A New Social Movement

Dr. Senta Siller

There is nothing that does not or has not already existed; but there are things that are frequent because they are carried out frequently (graffiti in university library).

The first encounter with people in a traditional Punjabi village in Pakistan took place in the autumn of 1990 at the invitation of a former student. There are over twenty thousand such villages in the densely populated Punjab province of Pakistan. To put it generally, the first impression was the following: a poor village, a poor region with no roads, no sewers, no schools, no electricity, no toilets. Shooting a documentary film, setting up a public health service, establishing an NGO, building an NGO-financed school were the first measures towards creating a village development project, which was followed from 1993 on by projects that generated income for the rural population. Ten years of Pakistani-German co-operation at NGO level have provided a clear view and have increasingly shown that Pakistan is a rich country with traditional, cultural, natural and social resources.

Bases

Bi-lateral agreements between countries have in the past ensured economic developments and changes. This is not the place to judge the extent to which something did or did not make sense. It is, however, a fact that in many cases the majority of the population in an assisted country has not benefited from the envisaged and anticipated changes, but instead distribution of the benefits has been from top to bottom. Even if hardly anything perceptible arrived at the "bottom," this is particularly where there were and are the most drastic consequences, most neither anticipated or desired.

The forms of support - probably occasionally even well meant are an underlying output of urban cultures, which due to an absence of knowledge and a lack of ability to judge its significance, restrict rural culture at best and at worst even cause it permanent damage. It is difficult to imagine a stop to this practice; nonetheless it is at the grass-roots level, in the countryside, where traditional cultures still thrive that resources are redefined and used in projects. The approach necessary for this differs greatly from standard approaches.

Development phases

Project development in Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka can be divided into five phases:

1. 1991 - Amjad's Village: Establishment of first contacts, creation of a documentary film, first showing in Germany, fund raising for a school for boys, first private health center to provide medical care for the villagers.
2. 1993 - Thatta Kedona: activating the village women and resumption of the tradition of making dolls. Parallel to this, training is given Ð virtually from the very beginning a successful attempt is made to generate income for women living in rural areas.
3. 1995 - Village Toys from Pakistan: Initially the hand-crafted dolls are offered and sold on the local market at bazaars. Ethnological research results are brought in and ethnic dolls are dressed in the traditional costumes of the various provinces and minorities. A new women’s center is set up and powered by photovoltaic energy. The first invitations abroad follow.
4. 1998 - Handicrafts from Pakistan: Together with the Export Promotion Bureau, handicraft products are exhibited abroad for the first time with other NGOs. First orders placed by foreign customers follow. Young village men are brought in and, independently of the women, make tin toys and ecotechnological products. Invitations from foreign women’s groups lead to a network for the project Dolls of the World. An international network joins the local network of domestic NGOs; the women’s group initiated by the Pakistani village NGO also works with other NGOs in Cameroon and Columbia. Health assistants are trained and a health center set up in order to improve the health of the villagers.
5. 2001 - Gogera Development Program: Growing numbers of people from elsewhere in Pakistan as well as foreigners visit TGD in order to find out about the project and the example of life in the village. This requires involvement of the region in the project. The pre-Pakistan history is an important factor here.
   

Approach

• Preliminary work: A fundamental prerequisite of work in local NGOs of countries not orientated towards the West is not political or religious convictions and economic strength, but primarily social infrastructure. This means links with the members of a local NGO. A sense of welcome, receptiveness to external influences as well as economic necessity are the prerequisites of successful activities on both sides Ð that of the local population and that of those invited.
• Criteria for volunteers: They need to have the following: eyes that are open, ears that listen, cultural openness and the voluntary nature of work lead to independence; gentleness and resilience are needed; non-pursuits of religious, political or business aims are a prerequisite for successful coaching.
  

Volunteers in the field (young, middle-aged, old) and honorary nature of work

Three forms of involvement have evolved in the course of time. Work should be in an honorary capacity. The advantage of this is a certain degree of independence; this independence opens up the possibility of adopting unconventional approaches. However, independence also means neglecting certain areas of the culture in question such as politics, religion Ð as well as preconceived models for solutions and approaches to work.

The three forms of involvement relate to age and circumstances and are also to be seen in connection with the respective financing: One, senior citizens with professional and job experience, and independence of external pressure can be deployed in a useful way. Age groups, which in their own countries are only of interest in terms of the national economy, have the opportunity to implement the concepts and ideas of NGOs. Two, middle-aged persons who are interested have the possibility of taking time out and shaping developments in a completely different environment, with the added side-effect of starting afresh with new insights upon return to their own country. And three, young persons are as a rule either just starting their careers or still undergoing training. In sharp contrast to their previous concepts of trades and jobs, existing professional ideas and goals are now being reinforced and new aspects and insights are shaping their attitudes to life and work.

Theoretical training is frequently accorded a higher status in Western countries even though it is well-known that particularly the combination of practical experience and theoretical insights makes it possible to change or strengthen structures.

NGO members sent abroad

The prerequisites for useful deployment abroad on the part of NGO members are knowledge of the project, i.e. those concerned need to be well-informed about the effect, function and activities of the NGO in question. Thanks to Western influences, this refers to an ISO certification, which is nothing more than saying that the right hand is supposed to know what the left hand is doing and why.

Project work reflects life in individual businesses, etc. This is why it can never be pre-determined, but must be capable of reacting flexibly within certain parameters to problems that occur in actual practice. Knowledge of structures and possible ways of reacting as well as dependencies help NGO members to engage in activities outside their own countries.

In view of the contacts that have been developed, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Iceland, and the United States should be mentioned in the case of Pakistan. NGO members were able to gather experience in the United Arab Emirates (Dubai Shopping Festival), Germany (Import Shop Berlin) Iceland (International Week and Workshop). Further activities are possible and are being processed.

Integrated approach

The best way of describing the present organization structure is as "international NGO co-operation with sales markets in the project countries as well as in industrialized countries.” It requires a cohesive view within the project and the networking of projects. Use of the technological means of urban culture (e-mail, etc.) is of vital assistance in this connection.

The experiences with a Pakistani-German NGO initiative upon which these remarks are based show the accuracy of what has been said. The Pakistani NGO is part of a network which by now also includes Cameroon, Colombia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iceland; customers are in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand; IT makes it possible to find markets, however it will never be possible to compete with the production figures of an international company; marketing remains extremely tough and is dependent on assistance of a wide variety of kinds, and, unfortunately, no consideration is given to the benefits not in money’s worth (dissemination of living culture, schooling of individual taste versus industrial products and uniformity in many areas of life: food and beverages, film and television, dance, music and painting education and upbringing, changed perception of colors, forms, etc.).

It is easy for critics to dismiss the possibilities that have been outlined, but is actually the microcosm of a village development that reveals the problems of a macro economy.


Summary

It was Max Weber who coined the term of the responsible citizen. He has always existed even if forms of government have been different. A wealth of experience leads to wisdom, something has been experienced in actual fact, lived in reality. An abundance of theory in projects in rural areas is only grist to the mill of city dwellers.

Dr. Senta Siller, Voluntary Director, Women Art Center TGD

Skin Painting

Art seems to have been important to almost all human societies since before recorded history. Art expressions have been, and still are, used to record, to explain, to interpret, to predict, to gain awareness, and to express those things cultures find important,” wrote by Turner Rogers, an associate professor of art education at the University of South Alabama.

This assertion is truer in case of Pakistan where some of the medieval arts have originated, and have not only been preserved but are practiced till date. The history of Pakistani arts and crafts – Kashi work, painting of skin, woodworks and painting on wood items -- goes back to medieval period.

Among the various arts that are practiced in Pakistan, skin painting has attained a higher state of refinement and Pakistan is famous this art around the world. The use of foliage or branches and leaves of trees and superb richness of colours (mainly blue) in skin painting is an evidence of Persian influence. As Persian arts themselves have been under Chinese Mongol influence, therefore some historians are of the view that skin painting had originally come from Kashghar China. Over a period of centuries Pakistani work has matured and developed a unique and distinctive style of its own. The finest quality work is done on the camel skin in southern Punjab (Multan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan) and several products are exported.

The tedious technique of shaping the camel skin crafts and decorating them with indegenously prepared lacquer colours is an age old tradition that has withstood the test of time. This is a part of our ancient cultural heritage and needs to be preserved. Not only that, there is always a room to bring into the art new innovations, endow it with fresh spirit and set the science as its guide. The range of possibilities in the field of ceramics is very vast. The whole world is there to appreciate the work.

How to preserve the craft for our next generations?

Valley of the Dolls

In the green heat of one of the most fertile lands in the world there is a tiny repository of color -- a doll village. This is Thatta Ghulamka Dhiroka (TGD), an ancient world embalmed in amber -- a small village in Central Punjab, Pakistan. This rural and needy community has, in the space of 7 years and with the help of its skilled work, become known to the world as a fact where once it was a whisper on the wind.


The story begins in 1990 when Dr. Senta Siller, a German graphic designer, and her husband were invited by a Pakistani student in her class – Amjad Ali – to visit his ancestral village. They saw a village where country farmers still lived as they did in an ancient era. Time stands still here. To the modern eye, used to civic amenities glittering facades and antiseptic cities it is perhaps a shock to be faced with a rural village such as TGD, which had no roads, electricity or water until the year 2000.


No one in the village could afford fired brick buildings so nearly all the houses were built using sun dried bricks and a plaster of mud would act as a cement to hold the bricks in place. This style of building was similar to the Adobe houses built by Native Americans on the opposite side of the globe.

“My husband who is an architect fell in love with the mud structures and he said,“ they will disappear in the next 10 or 20 years -- we must come back and make a video,” recalled Senta. And so it was that a year later the couple returned with a young filmmaker to the village and rural life in Pakistan was filmed. This video was named “Amjad’s Village” and after returning to Germany they showed the movie to their audience. The entrance fees of about 300 people who watched the film was then used to purchase the cement and bricks needed to build a boy’s school in TGD. The farmers themselves constructed the school.

The farmers also founded an NGO named Anjuman-e-Falah-e-Aama and sought the cooperation of volunteering experts. On her previous visit Dr. Siller perceived the need of the village families for a second income- farming was not able to suffice their basic needs.


The first volunteer in the village was Leila Mason, a young German doctor who established a Basic Health Unit in a private home and trained three women in basic healthcare over a period of 18 months. The village NGO then invited Dr. Siller to create income for the village women through applied arts.

After a thorough investigation with particular reference to the dearth of quality handmade toys in the local market, Senta went back to Germany. “I learnt doll making in 1992 (I never made a doll before- I am a designer) at some evening classes in Germany for the village to multiply the skills of the women.” The following year, after having retired from her post as vice principal of an art college in Berlin, she returned to the village and work began on the income generation project, which is now known under the trademark of “THATTA KEDONA”” meaning “village of toys” in Punjabi.


The village project really started with doll making and it is still this skill, which has earned it global fame. Each doll that is crafted in TGD is marked with the name the doll maker.


It is a unique product and each woman makes her own doll. “We don’t make it like an assembly line in a factory. Each girl learns to be a good doll maker and can maker her own product. They (the women) come if they need material and only if they need training do they come at special hours. Usually they come in the morning to deliver what has been done and take home new material. They deliver whenever the product is ready”, say Senta Siller.


If an urgent order is to be fulfilled then Senta asks a team if they can finish the required amount in the specified time. Usually there is no pressure because the village project is well managed and there is always an inventory of products both in the showroom in Lahore and in the Women Art Center (WAC) in the village. Also, the work is usually completed ahead of deadlines and for special orders. A timesheet is developed so that each doll maker knows when to deliver a particular doll in given week.


In parallel with the doll making activity innovation was required to produce different products for sale. For traditional designs Senta looked for old block prints -- in the streets, in the bazaars-- and wherever she would spot a little elephant or a little donkey, a “more” (peacock), as she says rolling the “r”, or a camel the design would be mentally sketched. These would then be used for designing new products.


Some of the objects developed at the center are actually centuries old. For instance there is the dhota -- a beautiful hanging mobile or pendant. These are still alive as wedding presents in the village- when a girl is married her friends still give her a mobile for her new house. The women’s project copied the mobile but used better material to make an improved product.


There was also the need for innovation and creativity. “We took the original children’s shows of the Punjab -- the Ali Baba and Khussa -- and made a small ornate pincushions. We converted things, which were existent in the culture. For instance, decorations of the braids, “pirandas” are beautiful but nobody will buy (them) -- in the foreign community. “They don’t use “pirandas” so we make a bookmark with this beaded ornament. The same ornament with tiny hooks turns into earrings or it can with a small golden loop become a buttonhole ornament for shits or be turned into a Christmas tree decoration,” says Senta.


After this range of small products Senta observed a technique in the village where a coil of twisted cotton material would be manipulated into animal or human figures. In order to give more definition to the shapes of such inventions and make them more durable Senta taught the women a variation of this method. “We made this in miniature with wire and wool so we invented very small dolls and I brought the brooch needles from Germany and we started with brooches and the next year we invented the finger puppets and the little dolls were used for many applications.”


The Women Art Center grew and now has a beautiful indigenously designed building that was built using a grant from the German Embassy in Islamabad to house it as well as a photovoltaic system that was funded by the Japanese embassy in Pakistan.


The women in the center made steady progress and slowly but surely incomes began to flow into their houses and the difference could be clearly felt. This left the young men of the village watching in envy as the women used their time in creating and also enjoyed themselves whilst the boys were left with no gainful occupation.

The yond men asked that work be found for them and so with the cooperation of the Germany NGO and its local counterpart a Technical Training Institute was developed for the manufacturing of small tin sheet items and the latest technologies such as those needed in harnessing solar power were envisioned as skills training for the boys.


Senta bought a sample solar cooker from and Institute of Alternative Technology in Lahore and then found a sponsored volunteer in Germany -- a young technical teacher who visited the village twice 1997 and 1998. He trained the boys in the making of solar cookers and little tin sheet rickshaws.


The solar cookers are a low cost alternative and are effective in making stew like dishes. Already the prices of petroleum all over the globe have begun to destabilize. It’s to the credit of the village planners that they have had the farsightedness to take this possible scenario into account when planning for feasible training programs in the village.

Special report appeared in Weekend – The Khleej Times.