled by water. Oil and water don't mix.

Well that's where soap comes in. Soap is actually a very long molecule that has one hydrophillic end and one hydrophobic end. The water sticks/bonds with the hydrophillic end and the oil sticks/bonds to the hydrophobic end. Two opposing molecules with the soap in the middle. As the water is rinsed away, the soap sticks to the water, and the oil sticks to the soap. Clean!

That's what's happened in the jar. The jar with just oil and water quickly separates. In the jar with the soap added, however, the oil and water stay mixed together for much longer.

After this, I asked them who all had soap at home and was surprised to see all of them raise their hands. I asked them how many of them use it to wash their hands and about 4 put their hands up, I doubt they also do it regularly :) These were only the hostel kids who were given soap for free in their hostel. They proudly announced that they got Mysore sandal soap (the more expensive variety)! Many kids used Lifeboy or Medimix which was the cheapest in the shop we visited. Around Rs.6- Rs.10 a bar. They use it only when they have a bath (twice or thrice a week) and once a day to wash their face. They wanted it to last longer and hence did not want to 'waste' it to wash their hands with them. So, I tried explaining to them that it is essential to wash off those germs from their hands and that they would have to spend much more (I found out that they approximately spend around Rs.50 for consultation and Rs.50 for medicines) each time they visit the doctor in their village for gastric troubles or simple illnesses. We discussed how it is better they spend a little more and stay healthy than spend so much on the doctor and they seemed to agree!

Then, we went out to the courtyard and dissolved a bar of soap to make lots of soap solution for the whole school, to keep near their water tank for them to use. The rest we used to wash our hands and make bubbles and have fun. I taught them a hand washing song in English that we sang with actions. Then I explained to them what it meant and they helped me translate it into kannada and sang it in kannada too! They boys of course turned it into a local 'dappangutthu' type dance song, which was also pretty fun! I still have to upload the video from the casette, it will be up soon!

A hand washing song to the tune of Frere Jacques

Top and Bottom, Top and Bottom, (Rub top and bottom of hands)
In between, In between, (Rub fingers inside on both hands)
All around, All around, (Just like it says)
Makes them clean. Makes them clean. (Flash all ten fingers)

They asked me what they should do once this solution got over. Before I could answer, one of the kids said "this soap is for all of us right? Once this is over, we can all get small pieces from our big soap and make lots of solution and use it!" This was the highlight of my visit.

They took the bottle to lock it up in their principal's office at the end of the day so that no one would waste it! This would be an amazing system, if it works.

This was insightful in many ways. Even a small thing like soap can show class distinction where the hostel boys used Mysore sandal everyday while some of the lower class children used only Medimix and only when they had to. They all knew all the brands available in the two shops in their village though! How much each one costs and everything!

Their water

2010-09-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

I didn't know when I would be able to go back, so, thought it might be nice to do end with some video exercise with the students since they love to tell stories and the camera! The last day (half a day) we spent learning how to shoot a video using a simple digital camera, how to frame , choose locations etc. I gave each group of 5-6 one camera and half an hour to go around school and tell people things about water, what they had had learnt with me and what they liked and didn't like about it. Here are some images of them shooting. They were great for first time camera handlers!

Here is some of the parts of the videos put together. I have to put something together in a way it might make sense(hope something does!) It is still too long. I need to think of a proper narrative and use this to tell their story. Will be working on more edits. any feedback is most welcome!

Final products

2010-09-02T00:08:00.001-07:00

Ok, so suddenly I realised that I have just a little over a month for submission! Hence I need to start working on my final products to that I can take it back to show it to the students and teachers to see if they find it useful (user testing).

My final outputs would be

- Refining and making a working hand washing bottle with soap- building an experience around it and documenting this for the manual/tool-kit

- A participatory film that the students have shot on what they learnt, liked and didn't about these workshops that I will be putting together and

- A tool-kit (manual) for facilitators which will contain all the knick knacks that can be put into a book, needed to facilitate similar participatory activities.

Need. Why this tool-kit?

A tool-kit manual that helps one facilitate participatory workshops, making it fun at the same time

. For teachers employed by the government for these rural schools: Even within this one school, there are two other classes who are very enthusiastic about these workshops but have no material and facilitators to conduct them. Even if there are teachers, they are not exposed to such participatory methods of working and are unaware. They are surprised to see students running around and having fun while learning. Hence this toolkit will enable them to understand what to do and why certain things might or might not work in a context such as this. Since these people belong to the local community, they will have a better understanding of the students and issues as well, making the activities and discussions more enriching.

. For any facilitator who wants to conduct awareness programmes and workshops in this area (like I did): Some background research and pointers would have definitely helped me structure my workshops in a much better way and I would have known what to expect and what not to. This will help people who from outside by giving them some background and pointers

. For people in NGOs like Arghyam and BIAF who are trying to run awareness programmes in the villages anyway: From my short stay in these villages, I have met many enthusiastic people with a passion for learning and teaching. Many people who are trying to spread awareness in their own little ways. They have many ideas but are unable to articulate it and also get the children and community involved. This might be a good ice-breaker. Working with the children using these simple art and design tools which I am going to include in this manual might help them conduct these sessions.

. For health clubs in schools and ‘learn and play’ programmes (a new initiative by the Govt.): Fluoride and water will and should be a part of the discussion in health clubs, which are going to become a mandatory part of school life for students according to the new government rule. This might be a good space to use such manuals, for the children to conduct workshops and activities for themselves and their peer.

. Can be appropriated for other contexts as well: These exercises revolve around water and fluoride, but it can be appropriated to different contexts. I will try and give pointers for that in the tool-kit.

Painting 'us' as the rain

2010-08-29T05:47:00.001-07:00

I didn't want the kids to paint random things on the tank. One of the objectives of doing this was for them to have a 'space' for themselves on the tank, for them to feel the connect with the rainwater so that they would treat it like 'theirs' and drink it and help maintain it as well (though I hear it doesn't really need too much maintenance once its fully built). So, the previous day, I had handed out sheets to them and told them to imagine that they were rain. So the theme was "If I was rain, what would I do?" They had to think about it and come back with a drawing which they would paint on the tank the next day. The responses varied from falling into peoples mouths to going into rainwater harvesting tanks to becoming honey and falling on the flowers.

Translation of what is written above:

If I were rain,

I'd be life to plants.

I would rain on flowers,

By drops; sitting on them.

I pour from the sky and hide at the bottom of buckets and pots.

I am rain.

I don't have any colour, shape or smell.

If I am rain,

I'd come dancing from the sky.

Drop by drop, I fall from the sky,

laughing as I come to the earth

- Sushma

Translation of what is written above:

If I were rain,

I would jump from the sky and join the wells, seas and other water bodies.

If I were rain,

I'd be a lot of help to the people.

If I were a rain drop,

You can see me only during the rainy season.

Now it is summer!

So you can only see me in the tanks.

- Manjula

Aim: To bring about a feeling of connect and ownership for their water tanks and water

To get the community interested in what the students are working on by doing something novel that attracts their attention

To get the larger school community involved and feel a sense of ownership for something they are part of and have to maintain

Activity: All the students in school could come together with interested teachers and parents to just paint their water tank. An act like this allows them to personalise their plain, boring looking tank and also make them feel like it is a part of them, their work. Working together, with the community might give the community a feeling of joint ownership. They all can come together and help each other maintain the tanks that are going to provide them with clean water to drink.

Lokesh laying his foundation in chalk! Then they went over it using the paints.

Their own rainwater harvesting system

Sushma is falling as rain into containers that can hold her.

All done with Gopal falling down as honey!

Manjula getting drenched in the rain

We even got the principal to come and paint his rain! The next day, people in the neighbouring village asked me if I had painted the tank and mentioned that they had seen it as they were passing by the school. I felt so happy! I told them that it was all done by the students and they appreciated it. The students even marked their sectors with their initials and showed their 8th and 10th standard friends what they had drawn. They kept re-visiting their art work through the day.

Started building!

2010-08-29T05:31:00.000-07:00

They have started building the rainwater harvesting tanks at the school! The students help already by watering the cement structure everyday. We all poured buckets of water to keep the tank wet. It will take another month to be fully done, then they get clean water! This tank's capacity is about 32,000 litres.Thanks to the students from Trinity college who decided to give their grant to build tanks in schools in this area. It would have been ideal to paint this tank, but while waiting for it to get done, we painted the other big water tank at the school.

Let's test

2010-08-29T00:34:00.000-07:00

Using the fluoride testing kit, we went around a village (Killarlahalli) and tested various water samples and stamped the source, depending on whether the water was drinking-worthy or not.

Aim: To spread awareness about fluoride and the amount of fluoride in different water sources.

To make facilitators and students work together (Could even be an informal data collection activity)

To get the community interested in what the students are working on/doing

To get them to realise that rainwater is a good alternative and that they should drink that instead

Activity: The students could be split into 2 groups, or more- depending on the number of facilitators available. They get one fluoride testing kit each. They can walk around the village and neighbouring villages and test various water samples with the kits they are provided.(The previous exercise would have helped them identify various sources where they get water from). They could draw from this and test water from the taps in their homes, the kere’s, the well water that they all drink and even the water in the tank in the school. They can compare the fluoride levels in each of these water sources and see how much higher than the permissible levels it is.

To leave a mark and make it slightly more interesting (drawing from guerrilla art), each time they test a source, they can leave a smiley or a sad face sticker near the source, depending on weather the fluoride level is above or below the permissible level. This might be a small way to get the larger community attracted to this as well. If someone sees this, they might react to it and ask around what this is about. This might lead to in-direct awareness through the children and also create dialogue.

These are the water smiley stickers that I am going to ask them to stick on the different water sources, depending on weather they have permissible amounts of fluoride or not.

I first started a conversation on permissible fluoride levels (to see if they remembered- some of them did and some didn't!) and ask them what the positive and negative effects of fluoride are, and what they can do about it. I then quickly showed them how the kit worked.We tested the water that one of the students got from home, with had 2mg/l fluoride. So, they stuck a sad face on the bottle. (The symbol of thumbs up and down was new to them! So I had to keep pointing up and down with my thumb initially to say good and bad! Soon, the picked it up though and at end of each test pointed their thumb up or down accordingly!) Then I told them about the exercise and we set out to the neighbouring village.

We first tested the main water tank in that village which had 1.5mg/l, which is not too bad. So we stuck up a happy smiley. The whole village crowded around to see what we were doing and the kids explained to the community what they were testing and that their water had 1.5mg/l, which was good.

Lokesh sticking up the happy water smiley

Then, while walking around, we found a house which had a rain water harvesting tank! They decided they wanted to test the water the family used to drink before, in the open tank, as well as the rain water that is pumped out from this pump, which they use for drinking now.

The rainwater had no fluoride in it

This is the open tank the family used to drink from earlier. This had 2mg/l

The maximum amount of fluoride we spotted was 3mg/l in a water sample from a household. We told them about the importance of drinking rain water.

After we tested many household samples, two tanks and two rainwater samples, we went back and on the way, discuss the different levels we found.

Inference: Through this activity, the students were able to see for themselves how much the fluoride levels are in the water bodies they see every day. Since they are the ones testing it, it might have had a bigger impact on them (more than when it just spoken about in class). It also added a layer of fun to it as they imagined it to be a mini treasure hunt where they were little scientists and tested the water themselves and leave marks for other people to talk about. It also made it a novel idea around the village and was discussed by people who spotted these water smilies, thus spreading awareness. They asked the kids what they were doing and what it was for. It is also an activity that involves the teachers and the larger community, thus bridging the gap.

More images of this activity can be viewed in this slide show

Fluoride Testing

Something to look forward to : Health clubs

2010-08-24T00:50:00.001-07:00

Here is an interesting proposition made by the Government. They want to set up health clubs in schools in Bangalore, just like they did Science clubs last year. These clubs will consist of students from Classes 8, 9 and 10 and it is set up to create awareness amongst students about physical and mental health, and cleanliness.

It is a great way to go about spreading awareness on health issues, involving the students themselves. This will get them to engage with the subject much more than if they were told to mug it off a textbook. There is scope for peer learning as well as practical application of this learning while they conduct health camps and invite psychiatrists for counselling sessions. Students can set up workshops for themselves and other students and help each other understand health issues and see what creative solutions they can come up with to battle it by themselves. Here is the link to the article in DNA, Bangalore which talks about these health clubs.

http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_coming-soon-health-clubs-in-bangalore-schools_1427846

What next?

2010-08-22T10:08:00.001-07:00

Finally, after about nearly 20 days, I am visiting the school again. Thanks to Mr.Vishwanath and Ruchika, I have managed to procure two fluoride testing kits, something I desperately needed for my next big activity. They both work a little differently.

The Jal Tara kit has a sample bottle and glass tube which needs to be filled with the water sample. A chemical reagent called Zirchonyl Arilazine is added (2 ml to 50 ml of water) and the glass tube then needs to be shaken and left aside for an hour. The change in colour can be compared to the ones given in the chart by looking at the chart through the test tube and the mg/l of fluoride can be detected and noted down.

This is simple enough for the students to do by themselves, but since my activity involves testing many water samples around the village, waiting an hour to do so might not be the best way to do it :P

The second kit I have is more instantaneous. I thought we could use the one above to test samples in school, go out to test lakes and wells and come back to have results of the water in school the school. In the second kit, a similar process is followed by adding a few drops of reagent to a sample of water. The solution changes colour immediately to indicate the mg/l of fluoride.

In the second post above this, I have explained the aim of the activity and what I would like to do with these kits.

Art and design in Education

2010-08-20T23:44:00.001-07:00

'It is sometimes helpful to make sure we are aware if the two major strands of this whole experience. First is expressive, which links art with the other arts, giving opportunity for a variety of human expressions, and interrelating naturally when the idea requires; second, the design aspect, which links it with curriculum areas concerned with planning, crafting, making and evaluation processes.'

'Art and design experience in an education context is essentially practical, making use of the clear logic of visual and tactile language, while also taking into account the intuitive modes of approach. At the heart of this experience lies how the discovery of how materials are reshaped and reformed to make statements of personal expression.'

Art in practice- Margaret Morgan

Re-thinking the device

2010-08-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

I was just trying to re-think the handwashing bottle and wrote down its plus and minus points to see what I could do about it. Here is the list.

Positives	Negatives

Easy to made and handle	The soap that is hanging gets wet at times
Cost effective (Rs..3-4/piece)	Easier to use if two people help each other out
Recycled materials	Doesn't have a cover , so cant be kept inside bags
Portable/Carry able	Exposed soap rubs against the bags and clothes
Easily replaceable parts

This is how the bottles I made with the kids looked

Here is a sketch I made to solve the problem of the soap being exposed. It is easy to make and cheap too. The soap can be stored in this pouch and if not soap strips, even a small sample piece of soap can be cut up and kept inside. It can even be attached to the cap using a piece of thread.

Get some cycle tube rubber and wash them up

Cut up a small 'H' shaped piece for the pouch

Stitch another small flap of rubber onto the top (to store the soap so that it doesn't get wet or touch the clothes and the bag it is stored in). Since it is rubber, it doesn't matter if the pouch itself gets wet while the children wash their hands.

Attach this pouch to the bottle using some glue or pins or just tie it to the back

It would be ideal to use a bottle that looks like this. With an open-able cap, so that the water doesn't drip on the way and in their bags. I am trying to find one so that I can make a workable neat prototype with that.

Visiting a scientist

2010-08-17T10:47:00.000-07:00

I am waiting to get access to some fluoride testing kits so that I can visit C.K Pura again. I have been trying to find the chemicals needed for that, but in vain. Am still contacting people who might have them. I think I might just have found one!

Meanwhile, Mr.Vishwanath calmed me down by suggesting that I visit Professor Kesava Rao at IISc. He teaches in the Chemical Engineering department and works with treatment of drinking water, focusing on de-fluoridation. He was very kind and agreed to meet me right away. I spoke to him about what I was doing and asked him a few questions on effects of fluoride, de-fluoridation techniques and kits and he gave me a tour of his lab to look at projects that his students and himself have been working on.

Professor Kesava Rao

The first one was an M.E students thesis where he has built a device using a simple lunch box and a photo diode. A set of reagents are used to calibrate the resistance it offers which is then plotted on a graph to find out how much fluoride the sample contains. It is work in progress but it works! Something like this is easy to build as well as cost effective. Each box costs about Rs.250 (of course the chemicals and the gadgets apart) but would still work out lesser than testing the sample in a lab where they charge 1500-2000 rupees is what I was told. Here is a video of the professor explaining it to me.

Solar Still

This is another neat device that I was shown. It is a low-tech way of distilling water, powered by the heat of the sun. In a solar still, impure water is contained outside the collector, where it is evaporated by sunlight shining through the glass. The pure water vapor (and any other included volatile solvent) condenses on the cool inside surface and drips down off of the weighted low point, where it is collected in a bottle and removed. It distils and most impurities, I was told, including arsenic and fluorine. Volatile impurities also escape while it is heated up by the sun. It costs around Rs.850 to make a 0.5 sq ft/mt solar still. It has its advantages and disadvantages of course. The sun needs to be bright and out for this to work. It could also, at times be used to harvest rainwater and thus could even be a good idea to have in these villages since it requires low maintenance and cost. Here is a short clip of the one set up in the department terrace. They are soon going to take it to a fluoride affected area to test it and get some field data.

The last method was using activated Alumina (Aluminium Oxide)

The water is passed through a tube filled with activated alumina which absorbs the fluoride in the water to give out pure water. This powder though, gets saturated after a while and needs to be desaturated with some chemicals (which in turn become highly acidic). Thus it requires quite a bit of monitoring and maintenance once in a while. They are trying to reduce the costs so that this can be implemented. The water is stored in a plastic drum as seen in the first image and flows through the pipe, through the activated alumina (the powder in the second image) and comes out through the nozzle.

Sorry for the bad image quality! I wasn't aware that one could take videos inside the lab! Next time I'll make sure I take a better camera, these were shot on my cell phone.

This is a small part of a chart they have put up outside their lab on fluoride and flurosis and various methods of distillation that they are working on.

Design in Education

2010-08-17T10:32:00.000-07:00

Akshataa, Priyanka and I gave a presentation to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th years students who have taken up a course on design for education to send their entries in for the Index Design Challenge this year. We spoke about Design in Education, Alternative Learning Methods, and our respective diploma projects in the realm of Design and Learning. Here is the presentation.

Design in Education

Health impacts

2010-08-14T01:27:00.000-07:00

Here is a table I found in the CSE site

http://www.cseindia.org/node/655

HEALTH IMPACTS: WATER POLLUTANTS

Physico-chemicals parameters and their significance

Parameters	Health Hazards
Color	The presence of inorganic and organic impurities imparts colour to the water, decreasing consumer acceptance. Sometimes, the impurities may be toxic.
pH	A measure of relative acidity of the water. It is useful in assessing the corrosivity of water to plumbing.
Alkalinity	The amount of bicarbonate, the major anion in water, is related to pH and causes corrosion.
Acidity	Not a pollutant, in water it neutralises hydroxyl ions
Turbidity	A measure of clarity of water. If turbidity is high, there may be chances of water born diseases
Solids (dissolved, suspended, total)	These provide a measure of the suspended solids that can be separated with a filter and the dissolved salts that are present in water.
Conductivity	A measure of total dissolved minerals in water. A change in conductivity or unusual ratio of conductivity to hardness may signal presence of contaminants
Hardness	A measure of the amount of calcium and magnesium. Hardness is a measure of the capacity of water to precipitate soap. This is particularly important if water softening is considered
Dissolved Oxygen	This is a measure of dissolved oxygen in water. Decreased levels of dissolved oxygen in water affect the waterbodies
Chemical Oxygen Demand	Indicates the amount of O2(MAKE LOWERCASE) required to oxidise the carbonaceous matter. COD taste is widely employed as a means to measure the pollutional strength of domestic and industrial waste
Oil and Grease
Bromide	Chlorination of water that contains bromide ion may produce bromate ion as an undesirable disinfection by-product. Bromate ion is a carcinogen and nephrotoxin
Chloride	An indicator ion that if found in elevated concentration, points to potential contamination from septic systems, fertilizer, landfills, or road salt
Fluoride	Excessive levels of fluoride causes fluorosis, a mottling of the surface of the teeth
Nitrate	Nitrate in drinking water can cause blue baby syndrome in infants under six months old. Blue baby syndrome, or methemoglobinemia, are common symptoms of nitrate contamination. Nitrate contamination in drinking water may also increase cancer risk, because nitrate is endogenously reduced to nitrite and subsequent nitrosation reaction give rise to N- nitroso compounds; these compounds are highly carcinogenic and can act systematically
Nitrite	These serve as an indicator of the potential presence of other contaminants, such as pesticides or trace organic chemicals from septic system effluents
Phosphate	Excessive consumption of phosphorus may lead to osteoporosis and poor bone maintenance
Sulfate	Ingestion of water containing high levels of sulfate may be associated with Diarrhoea, and other gastrointestinal disorders. Of particular concern are groups in the general population (i.e. infants and transients) that may be at greater risk from the laxative effects of sulfate when they switch abruptly to drinking water with high sulfate concentrations
Calcium	Water with high calcium content is undesirable for various household uses such as washing, bathing and laundering, because of consumption of more soap and other cleaning agents
Magnesium	Mg has diuretic, cathartic and laxative effects if it is present in high concentrations

Water warrior!

2010-08-14T01:18:00.001-07:00

Mr.Vishwanath writes a column in the Hindu and has written about my project in his last week's piece! Here is the entire article. It is great to see so many people working in this zone and I hope I am able to contribute something worthwhile to this.

Zoom out, Zoom in

2010-08-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

As my review panel had advised, I decided to take a step back and see what the 'larger than life' picture is. Systems thinking and design is something Rustam had also told me to look at. Wikipedia defines systems thinking as the process of understanding how things influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish. In organizations, systems consist of people, structures, and processes that work together to make an organization healthy or unhealthy.

Systems thinking has been defined as an approach to problem solving, by viewing "problems" as parts of an overall system, rather than reacting to specific part, outcomes or events and potentially contributing to further development of unintended consequences. Systems thinking is not one thing but a set of habits or practices within a framework that is based on the belief that the component parts of a system can best be understood in the context of relationships with each other and with other systems, rather than in isolation. Systems thinking focuses on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect.

Here are some examples of different kinds of system maps.

http://kauaian.net/blog/?p=1354

So, I need to understand the whole system before I can do anything to it.

I read up on this and tried to draw an information flow diagram. An information flow is an illustration of information flow throughout an organisation or system. An IFD shows the relationship between external and internal information flows. It also shows the relationship between the internal and sub-systems. I tried putting in all the factors within this scenario that influence each other. My panel had told me, "If you had all the time, money and resources, what would you do with this project? What are all the possibilities? Put them all down." So, I tried doing just that. Once I did that, I don't know how much clearer it was in my head because it looked like this!

One thing that I could do though, is zoom in. From all these possibilities, I knew what I wanted to work on exactly. This zone was what I wanted to handle. Of course, all of them are linked to each other, as seen in the map.While zooming in, I was told to look at where in this system can I leverage the right amount of time, effort and energy so that it produces a positive feedback loop. Sometimes, even though the intent it right, what we do might produce negative feedback loops, which is just making an already complex system worse. So, I have to step back from time to time and see if I am creating positive feedback loops.

From the zone (green outline) I wanted to work in, the key bubble words were Children, Fluoride, (Rain) Water, Awareness and Behavioural change. So, the next task to accomplish all this through fun methods. Something the children feel for, can relate to and feel like they are a part of. If this happens, then behaviour change will automatically follow. This is probably a better way to go about it (through nudges) than buggering 'change what you do!' in their faces. That on the other hand is probably not going to produce any positive results.

Yes, I am made this on Illustrator so that it is more understandable for everyone :) Here it is

Concept Map

From this, the area I want to concentrate on is

Zoomed in

So, I have make/facilitate or design something that involves children and makes them aware of the seriousness of fluoride in water and how rain water is a possible solution. Doing this in an interactive and fun way might lead to behavioural change. The next chart shows a few ideas on how I could possibly do this.

What can be done?

Nudges for action

2010-08-02T01:53:00.000-07:00

Aim: To create little nudges from the associations obtained in the previous exercises through a playful mode.

Activity: The students can make little ‘mascots’ or ‘emoticons’; characters that they derive from their association with water. (Insights from the previous exercise might feed into it). They can use scrap material, clay, play dough, cut up pieces of paper, found objects, beads and buttons, M-seal etc. to create their mascot. After they have made their mascot, they can tie it up to their personal ‘squirter’ a device made from a plastic bottle that squirts out enough water to wash ones hands or water a plant. Soap strips or a small piece of soap could also be tied to this. They can carry this around with them during school hours or lunch hours to constantly remind them about this association they have. This might also be useful for them to wash their hands with soap near the plants when they go to their open loos or wash their plate etc. with minimal amount of water. If it is a small bottle, only the amount you squeeze comes out. This can later be refilled and used again.

Inference: Through this exercise, I hope the students are able to visualize their association and turn them into a ‘nudge’ that reminds them subtly at all times that they should be doing a particular thing; whether is washing their hand or throwing garbage into the bin or pouring enough water after they use the washroom (one topic that each student chooses).

Assumptions

> They would find it easy to make and use and carry it with them when they went to the loo

> Since they already knew their associations, they would find it easy to paint it onto their bottles.

> They would have a problem working with new material- like cutters and acrylic paints.

Reactions

This exercise changed drastically as I could not source enough and a variety of materials for them to make their mascots. I guess that was a constraint I had, since I had to carry all the material and travel by 4 buses to get there! Instead, I decided that they would make their squirter but would paint their associations on it instead of making a mascot that represented something. This device is something that these children can carry with them, anywhere they go, specifically to the open loos that they use. It makes hand-washing and easier and fun task for them to follow. The first day, I showed them what I had made, and a few of them who had bottles made their own. The next day, I told all of them to bring bottles that were thrown away at home to make their devices. I was really surprised when Soumya got this bottle to class to ask me if it was ok to use it. She had clearly understood what was needed and didn’t want to be messy with the hole. This bottle also had a cap to prevent leakage. I was really impressed.

They loved the soap strips most of all. The novelty of this itself might make them wash their hands for a week, but sadly they do not have access to paper soap in the village. Instead, I told them to cut up a piece of soap and tie it to their bottle, once the strips were over.

They quickly pierced their holes, tied up their threads and sat down to paint. This now, was a disaster. They just wanted to be done with it and get the soap, so that they could go and use it. However much I tried telling them to paint their links with water, most of them drew flowers and some even copied from the others! They were at peace only once they attached that soap. Chowdamma and Sushma wanted to show me how theirs worked! They even helped each other and worked together so that they could wash both their hands properly. Here is a video of that.

Introducing them to Bio-Sand filters

2010-08-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Activity Four

Aim: An activity to show them a cause and effect action using water test vials and introduce them to the Bio-Sand filter

Activity: I could demonstrate to them how to make a bio-sand filter along with SODIS and tell them the importance of these two in conjunction. They can test the water they put in, before and after filtration using the H₂S bottle test. After that, they can make their own sand filters individually or in groups and keep them at school and use the water that comes from this filter.

Inference: Through this, the children might get to know that the water can be impure and there are methods by which they can take initiative to get clean water for themselves and their class/community.

Assumptions:

> Some of the water we rest is going to be bacteriology affected

> The students might be excited enough to make it and use the water from this filter

> They might go home and try to make it and share it with their family and friends

> Would ask me if they could test other water sources near their homes

Response

I showed them a video on how the sand filter works before they began, so that they would have an idea of how to go about making it. In groups of five, they made their filters, each competing to make theirs faster and better than the rest of the groups. They kept coming to me to 'check' if they were doing it right. It was the first time they were working with m-seal and cutting up material. They found it very exciting. Once their m-seal had dried, we went on to text the filters. One groups failed because their straw was cut at the wrong place and it started to leak, but four others worked right. They looked at it in awe when muddy water went through one end and clear water appeared through the other. One of them volunteered to come up and explain what she understood of the whole process. She was so enthusiastic that she even made diagrams of the filter in her book for herself to remember :) I was so happy there were students like this. The best moment was when they all came screaming saying "ma'am straw, ma'am gum" and I asked why they wanted these things? They replied saying they wanted to make one for themselves at home. They also tested the water that came out using the H2S strip test to find that is was not bacteriology contaminated. Some of them took bottles back home to test the water in the keres near their homes.

Sushma's notes on how the bio-sand filter works.

Inference

Introducing them to AT like this, something that they can make and see the effects for themselves was a good experience. They probably enjoyed it too. After the activity, when I asked someone to give me a summary, many of the kids were shy and some didn't know! So, if learning by just looking at it in textbook, none of them would have known. They said they had been studying about sand filters since 5th standard, but had never made one, even though it was so easy to make it.

Testing the filters they made

Sushma explaining to the class what they had done that day

Kilaralahalli

2010-08-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

All this while, I thought that I lived and worked in the same village. Apparently not! Only this visit, did I realise that if something is just down the road, doesn't mean it is in the same village :) I stayed at C.K.Pura and the school is in Kilaralahalli. This was the first time I went by bus from C.K.Pura, hence I got to know.

Discovering the village

2010-08-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

However liberated I fee in such environments, it is weird, for me and the people around, if I just walk in and out of their space. They have seen me around, but I never got a chance to interact with the people whose village I was living in. This visit was long enough for me to walk around in the evening and document the water bodies. Here is where I met my new friends who showed me around the village. I went to photograph the open well where all of C.K.Pura gets its drinking water from.

Here I met Mounica, Asha and Siri, three curious little girls who had come to take drinking water back to their homes after school was over. I went upto them and asked them if I could take a photo, in my broken Kannada. They obliged and asked me what I was doing there. After I told them, they decided to take me around the village, since it was play time anyway! Mounica graciously lent me her cycle (one that the government had provided her with to go to school) so that I could go for a spin as well!

I asked them about their school and home and what their parents did. Asha insisted that I go to her house and her mother gave me ground nuts that she had harvested. It was all very overwhelming! We walked on the bund and they showed me the 'kere' which practically had no water in it. It was a beautiful view though. They told me that we wouldn't be standing where we were if it were raining. The water would overflow till it reached the fields. This water was mostly used for agriculture. They even showed me the marked stone which showed them how much water there was left.

On the way, the showed me many plants and explained to me, what they do with it. They were not aware of the names of the plants, but they knew the uses.

"These are the thorns that they use to pierce their ears and noses in the village" said Asha, pointing to her nose.

"These flowers are squeezed. There is some liquid that comes out. The make soap out of that!" said an excited Akhila

Asha uses these long stemmed plants as her skipping rope, something she plays with everyday.

After this, we visited the Kalyani, a tank they have a bath in before they visit the temples and on festivals. They also swim in it occasionally. Akhila poured a few pots of water on the new cement slab they had built for a god's statue. The water from the Kalyani was pure and clean, she said.

Identifying problem areas

2010-08-01T05:00:00.000-07:00

Initial activity idea

Activity: To trigger off initial thoughts, I could show them some slides or put up some charts with of what it takes to be clean and healthy. What are things one must do in order to use the available resources like water, not waste it, yet maintain personal and public hygiene?

Triggers for good health and sanitation

The quick presentation I showed them to trigger off a discussion

I want to make flash cards that each have one icon related to health or hygiene. I will show them those cards and they can raise their hand to tell me how many of them actually follow those practices that are essential. Then, we can go around the campus and stick these cards in the places they belong in. (Hand washing with soap near their tank, boiling water before drinking near the pots they store water in, etc.)

The flash cards that we stuck up in campus

Inference: Through this, I might get to know how much these children know about the water touch-points, how much it actually affects their lives and what they are willing to do about it as well as what they feel is ‘ideal’ and how much we can actually cater to actually fulfilling that. They will also be introduced to basic health and sanitation.

Assumptions:

> Some of these things will be new to them

> Seeing the flash cards and placing them in context might make them change their mind about some of these practices

> They will be curios and ask me questions related to the same.

> They will be able to link these to the practices in their school and homes

Reactions

I began the presentation right after their lunch break. They were excited to see the presentation because of the novelty of the laptop, but already seem to know about what they need to follow in terms of health and hygiene, like many of us do! This was just to trigger off thoughts in their heads and act as a preamble to the artifacts they were going to be introduced to. The flash cards had two sides- the practice on one side and what one might miss, on the other. For example, it is not enough just to wash one’s hands. One needs to do so with soap. So, I asked them how many of them washed their hands just then, before lunch and all of them raised their hands. Then I asked how many of them had washed with soap, and they started laughing and put all their hands down. Similarly they store water collected from the open wells in covered matkas, but do not boil it before drinking. They were almost surprised when I said we must boil our water to remove the germs. Similarly, the do not have washrooms in school. The girls go in a big group behind the greenery to the right side of the school and the boys go out to the road and they do not wash their hands after. The washrooms in school are only for the staff! I told them about the importance of using the washrooms and to take a bucket of water while they go and wash their hands with soap after they are done (to make this easier for them, we made small hand-washing devices with soap strips attached to them so that they could take it out with them wherever they were going to pee). After this was done, we identified places in their school where these practices fit in and stuck the cards there so that each time they see it, they might just follow some of those practices. The staff and the teachers also came with us and saw us stick the flash cards.

Chowdamma sticking the washing hands and soap card on the tank in school where they wash their hands

Putting up the boiling water card outside the school kitchen and the collect rainwater on the class door.

They assured me that they would stick it on the tank when its built in their school next month!

Inference

> Most of them know the facts

> They are more excited about the practical aspect of learning

> They were able to link the practices I was talking about, to the ones they follow in school and at home. They were able to question it. Only things like bathrooms and toilets needs administrative level support, but smaller things like boiling, filtering and washing hands- they can do themselves

> They enjoyed going out on a tour of the school and fighting over who would stick the cards in the appropriate places. It was almost like a treasure hunt. They decided that the one who was able to correctly state what the card talked about and identified the place would be the one to go stick it up.

A day of water usage

2010-07-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

This is a small filler worksheet I made after the first activity.

Aim: An activity to see understand when and how these students interact with water.

Activity: I have given them an activity sheet which has three columns. Every time they come in contact with water, they have to fill this sheet in. One that says ‘Action’- what they are using the water for, the second ‘Source’ – where they are getting this water from and third ‘Quantity’- approximately how much they use. I told them to take it home with them and fill it across a day, every time they used water and share it with the whole class the next time we meet, to see what the patterns are.

Inference: Through this, I hope to know where the touch points are, where the children come to contact with water and where that water comes from and how much they use. This might just be a revelation for me and them as well- to look at their water usage patterns.

I have given these to them and explained what they have to do. They immediately asked what these three words and translated it for themselves into Kannada. I am waiting to see what they have filled in. I will know soon!

Here are some of the responses!

Associations

2010-07-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

I visited on the 20th, sadly to find out the next day was a holiday due to a festival that was happening in the village. I had many adventures on the way thought! The list included a bus strike, getting stranded in the Andhra border in a random village without knowing the language and travelling at the back of a shared auto holding on to my dear life, just to get there on time so that I could at least spend an afternoon with them! It was a good experience none the less :)

View from the back of my auto

From the three schools I visited earlier, I decided to work with the private school, as it had students from 7th to 9th grade, older ones who had been introduced to this subject at least a little bit and many girl children as well. Some of these children's homes have had rainwater tanks as part of the government's Sachetana project, yet they don't drink rain water as the tanks are not being maintained properly. A little tour of the school before I begin.

School building with the 3 classrooms

Front yard which is used as their sports field/play area

Toilets- one for the girls and one for the boys with no supply of water

Tank in the school yard where children collect water to drink, wash their plates after their meals and to the toilet as well.

Students running to grab their cycles and go home as it was raining after classes ended

This was the first time I was interacting with them. I had only just spoken to them for a few minutes the previous visit. As an ice-breaker, I told them who I was and what I was doing and started off with a simple mind-mapping/drawing activity for both of us to understand what our associations with water were.

Aim: An activity to see what the students associate with water. Their perceptions of the water they are exposed to and how much they know about it and what they feel their immediate needs are.

Activity: To mind-map, write or draw associations with water that they might have on a big sheet of paper (This could be done in small groups). Stories they might have heard from their family and their current connections with water. Colour, objects they associate with it, anything on one side of the given sheet. Once they are done, they flip to the other side, where they would fill in what they think is an ideal scenario. What the situation would be like if there were no problems and if they had clean water, like they are going to, soon. What does this mean to them? This will give an idea of the future they are envisioning for themselves.

After doing this, the different groups share it with the whole class.

Inference: Through this, I might get to know how much these children know about the water they are exposed to, how much it actually affects their lives and what they are willing to do about it as well as what they feel is ‘ideal’ and how much we can actually cater to actually fulfilling that.

Assumptions:

> They will be able to link water directly to their problems

> They will understand what I am trying to say

> They will work together in groups effectively

> They will participate enthusiastically

The above was what I had in mind when I went there. I divided them into 4 groups and they started off. Paying so much attention to being neat, some of them refused to write or draw without using a ruler or drawing lines and writing on that. They would first write in pencil and then go over it with sketch pens and crayons. I sat with them and drew my associations on a sheet, like a mind map, and they looked at me like I was doing something wrong :) Maybe they were wondering why I was being messy and not using a ruler! Then they started getting fascinated and wanted to copy what I did. To stop this, I stopped drawing and sat with each group to help them out individually.

Initially they were really apprehensive about what they wrote. They tried to copy a poem from their text book, one on water. I then took the books from them and told them to write or draw what came to their mind when they thought of water. What they see around them in the village etc. Then slowly they started with the general 'textbook' matter like the properties of water and that it boils at 100 degrees Celsius and that it is used for drinking, bathing, cooking, washing clothes, for plants and trees, birds and cattle, to construct houses for making bricks and farming. With this, they also mentioned that we need it more for plants and trees as they supply us with oxygen which we need for survival.

Just from these few words, there is a sense of being connected to certain daily activities, being sensitive, without being aware of it. I would never have thought of water for cattle, birds and trees and for construction work, even though it seems obvious now.

After the uses and properties, they went on to write songs that they have heard, sources of water in their village (taps, tankers, wells, lake and bore wells)

They also talked about water pollution and how people wash their clothes near the water bodies in the village and how that pollutes it. They also mentioned that waste water from factories is let out into the river and seas in the cities and since the seas are the main source of water, lots of water is contaminated.

They were aware of diseases spreading trough water. How pools of water get collected near the tanks they use and how they get diseases because of this. (Shown in the chart above) So, they say that one should always boil water before they drink it. Now, the real question is, how many of them actually do it? If they know it and yet don't apply their knowledge, how can I facilitate that process?

There was a section on rainwater as well. They said one must harvest rain water and filter and boil it before drinking it and store it in their houses. How the rain water helps the farms as they need lots of water to grow crops and how the lakes get full because of the rains.

An interesting part to look at was also what they thought was an ideal scenario. These were some of the things that came up;

Rainwater being harvested properly

Water tankers should supply near school

Daily supply of water at home from taps

Taps in bathrooms

Plenty of water for farming

Drinking water for patients in the hospitals

Drinking water near bus stops and railway station.

Clean water for cooking food at home

Clean water for drinking

Water for the cattle

One that truly made me laugh and think at the same time is when a child in one of the groups wrote in her ideal scenario that she wanted clean water to wash the God's idols at home. I would have thought that would be last priority considering they do not have access to clean water for drinking and washing up for themselves! It is hope though, shows that some cultural practices are still top priority!

One of the teams ended with a neat quote, “We are from water, without water we are nothing. So, conserve water, its our duty”

Besides looking at the positive side, one group had attempted to look at the negatives as well. They said that if there is too much rain, it causes floods and if too less, draughts. Hence we need the right amount of it.

After they finished, we discussed each group's chart with the whole class and led the discussion towards the fluoride in the water that they drink and how they should help maintain the rain water harvesting tanks that are going to built in the school so that they can drink clean water and avoid getting fluorosis. Many of them did not even know what fluoride was and how it was harming them. We also told them what they could eat, to reduce fluoride content in their body (tamarind, ground nuts etc.)

A student presenting her groups chart

A song on water, sung by one of the students

Mr.Umesh, the person who makes the students understand what I am trying to tell them!

Insights after the workshop

> Even though water is something that they have problems with everyday, they were initially unable to relate the word itself to the fact that it was a problem, or anything associated with it. As soon as I said 'water', they were stuck and didn't know what to write except for the facts that they had learnt from their text books.

Things could/should be drawn from their personal experiences and what they see around them and not from factual matter.

> They were happy working in groups as all of them had something to contribute and helped each other out when they were stuck. Without me giving any orders, they nominated one or two people within their group (probably the ones who have best writing/drawing skills) to translate what they said onto the sheet.

> They need to move beyond their text books and be exposed to a practical way of learning and thinking. Using audio-visual aids might be helpful in this case.

Categorization

2010-07-19T10:57:00.000-07:00

When I freak out, post-its make me feel calm. They are like little boxes that hold matter that makes sense by themselves and as a whole, with many others. One day last week I felt like I was lost. To make things clearer for myself, I put up the various stages of the project (research, process, design/idea and user testing) and put under it, what I needed to do and what I have already done. I also made a mind-map of whatever I know of the current situation and problems in the village. Once half my cupboard door was filled with post-its, I felt calm again, like there was some matter after all.

Water testing

2010-07-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

I got permission to visit the village again, just to immerse myself and talk a little more to the children and community. The last visit was a little hurried and short for me to get many insights. Mr.Vishwanath suggested that I take a fluoride testing kit with me. He also gave me a set of H₂S strip test bottles. I got them home with me to see how I could use them. The manual itself might need some help, but the instructions and reason behind each step is very clearly given. This kit contained 2 glass cylinders, a sample collection bottle, 2 bottles of Zirconyl Alizarin reagent and some ph paper. My room almost looked like my school chemistry lab while I was setting this equipment up! I liked that :)

Before trying to use the kit, I read up a little on why one needs to test for fluoride in water.

‘Excessive presence of fluoride in ground water and their health effects have become a major geo-environmental issue in many parts of the world, including India. Fluorosis is an endemic disease caused by intake of F in quantities more than permissible limit for a prolonged time. Long term intake of F ( > 1.5 ppm) leads to three types of abnormalities; dental fluorosis (teeth), skeletal fluorosis (bones) and non skeletal manifestations. Latest reports indicate that less fluoride is always better in water. According to Indian standards of drinking water, desirable limit for fluoride is 1mg/l which may exceed to 1.5mg/l. Fluoride may be kept as low as possible.

Sources: Naturally by rocks and minerals, tobacco, tooth paste and powder, tea, preservatives and medicines.

Here is a link by the India Water Portal on Fluoride water testing kits and other quality testing kits

http://indiawaterportal.org/node/1123

I was given H₂S test bottles as well. These are used for testing the bacteriological content in water. It is a bottle in which the sample of water to be tested is put in. In the bottle, is a slide made of an inert plastic material coated with a nutrient. It is then shut and kept for a period of several hours or overnight. If, at the end of this period, the slide has acquired or changed colour it is an indication that the sample is contaminated. Tests for bacteriological contamination using such kits only indicate the presence or absence of contamination (also called a GO/NO GO result) and not its extent.

I tested the PH of the water I drink from the aqua-guard today! There was a PH strip test within the fluoride kit. It was around 7. The ph of normal portable water is around 6-8. I am hoping to show the children in the school how this works and make them test the water they use by themselves.

Not evolution, but a revolution in education

2010-07-18T22:06:00.001-07:00

"And doing that, I think is the answer to the future because it's not about scaling a new solution; it's about creating a movement in education in which people develop their own solutions, but with external support based on a personalized curriculum."

"Reform is no use anymore, because that's simply improving a broken model. What we need -- and the word's been used many times during the course of the past few days -- is not evolution, but a revolution in education. This has to be transformed into something else."

These very inspiring and powerful quotes are from the TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson where he makes the case for a radical shift from standardized schools to personalized learning -- creating conditions where kids' natural talents can flourish. I found this on a Anushka's blog. Both of us are working with children and looking at how their different needs can be addressed through working with them in new ways. This talk was really inspiring and makes me feel like I am in the right place doing the right thing!

Design needs and opportunities - Round 1

2010-07-14T21:39:00.002-07:00

The three schools I visited are ones that are getting rain-water harvesting tanks built on their roofs starting next week. They are going to get filtered rain water, free of fluoride and fit for drinking from the next month. I am going to try and define some needs and thus opportunities that I could take up.

Needs that I could address

> The children need to be aware of what the problem with their existing water is. Why they have dental fluorosis and how rain-water is going to help them.

> These tanks hold enough water for 150 days of the year (working days in school) and can provide just about 1litre per child during these days. Thus, it is important for them to conserve it while not compromising on their personal health and hygiene. Also, since it is only now that they are exposed to clean drinking water, it cannot be a direct 'save water' or 'use less water' message. It needs to be a subtle nudge that reminds them of what they should do.

> They need to come together and work with the teachers, as a community, in maintaining these tanks so that they feel a sense of ownership and can maintain the tanks well enough for them to function for long.

> There are many schools within a radius of 1-2 km. within this village. It would be good if this awareness spreads to them as well through some medium. It could then be scaled up. Even if it involves conducting workshops for 10 children from each school.

I would like to take up one of these schools first to see how much the students relate to water and what they feel the immediate need is. Do they even feel that there is a need for change? If so, how can I be involved in that?

Comparison of the three schools

2010-07-14T21:39:00.001-07:00

Name of school	No. Of students + teachers	Classes	Water	Awareness	Fluoride level
Mangalavada	295 + 9	1 to 7	Bore well water used in taps/ hand pumps	Very less. Interested in knowing and maintaining	2.82 ppm
C.K. Pura HPS		1 to 7	Bore well water used in taps. No drinking water in school	Administration interested in the RW systems. Kids are unaware	2.2 ppm
Rashtrapragathi High school	160+3	7 to 10	Bore water stored in a big tank to wash hands and plates	Little more aware of the water being contaminated etc. Students very eager to learn.	2.2 ppm

Visit to C.K. Pura

2010-07-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was my long awaited site visit day and I left Bangalore at 5.45 am to reach Tumkur by 8 am. I was lost, but the scenic beauty kept me walking aimlessly till I found the office I needed to go to. The weather was just perfect and it already seemed like a good start. From there, I was taken to Pavagada taluk by car by the project coordinator from BIRD-K. It is practically inaccessible by road otherwise and the buses, I was told, would take too long. On both sides were lush green patches and hills and occasional ponds that made it picture perfect.

En route to Pavagada Taluk

We reached mid-day and I visited three schools in C.K Pura, a small village part of the Pavagada taluk, a taluk which comprises of more than 300 such villages.

C.K. Pura entance

BIRD-K office in C.K. Pura

Frankly I was amazed at the quality and maintenance of these Government schools. One would imagine that schools in such villages might not be attended to as much, but the campuses are inviting, exciting and there is a lot of scope for children to learn and play, only the exposure and awareness in missing. The first school I visited was

Magalavada HPS (Higher Primary School)

This is a government school with 295 students and 9 staff members. It has 12 rooms and classes from standard 1 to 7. This school is a chosen spot for the building of a rainwater harvesting tank and the teachers are excited about this prospect. (i.e. there is willingness to help maintain school property so that the children can get clean water). The government provides them with rice and some vegetables and this is used to cook mid-day meals for the children (rice and sambar).

Building and courtyard of Magalavada HPS

Kitchen where the mid-day meals are cooked

They are aware of the high fluoride levels in their water, but do not know what it is exactly and what to do about it. The current source of water is a bore well from which water is pumped up and used from taps and hand pumps. There is just enough water to cook and clean that the children carry bottles of water from home, to drink during their school hours. Even though medical check-ups are mandatory once a year, it is hardly ever conducted. A few people come, take a look at 5-10 children at one go and go back. Due to this, they are not even aware of which child might be affected by what disease or condition. A few of them are anaemic and the doctors have provided them with pills that the school makes sure they have every day. They say that this is what the government provides them with and they can’t afford anything else; not even tamarind and groundnuts, food items that help with the fluoride levels. There was an Aquaguard that the government had provided the school with, but the teachers did not know what to do with it and how to work it. So it lies in the office connected to nothing. They store water in plastic pots with lids for drinking.

An Aquaguard that is not fixed due to lack of information on how to use it

Storage of water for drinking in closed plastic containers

In this school, the teachers were even aware of how many kids had anaemia. They mentioned that medical check-ups were mandatory twice a year, but it never really happens that way. The doctors come once in a few months, to check a few of the kids and the school is provided with vitamins for children with deficiencies and anaemia. They teachers make sure the children eat these tablets.

The second one was C.K. Pura HPS, a sweet little campus with small hut like structures for classes. There are students from grade 1 to 7 in this school as well. It has a very well maintained garden and play area but the sanitation conditions are abysmal. The soak pits are clogged and hence the toilets cannot be used and the children go out near the big natural tank behind the school to relieve themselves and they wash up there before coming back to school. This is a problem for the girl children. Students here also bring a bottle of water with them from home, to drink due to unavailability of enough drinking water in the school campus. Many of these students are affected by dental fluorosis and they are not aware of what it is and how they got it. When asked, one student asked if it was because she didn’t brush right.

Entrance to the school

Garden/play area in the school

Children carry bottles of water to drink, from their houses

The last school I went to was Rastrapragathi High School. This is just one building with 3 rooms and a big play field. This is an amazing set-up because it started off as an initiative to encourage girl children to attend school. It was initially only for girls, but now, slowly it has expanded to accommodate a few boys too. This is a government supported private school. The government provides these children with cycles to go from their house to school everyday. This is also a great way of encouraging them to attend school. Only question though, is why only this one? It also provides them with uniforms. Since it began as a girls school, there is a small useable toilet at the side of the school as well. There is one large tank where children drink water from and also wash their plates after mid-day meals. Here, the children were more aware of the water conditions. When asked the same question about dental fluorosis, they replied saying that they knew it is because of bad water. They also wanted to know what they could do to make it go away.

Boys who have recently joined the school initially intended to encourage girls to attend school

Children affected by dental fluorosis. It is a common sight in these schools

Questionnaire for the visit

2010-07-14T21:33:00.000-07:00

This was just a back up questionnaire as I didn't want to go there and be stuck for questions! I had to decide what I was going to ask the people I was going to meet. This was a start. Also something like this would help me compare the data between schools easily.

There are three groups of people I could interact with

1) Local people, parents and teachers who are part of the general village community and would know about the WATSAN conditions in that area and why it is the way it is

2) Children and students who are affected by it and are possible agents of change; through whom we can spread awareness to the entire community

3)Administration and people from the panchayat who are part of the decision making process

What do I want to ask them?

Category one

What are the water and sanitation conditions like in your village?

Have there been any rain water harvesting tanks built around here?

Do people maintain them or are they vandalised?

Do you feel that you are part of maintaining this?

Do you have any children? Do they go to school?

How are the WATSAN conditions there? Are they taught about this in school?

Do you know about general health and sanitation rules? Do you follow them?

Boiling water before drinking, having a bath, washing your hands with soap, covering soiled areas with ash?

Do you feel that the space outside your house should also be as clean as the inside or no?

Would you work with your community if it would improve the WATSAN conditions in your village?

Where do you get drinking water from? Water to wash hands and clothes etc? – Water sources in the village

Category two

Is the water you drink and wash your hands with, clean?

Do you know why many people in your village fall sick?

How does water affect/feature in your life? Is it important?

Tell me a few words that you relate with water.

Did your grandparents or parents ever tell you stories to do with water and water bodies?

Do you know what rain water harvesting tanks are?

Are you taught health and sanitation in school, if so, do you follow it at home?

Do you wash your hands with soap before eating and after using the wash room? If not, why?

09 to 12.07.'10: First review and POA

2010-07-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

My review panel has three of my faculty/mentors from college. Rustam Vania, Mary Jacob and Vasanthi Das, and Mr.Vishwanath is my external mentor.These are the people whom I run to if I am dying. I had my first review with my college panel where I explained the context of this project and they gave me some pointers of where to go next.

I realised that the language barrier is a big one, after this meeting. I need to find someone who is interested in working in this space, with me or someone who can help me in communicating with the children and the community in Kannada. I know English, Tamil and Hindi and generally claim to understand Kannnada and Telugu (I actually can) but that doesn't really help my situation and I am a little scared because of this, but am sure something can be figured out. I wish languages were easy!

I will be visiting the village for the first time only tomorrow, and hence will have a clearer idea of the problems that need to be addressed. I am looking forward to the visit so that I can narrow down to the school I can work with and start ideating for workshop and design opportunities. From the background I was given by Mr.Vishwanath, there is this larger issue of fluorosis and clean water as well as lots of smaller issues to do with some of the rainwater harvesting tanks that have already been built and initiatives that have been taken. These people do not feel a sense of ownership to community tanks and spaces and this ends up being a problem. Vandalism, stealing and demolishing being some of them. So a point of focus for me would also include looking at how I can make this work as a community? How can I remove this barrier and make people think that public property was theirs? It is for them to use and maintain as it would help them to get clean water in future. I have been thinking of ways to do this starting with the children and trickling to the teachers and the administration of the school and village. Only if all of them are involved will there be a sense of 'working together as a community' and this is what is going to produce good effects.

If the sense of 'community maintenance' does not exist with the govt. rainwater tanks, I was wondering if it would be the same when it comes to hygiene? Personal vs. public. So will people wash their hands and themselves but still throw garbage onto the roads and use open spaces as toilets? A space that doesn't belong to them directly? That would be something to look at, and here behavioural change would also feature.

When I visit tomorrow, I need to know what questions to ask. There are six schools and thus I should ask the same questions so that parallels can be drawn when the data is compared,once I am back. So, the next task involves making a matrix or a questionnaire for tomorrows visit, and also maybe plan a small introductory activity to see what the children think of the water they are exposed to, how much they know about it and what their associations with this are.

Starting point

2010-07-12T02:29:00.000-07:00

All this started from me trying to figure out whether I am a social designer or not. I have always been interested in working in this space and have done a few small projects as well, but these three months are a chance for me to see how passionate I am about this. I wish to understand how effective art and design is in this space. Whether it actually makes any difference to people and their lives.This project involves a lot of haze and challenges which I am hoping to; if not sail past at least crawl past, nah!, I'll settle with run past, to come up with a good set of solutions.

The project time kick started on 6.07.'10 with us signing official documents to say that we are ready to begin. Suddenly it hit me, oh my god! The clock is ticking. Then I say to myself, "Calm down. This is something you want to do. Something you will enjoy. Go for it!" Looks like I have to tell myself this everyday. At least so that I produce something worthwhile.