Geejgarh is a hamlet in Dausa district surrounded by 53 hamlets. Very interesting site to visit! It’s a valley surrounded by high mountain on one side.
I remember, my first visit to Geejgarh, very warm welcome by the villagers, having their roots in Geejgarh. Though their younger siblings have moved to Jaipur for jobs or business, women, old men, girls, and children are in the village, meaning having two establishments, one in Jaipur and another in Geejgarh.
I am not talking about the demographic or geographic information. We have a detailed report on the baseline, which speaks about the villages and its people in detail. I would like to share my experiences while setting up the Community Library and Resource Center and meeting with women and children. While the older men used to play cards on the roadsides, women wanted to learn alternative skills to earn revenue to manage two establishments. Children and youth wanted to read books, learn computers and prepare for their higher studies. While we constructed the beautiful building of lime and stone, it became a second home for women and children. The women panchayat leaders came forward to manage the READ Center in initial times. The skills women learnt were sewing and stitching, making pickles, pappad and other eatable items, the dynamism seen in the women and the inherent leadership was very visible.
I still remember the village stakeholders hosting the visits of national and international guests, by happily organizing the community feast with traditional Rajasthani food.
Women have strong negotiation skills which might have been with them due to hard life they experience on daily basis. The journey of the center was initiated with books, computers, Early Learning Centre when Walmart support came to construct the big hall on the first floor for women livelihood options. Chander Prakashji, the dynamic personality in the village took the whole responsibility with transparency and commitment, supported by a young boy Chand Khan. In the past 10 years, they trained around 10000 women, digital learning to around 2000 youth and many more local community benefitted from the READ Centre. Now from the past two years, women started enhancing their traditional skills on spinning and weaving. 20 women came forward for going out of the village to Jaipur for a month training on weaving and other options. Great transformation!
Two stories I can never forget. Kailashi, a girl affected with polio, used to walk for 45 minutes, wanted to learn stitching and sewing and reading. She got full support from the Center, and you can see her here.
Another story of Pintu, who had the wheelchair to come to the Centre but learnt sewing and stitching and later became the trainer and now running his boutique, earning around Rs. 10000/- per month.
The beautiful building was constructed with the support of an individual donor, Barbara Kipper, friend of the founder of READ Global. Here I would like to highlight the passion of Dr Antonia Neubaeur who raised the money from her friends and donated to construct the libraries in rural India. She might have visited Geejgarh 2-3 times.
The concept of “System Change” and the ‘People’s first’ is new for us but this was practiced knowingly or unknowingly by READ India in the past. Research on the one side, community on another side for deep dive discussions have shown the results. Their needs, their perceptions, their desires, their own management skills play a pivotal role in the development sector. We should ignite passion in them and see the miracles.
