Training MVF – A Success ! by Ashok Aritakula

Today, August 3rd 2009, was the last day of the training and yet another training got successfully over.

Thanks to Paul, who kept calm and made sure that training went on in spite of technical difficulties we faced.

I was really impressed to see how interested MVF was in our application. They were questioning each and every feature of the application and were making sure that it is fitting their needs. If not they were making instant request's for modifying the feature.

It was really great to see the real users of this application. I had a chance to meet many MVF Workers and I found that they are all simple and hard working people ,with a zeal to eradicate child labour. For them, seeing us from Logica, was a great motivating factor and when they came to know that we brought them an application (CMS), which can help them do their work faster and better , they were thrilled.

Many of them personally, came to me asking about the usage of the application. The main hurdle during this training was that they were not comfortable with English. But three guys from MVF, Mahindra , Krishna and Amit made sure that they translate instructions in English to their native language. Thats when we also identified that these three people are the ones who can and will take care of the further deployement and usage of CMS in MVF, once we are gone. We awarded them a Certificate as Experts.

Overall, I feel the training was a complete success and MVF is really happy and serious about deploying the application across different sectors.

As I knew their native language, they were very comfortable talking to me and sharing their views with me frankly. And it was really great to understand as what they think about this application , about Logica's contribution and the role they have to play in using this application. What I understood , from their views is that they have now the clear visibility of how they can use this application to make their work better and faster , In their casual talks they already started talking about how to use and where to use. They even planning to change the way they do survey, so that more and more authentic data is fed to the application.

Being part of all this was making me feel really great. Thanks to Veronica and Malti :-).

Even though, this phase of training is now over, I feel this is just the beginning and Logica is becoming really good at it :-).

Thanks,

Ashok

The last blog. On the finalday we had still a busy program: evaluation and discussion about next step, printing certificates, final lunch with everybody, visiting giftshops. No time to publish this blog. Hereby.

Sightseeing and the final training

Sunday we hired a taxi to make a sightseeing tour in Hyderabad: Salar Yung Museum (a.o. fine miniature paintings; I missed the famous musical clock), Charminar and surrounding market streets, Mecca Masjid; and outside the city: Golconda fort. Everywhere you see traditional India: shrines, temples, believers performing rituals. But also modern India: e.g. a motorized station for measuring pollution by traffic gazes. Cars, motorbikes and rickshaws are checked and advised on improvement.

(ceremony for godess Kali)

Monday was the final training day. As in every school class there were very fast trainees, somewhat slower and very slow ones. I myself has learned a lot about giving a training in a different language and culture. For one thing: Dutch seems to be a compact language; when you unzip it into one of the Indian languages (Telugu), then you need somewhat more words. The trainees understood it better and It gave me time to look ahead to the next subject. Looking back I think that as a train-the-trainer project the project was very successful. Some other trainees will need a fresh-up when in the future they start using CMS. Also it was good as a reality test: everyday new points for improvement came up and some questions about ‘should it be as it is now’ were discussed. It was a great pleasure to work together with motivated people

in a very good atmosphere.

(the last group)

A training day: Thursday

9.02 By rickshaw to the office; a ‘kermis’ drive of 10 minutes through the hilarious traffic.

9.20 Installation of the latest version of the application on mine laptop. Start other 5 machines to be used by the 7 trainees. One machine always starts scanning the whole harddisk. Another has always to be rebooted.

09.50 Ready to start; wait for the trainees. Planned start: 10.00.

11.10 Everybody has arrived. They are pardoned: they traveled 150 km and left home at 05.00! So I start with a warm welcome. I am glad that Mr. Mahender (staff of MV Foundation) translates mine introduction. These are mostly fieldworkers, living in poor villages (“a village is poor per definition”).

11.40 Power cut! Suddenly it is quiet: the fan, everything is dead. I cannot let them install the application on their own machine. Go on with 7 trainees on 1 laptop. Some has problem with typing: mine keyboard is different. Others are very quick to pick it all up.

12.25 Lunch around the table. The mild spicy food (very tasty) and the warmth makes me sweat.


13.20 Continue story. Mine laptop runs out of power – I switch to the laptop of Geert Jan. It becomes rather warm in the small room. Sometimes I have problem to understanding a fieldworker: he cannot explain me in for me understandable English what he wants to do – so I cannot help him further. Mahender and Ashok are nearby. I have the feeling I have made myself dispensable.

15.10 Noise again: power returned. Everybody gets started on a machine. When each has done the main thing at least once, I finish the training with the subject: making reports. After that they resume the training on their own initiative!


16.10 Powercut again!! Disappointment - an early halt of the training. The fieldworkers who came from far, stay in Hyderabad and will follow the training tomorrow again.At the end I am not unhappy with the result.

Last saturday we (Paul and I) left Holland and went to Hyderabad in India. We had a bad start since the airplanefrom Amsterdam to London had a two hours delay, but we where just in time at London Heathrow to catch the adjecting flight to India. After 9 and a half hours we arrived at Hyderabad International Airport and arrived at the hotel by 6 AM on Sunday morning. Our colleague from Bangalore office (Ashok Aritakula) arrived just a few hours earlier by train.


We took de rest of the morning off to get some rest after the long flight and after that we went for sight seeingthe city of Hyderabad by auto rickshaw [ really just a upgraded scooter in which three people can sit].

On Monday we went to see two bridge camps [ one boy and one girl ]. In a bridge camp children stay which have (just) been taken out of child labour. The first fifteen days the child is placed in a special counseling group in which it is promoted to stop there 'bad habits' like smoking and lime sniffing. After that period they will learn primary skills in maths, english, social, science and telegu [the local language]. And during breaks the children can play off course, which these children should suppose to do but where not always able to. To promote the children to play we visited the local mall to buy some toys like badminton rackets, some footballs, a 'scottland yard' game and some frisbees. This since we were told the children did not have access to these toys yet. Average time for the children to stay in a camp is 6 months and their age varies from 6 to 15 years old. These camps we visited had a maximum capacity of 120 (boys) and 150 (girls) and were both opened recently [within one and a half year].


Although this all seems very nice, we where touched by one boy who came to us and asked for help. Since his father had died, his uncles where after the land the boy inherited. The uncles threatened even to kill the boy to get the land. Ashok very nobly offered to contact local media and authorities. Who knows how this will end.


On tuesday the first training session started in which the volunteers are trained in the use of the Child Monitoring System [CMS]. These volunteers regularly perform door-to-door survey in which they try to find children who do child labour, and after that they monitor the children. For that purpose they can use the CMS system in the (near) future. We hope just to solve the latest errors in the software and make the final adjustments based on the feedback of the volunteers. All this to be done this week...

Phir Milenge,

Geert Jan de Boer.

Takeoff to MV Foundation, Hyderabad.

The preparations for the training of MV Foundation in Hyderabad are almost finished. The building team is working very hard to get the Child Monitoring System ready. During the video conference last week the application has been demonstrated to MVF. New wishes came up. Also here applies: seeing the application does discussions rise high. But everybody is enthousiast. Making the manual took me more time than expected. I got to know the system by trying myself and asking the building team. I had to amend it after every release. One advantage: as in India facilities are usually basic, the system has been kept simple. Also the training plan is ‘ready’ and aligned with Ashok Aritakula in Bangalore, who will assist with giving the training together with Geert Jan de Boer.

What more can one do to prepare oneself for a new project, a new culture? Going out with the whole Dutch team to an Indian restaurant (always recommendable); following a cultural training given by het Tropen Instituut in Amsterdam (helpful); viewing ‘Slum dog millionaire’: that was the most impressive; a colorful, good told story with suspense and emotions; the overwhelming Indian mass. And where the work of MV Foundation is focused on: for children, against child labor and Dickens-like slavery (in the square). So I know again where all this is for. Saterday we are leaving.

Blooming Logica

It is 29th April, 2009. I first spoke to Veronica , Malti and Jeroen. I was filled with motivation when they shared their views on the ‘Bloom’ project , an initiative of Logica. I always wanted to contribute to something which is noble , but didn’t know what. Thanks !! to Veronica, Malti and Jeroen for giving me that opportunity.

I started off working for the project, along with my Dutch colleagues Gerrit ,Vincent , Ruud, Mark , Geert. And from India, it was Animesh. Mary, Shivakumar and Baskaran joined the team bit later.

Mostly , we consult with each other through Outlook and Microsoft Communicator . And it is really surprising to see how these two tools can be used to share information effectively. My Dutch colleagues are really co-operative and respond to all our queries. Its great working with them.

Gerrit and Vincent arrived in Bangalore on 14th June, 2009 (Sunday). The purpose of the visit was to meet Indian colleagues and also go to MV Foundation in Hydrabad and understand the requirements from the user perspective.

For me, it was the first time I would meet the Dutch team face to face . And it was a great experience. Did I mention, that Lieke Rozendal, a student doing research on corporate collaboration from HIVOS also arrived along with Gerrit and Vincent?

Veronica, arranged a small tour of Bangalore for us (Gerrit , Lieke , Vincent , Shivakumar , Animesh and me) on Sunday afternoon. The Idea was to show our guests a bit of Bangalore . We all had a good time, getting to know each other and visiting places. We really had fun. Shivakumar invited us to his house and served us “Upma” and “Chai” (Tea). Gerrit, Vincent and Lieke liked the Indian dish (hopefully) and also got to see a South Indian family . It was a new experience for them.

The next day (Monday), the trio visited Bangalore Logica office. While Gerrit, Vincent, Mary, Animesh and me were busy discussing the technical aspects of the application we are developing, Lieke was taking notes of the corporate environment inside Logica, taking views of the employees for her research.

We all went for lunch around 1:30 PM to cafeteria. The cafeteria was surprisingly crowded, as our Logica Cultural department organised a musical event at the very place. My Dutch colleagues were thrilled to see so many people having lunch at one place. After great difficulty, we got a place to sit and have lunch.

In the evening that day , my Dutch colleagues had to leave for Hyderabad. They left around 4:00 PM. And a big thanks to Lieke for giving us the Dutch Cookies, they were so tasty and I really liked them. Unfortunately I had to share them with Animesh ,Mary and Shivakumar (frankly I didn’t wanted to share).

This whole experience meant a lot to me. Thanks to Veronica , Malti and Jeroen for taking such an initiative. It can be clearly seen, how boundaries and distance can disappear, for one noble cause. I wish and I know such initiatives will be taken more often in Logica. I am sure , Logica will soon become an example to other IT Players to take such initiatives .

Happy working!

Thansk & Regards,
Ashok K Aritakula

Tourist action, shopping & CMS prototype presentation

At this particual moment it’s Monday June 22nd around 22.45. Gerrit and Vincent are waiting at the Radjiv Gandhi Airport at Hyderabad. Our plane leaves at 01.05 to Frankfurt. Lieke will visit Bangalore again tomorrow before leaving India.

As promised, we would tell you about our non working day at Hyderabad. First we went by Riksja to the Charminar (http://7wondersofhyderabad.com/charminar/charminar.html). It’s a very big building with large opening on every side and with a large tower on every corner. Via every tower you can climb to the first floor. In earlier days it was possible to climb to the second and third floor. The guide told us that there’s a mosque on one of those higher floors. Now it’s forbidden to go there. Around the Charminar are a lot of different people. People who want to enter the Charminar for religious purposes, Riksja drivers, children and women with babies begging for money to buy food and young buys who want to sell things like balloons, sunglasses and other things we didn’t need.

Very close to the Charminar there’s a mosque, the Mecca Masjid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mecca_Masjid). Before entering the terrain we had to get rid of our shoes. In front of the mosque is a big square. When we were crossing the square a man approached us and started talking about the mosque. The man kept telling and telling and slowly more Muslim children started staring at us. Probably they don’t see very often white men and a girl with blond hair. Then only Gerrit and Vincent entered the mosque; Lieke wasn’t allowed. When it’s time to pray for Muslims the mosque has3000 places to pray. And still the man kept telling and telling. When we finished visiting the mosque the man had one more thing to tell: “You owe me money for telling things about the mosque”. It was a little weird, but we gave him some money because he was already getting a little angry.

When we left the big mosque we went across the Charminar to walk through a big Bazaar. A lot of things were sold there: shoes, Indian clothes, ugly jeans and fruit. But also strange things like second hand tooth brushes, fifth hand watches and radio’s that also play cassette tapes.

After having lunch in a very cold (some Indians use the A/C more than needed) restaurant we took the Riksja to visit the Birla temple (http://www.indnav.com/servlet/Browse?mt=goToName&name=Birla+Temple+Hyderabad). It was a beautiful temple on top of a rock hill. The whole temple is made of marble. Here also we had to take of our shoes and leave our bags, cameras and cell phones behind. The whole temple had beautiful creatures of Indian gods, like Ganesha and Shiva. All Indian visitors waited for every statue to worship their god and to pray for themselves, their family and their friends. A very impressive temple, very impressive habits, but also on top of the temple the view over Hyderabad was astonishing.

We still needed some shopping to do for our families, relatives and friends at home. Visiting a shopping mall in Hyderabad is much more different than visiting for example ‘de Bijenkorf’ in Amsterdam. There’s more personnel than customers. And as a West European customer they treat you as if you are an important Royal or as if you are Mr. Obama himself. They tell you they can make a custom made Saree for women or custom made suits in half a day. We also wanted to buy something for the people of MV Foundation. It was hard to decide what we should buy, until the idea came up to buy things for the kids at the schools. We went to the toys department and bought some flying saucer (Frisbees), tennis balls, a chess games and dices.

When we arrived at the MV Foundation office this morning, we noticed that our Logica colleagues in the Netherlands (Geert Jan & Ruud) and in Bangalore (Ashok & Animesh) had been spending a big part of their weekend on working on activities related to the Child Monitoring System (developing, developing, developing). Great to see they wanted to make sure that Gerrit and Vincent could demonstrate as much as possible regarding the Child Monitoring System.
After lunch we went to another office of MV Foundation in Hyderabad, because the MV Foundation people said they wanted to provide us a big meeting room with big screen for the presentation. Wouldn’t that be great! It’s not a meeting room as we have at our Logica offices. The screen is the back side of a big plastic promotion flag. The meeting room itself contains a lot of plastic chairs, an old dining table and a lot of archive boxes. The really great part was that 15 to 20 people attended our presentation, including the most important man of MV Foundation, Mr. Venkat. In total about 1100 are paid MV Foundation employees.

We showed the MV workers the parts of the system that were developed. All of the attendees were very interested and when the demonstration was finished they were discussing a lot and they were questioning several things. A very good part of the demonstration was that they also tried to think with us in the process of developing. They had some extra ideas on the existing parts in the prototype, but they also made suggestions on parts of the system that weren’t concluded initially in the requirements phase. Those ideas came up, after showing the system to the white screen. Showing screens and processes in the systems is making the system alive for the MV Workers. Suddenly they started to understand things. Demonstrating is a much better method than explaining things during discussions without any visual aids. During such a presentation all the attendees are discussing with each other. Also an older woman gave all attendees chai, great cookies, and a little later drinks like very sweet Sprite and Fanta. Such a meeting is not as organized as we’re used to back home. But somehow, at the end, the desired results are achieved. We clarified issues with MV Foundation and we also have a good insight in the wishes that MV Foundation still have, but that weren’t mentioned during the requirement phase.

After finishing our presentation the people started clapping. All together a trip of hard working, but also a week of a lot of impressions and experiences came to an end. That doesn’t mean that the project for developing the Child Monitoring System has come to an end. Still a lot of work needs to be done in several places in the Netherlands and in Chennai and Bangalore in India. We can board our plain soon.
Bye bye Hyderabad, Amsterdam here we come!

Traffic @ Hyderabad

We’ve mentioned it some times before. The traffic in India is much different that the traffic in the Netherlands. A lot of motorbikes, busses without doors, cars, riksja’s and pedestrians. All of those together are in traffic as it is a case of surviving of the fittest. And those vehicles that have a horn, don’t refuse to use the horn at all. It’s like there’s no law that says who goes first. You have to earn it to go first, by taking risks and chances.

Our American colleague at MV Foundation said: “crossing a junction by foot during rush hour is like dodging death”.

Underneath a small impression when we’ve tried to cross a junction by foot during rush hour.

Working at the office of MV Foundation @ Narayan Appartments, West Maredpally, Hyderabad

Today it’s Saturday June 20th. Yes, it’s Saturday. People at MV Foundation tend to work on Saturday. Because we still got a lot of work to do, we thought that it is even very convenient that MV Foundation’s head office is also open on Saturday. The last days, since our visits to several schools and camps we have been spending our days at the head office of MV Foundation.

Lieke was performing interviews for her own project with several people form MV Foundation like Naren, Mahender and Venkat. And Gerrit and Vincent continued with their issues on CMS project: adapting necessary changes in the use cases, adding code, rebuilding the database and helping colleagues in the Netherlands and India with occurred developing issues.

First we want to tell you about a regular day at the MV Foundation head office. The day starts between 10 am and 10.30 am. It depends on the moment the first person arrives with keys of the office. Once the office doors are open everyone drops in after another. The office isn’t as fancy as we’re used to at Logica. MV Foundation has two apartments at the second floor in an apartment complex. Between those two apartments they created an opening, so the head office is actually a huge apartment with in total eight rooms, excluded the kitchen and bathroom. There are no doors in the office, but instead of doors there are some kind of curtains. The furniture also isn’t what we’re used to. If you are very picky on Arbo-things, then you’d better not work at the head office of MV Foundation. There are a lot of cabinets with a lot of paperwork in it. All that paperwork isn’t archived very neat, but somehow all the people know exactly where they kind find a particular document or book. During a regular day about 20 people are working here, man and women. There’s a maid, who cleans the floor, doing the dishes, etc. And there’s also a ‘lilliputter’ who’s tall enough to put our chai next to us on our table. He serves as chai two times a day: in the morning and in the afternoon. The day ends normally at 6 pm. For us it would be better if the working day lasts a little longer. So the last MVF employee standing stays till around 7 pm and then he makes clear that he wants to leave in 10 minutes.
We’ve got the idea that the people here maybe aren’t working as hard as people in the Netherlands normally do, but somehow they have more fun in doing their job compared to the people in the Netherlands. The MVF workers doing their job ‘op z’n elf-een-dertigst’. The people from MV Foundation are very devoted regarding the goals MV Foundation wants to achieve.

The equipment at MV Foundation also isn’t what we’re used to. It’s most likely that our laptops were on top the best computers at the office. There is a wireless internet connection, but it hasn’t that quality and speed that we do have at our Logica offices or at home. Every now and then the wireless connection is gone. Not a big very big problem, except the moments that we’re checking our code in or out. Indian people aren’t materialists. Somehow everyone does have a fancy cell phone. It is said that a cell phone in India is a sort of status symbol.

Now we shall write down some things on how we’re doing our work at the MV Foundation head office and how we’re in contact with our Indian and Dutch colleagues. It’s hard to use our own cell phones, because the rates to make and receive calls are very high. We’re still Dutch, aren’t we? So that’s why we use our Logica-mail, but mostly we use Office Communicator. Actually it’s almost like communication with our project colleagues when we were in the Netherlands. The big difference here is that the internet connection isn’t very stable. Another problem is that in India power cut offs occur every now and then and they are not announced. It’s quite hard to deal with power cut offs especially when you’re battery starts to reaching the 0%. During a power cut off only necessary equipment will be up and running and they use old car batteries for that.

We discuss a lot with the people at MV Foundation. Whenever there’s a question, we can disturb them. When they’re busy they ask for five minutes of our patience. Mostly that will do. Their knowledge of IT isn’t actually what we expected. We were told that they can handle Word and Excel, but it’s hard to explain the things that Gerrit and Vincent are doing. The MVF-people aren’t also that very smart in explaining things regarding to functionalities or facilities regarding the Child Monitoring System. Especially when you start talking in terms like categories, subcategories and relationships between items. Using pen and paper helps a lot, but that still doesn’t make the things fully clear to the MVF people. So it takes a lot of time and patience to clarify things.

The longer we’re here the more we’re running out of time. Especially last Friday we’ve been talking a lot with Ruud en Geert Jan in the Netherlands and with Animesh and Ashok in Bangalore, because we definitely want to show to the people of MV Foundation a solid prototype of the Child Monitoring System. We’ve asked Arvind to pick a time for this Monday to arrange a meeting. He said fifteen to twenty people will attend the presentation of the CMS prototype. After our presentation we can discuss on some topics regarding the Child Monitoring System.
Tomorrow it’s Sunday. The office will be closed, so that creates possibilities for the three of us to exploit some not work related things. Probably we’ll be outside, since the temperature is still outstanding since we got here.

More about our day off and our CMS prototype presentation in one of our next posts.

Visiting the Logica Bridge Camps, by Lieke Rozendal

In our previous post we mentioned that Lieke wasn't with Gerrit and Vincent because she was visiting schools and camps in another district. She also visited a Residual Bridge Camp, founded by Logica. Underneath her story.


Because Vincent and Gerrit were too busy implementing the CMS at the head office of the MV Foundation, I had the privilege to visit the Logica bridge camps in Kurnool District. Mr Baskhar, the District officer, accompanied me on the ten hour ride from Hyderabad. Driving around in India is overwhelming but fascinating. On the highway (where trucks, motorcycles, bikes and cows are also allowed), I had some near death experiences, but somehow the drivers always seem to manage and just miss the upcoming truck by 2 cm’s….. Respect Indian drivers!! Going into the rural areas the landscape changed into a rocky desert like surrounding, in which farmers still try to do some agricultural activities. Men and women working on the field in 42 degrees…. It seems unbelievable for us, but it is daily reality for half of the Indian society.

In the Kurnool district many cotton plantations are located. Passing the fields we saw a few children working and fertilizing the cotton seeds. The plants are only 1 meter high, so it’s very convenient to use children, according to the farmers. Baskhar explained me that the children only earn 20 rupee a day… which is about 30 eurocent, unbelievable isn’t it! Some of them are even contracted, and committed to do the work for a whole season. The parents send the children to the cotton plantation for a few months to do bound child labour. I have read a lot about child labour, but once you see it, it hits you in the face…. this is still part of reality…

After a long and bumpy ride we entered a tiny village, cattle everywhere, small brick houses, and kids running around by seeing the car. A big yellow sign got my attention. We had finally reached the Bridge Camp supported by Logica and Hivos. The kids were very exited by seeing a white tall blond alien like me…. I asked some children what kind of work they did before coming to the bridge camp. Half of the group had been working in agriculture and on cotton seed plantation. Some girls were working in domestic work. “I was a Rickshaw Driver”, said one of the boys, who was about 4 ft tall.….. How bizarre, no wonder the traffic is chaotic in India, if 10 year olds are driving around!

First they were bit shy, but after singing Hoofd, Schouders, Knie en Teen, Knie en Teen…. (a Dutch song which includes a funny dance), they were having a blast and started to show me their classrooms and their excellent skipping skills (touwtje springen). It was so nice to meet the kids and talk to the teachers who are fully committed to get the children back to the right level, so they are ready for the public schools.

Gerrit and Vincent had asked me to hand out some Logica pens and the key cords to the kids and teachers in the camp. Especially the key cords were very popular, the kids loved them and teachers immediately attached their mobile phones to it, and were walking around if they owned the world! After a DOEIDOEI screamed out by 60 happy kids, we went back on the bumpy road, heading back to Hyderabad.

It was very special to visit the Logica Bridge Camps. Once you see it with your own eyes, the work of the MV Foundation really comes alive. It is great that Logica and Hivos are able to support the struggle of the MV Foundation against Child Labour in India, and try to give these wonderful kids a sustainable future!

School camps

At this particular moment it’s Thursday June 18^th and for our idea the evening starts. But in India it’s still during working hours. Like Mark and Geert wrote earlier: the working hours differ from the ones we’re used to.

Last Monday evening we arrived in Hyderabad by plane. In the evening it was still round 30 degrees Celsius. That was already a lot warmer compared to Bangalore. We already knew that Hyderabad was a big city, but we didn’t know that getting from the airport to our hotel would take two hours, just to cross a city (population is more than 7 million) from south to north. Also here the traffic is unbelievable. Traffic all over, all kinds of vehicles and they all are using their horn instead of their lights. Can you imagine the noise?

After our first breakfast (plain white toast and cereals are the only things we dared to eat at the beginning of the day) we went by car to the MV Foundation head office. There we had a great welcome by Naren, Arvind and Mahender. They told us about their vision, their ideas, their history and also about the goals they want to achieve by using the Child Monitoring Systems. What we didn’t know is that they planned a program for us.

In the afternoon Lieke, Gerrit and Vincent were accompanied by Aron, an American Student who is working at MV Foundation, by a fellowship of an American NGO. So we went into the car and the driver drove us to a Residual Bridge Camp (RBC) for girls. That’s a school that’s not actually funded by Logica, but the visit was meant to give us an idea. The RBC is meant to give kids, that had never attend school before, a quick update on their knowledge and skills, so they can fit in a normal class at a normal school with kids of their own age. It’s hard to describe what we’ve seen there. We’ve seen poverty, but we’ve also seen happiness. We spoke to some of the teachers and also they presented us a cup of chai.

The girls attend class in a room without desks, without chairs and without a lot of other things. The same room is also used to sleep in. They sleep on the ground; no bed, no pillow. They also have a small suitcase. In that small suitcase they keep their personal belongings like clothes and things for personal hygiene.

When we were there they also had dinner: warm peas. When they want to play there’s a place in the middle of the buildings. The floor exists of sand and stones. No things like ‘wipkip’, ‘zandbak’ or ‘schommel’. On the other hand: all these girls are happy with all the things they have. Especially a visit from some white skinned Europeans / Americans made their day a very special one. All of them want to be photographed. First they were very shy, but at the end it was hard to reach the car. We also went into a classroom full of kids. Open eyes, curious looks, and a lot of giggling. They sang a song and they had a chance to ask us things and vice versa.

After this amazing day of ‘work’ we went to Arvind’s house. His sisters made dinner for us and we also drank ‘Chai’ (Indian tea with cream and a lot of sugar). The family showed us a great hospitality. After our stomach stuffing dinner we went back to our hotel and drank a beer with our new American friend.

The next morning Lieke was picked up at the hotel to visit some Logica RBC’s. At the moment of writing we cannot give any details on that, because visiting those camps take almost a day to get there by car. So Gerrit and Vincent will see her tonight again. Gerrit and Vincent met Aron at their hotel the same morning.

We first went in to the country side of Hyderabad to visit a public school for girls in a village named Ervaguda. Again it’s hard to describe what the village looks like. A lot of trash and garbage next to the road. Buildings that aren’t finish. No hard road: only sand. But also here the school is not much better and also not much worse than the school we visited a day earlier. We had a meeting with the teachers in that school. We’ve been talking about how they’re monitoring a child right now and how they make sure that MV Foundation gets the right information. It’s great to see that they’re doing it very good, but it’s tough to see with which materials they have to work with. We also had the chance to visit a class with girls. We were standing in line in front of the classroom. They were told who we are, what we do and they were asked “Are these guys from your country?” and “What do want to be when you’re grown up?”, “What do want to ask these men?”. Some kids also presented to us some songs and rhymes. After that we had to sing a song as well. Also in this place the girls were very shy at first, but after that it was as if they were glued to us. For this place in the middle of nowhere it’s very good to see that these girls are studying for their future in a very poor environment.

Once we were in the care we headed to Shankarpally, where one of the mandal (something like a ‘gemeente’) offices is located. At that place we had a meeting with several people working on a daily basis full time at that office. They are working behind some pretty nice computers, but they also work behind computers that we won’t even find at our second hand shops. These men and women are doing a great job. They do it full time with a good spirit and a lot of devotion. During our meeting Gerrit and I found out that they’re not very into our IT-business. It’s hard for them to understand any of our business. Especially when you start talking with terms as ‘filters’ and ‘checkbox’. So we had to take our time and use examples to clarify things with the mandal officers.

Since it was already late for lunch Arvind thought it would be a good idea to go out for lunch. So we went to another RBC almost in the middle of nowhere in a village named Aloor.

MV Foundation Camp, Aloor weergeven op een grotere kaart

This RBC is also for girls. Here we had a great meal with rice, Indian curry, sambal, chapati and some drink that was similar to Greek Yoghurt. Here the environment for the girls was the worst so far. Very hot, almost no trees, since a few months there’s a shower facility (throwing rain water in a bucket over your head). They cook on a brick made place with wood on fire. For us it’s something we only remember from our grandparents stories. Between all those lovely girls there was a young woman with a special story. Her name is Karen, 19 years old and during holiday breaks she’s a volunteer in this camp. When she was a lot younger she was also one of the girls in Aloor’s RBC. Before that she was bonded to domestic work. After a lot of years she started studying and she graduated. She also speaks fluent English.

After this exhausting but great day we went back to Hyderabad. We had some Naan and Paneer Mutter Masala. With that meal we went to bed, because the next day our first whole day at the MV Foundation office would start.

More about that next time.

First days in Bangalore

It’s Monday June 15th and it’s past lunch time in Bangalore India. The last night in Holland was a very short night. Vincent, Lieke and Gerrit arranged at 5 am at Schiphol. We left Schiphol at 7.15 and headed to Frankfurt. In Frankfurt we had to wait for about three hours, so we had the time to eat and drink and get to know each other better. Around 11.50 we left Frankfurt to fly to Bangalore. After a long flight we landed in Bangalore around midnight. After leaving the plane it took a long while to get to our suitcases. Before we could pass the immigration officer, we were temperature checked by a doctor to make sure we won’t import Mexicaanse Griep (H1N1) into India. At Logica Bangalore they wrote a special document about H1N1. See (only for Logica colleagues): http://home.global.logica.com/portalcontent/files/global/main/H1N1%20virus%20awareness_v2.pdf.

A cab was bringing us to our hotel and during the 45 minutes ride we were able to catch some glimpses of Bangalore and we also hit a dog on the road. The driver said: ‘don’t worry, it happens all the time’. Around 2am we arrived at our hotel (http://www.fortunehotels.in/HotelResort/main.aspx?ID=jjzMpzSjmet8b1CqrZapPg==&PType=6FrpaFUg4tzWXwacpHoKmg==). Lieke asked the driver to tell us some things about Bangalore. He didn’t stop talking until he reached our hotel. We were surprised when we arrived at our hotel. A lot of personnel was at work at 2 am and all of them has his/her own job and they all are very polight: ‘Goodevening, Sir”, “You had good journey, Sir?”, “Thank you, Sir”, “Can I help you, Sir”, “Have a nice stay, Sir”.

Because of the lack of sleep Vincent en Lieke missed their breakfast. So after a shower the three of us went into Bangalore by foot. We couldn’t take too long, because our Indian colleagues Ashok, Animesh and Shivakumar would be at 3 pm at our hotel to pick us up for a city tour. They also arranged a tour guide and a driver. In a short throughput of time we’ve seen a lot of things in Bangalore.

First we went to Vidhan Soudha, a granite building housing the Secretariat and the State Legislature. A lot of people outside of Bangalore come to this place to see it. On the other side of the road there is the big High Court, established by the English. After seeing Vidhan Soudha we went to Bangalore Palace, where it’s forbidden to make pictures of the inside and outside. It was built in 1887 inspired on Windsor Castle. It belonged once to an English king and now it’s a venue for various exhibitions, concerts and cultural programmes. Then we went to something like a cotton industry factory. Again, two ladies opened the door, and a lot of personnel was ready to help us: “Good afternoon, Sir”, “Please have a seat, Sir”, “You buy beautiful carpet for your wife, Sir”, “Only obligation is to look around, Sir”, “Thank you, Sir”. They showed us everything in there: carpets, shawls, jewelry, shirts, sari’s, etc. They we’re hoping we would buy some of the very expensive, but beautiful materials. Also they gave us some tea. So we were drinking tea Indian style. Then we went to the Bull Temple, after avoiding some cows on the road. The Bull Temple has a mammoth monolithic bull called ‘Nandi’. It’s believed that the statue keeps on growing in size. The temple is adjacent to that of Lord Ganesha. See: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ishida/sets/72157594263017101/. After our visit on bare feet, a man in the temple marked our forehead with a red mark.

After seeing all this Shivakumar must have thought we were hungry.

So we went to his house, where we met his wife, kids, and his parents in law. His wife prepared us a meal and also we drank a cup of tea. It was a very nice gesture and it was good food. Then our Indian friends brought us back to our hotel with the help of the tour guide and the driver.

Back in the hotel Lieke, Gerrit and Vincent decided to drink a King Fisher beer. We also felt that we could use something small to eat. We could choose between things we haven’t eaten before and things we haven’t eaten before. So we decided to eat things like spicey banana saucages, mini spinache burgers and spicey potato ‘kroket’. We were glad we had some beer to extinguish the fire, because steam was leaving our ears.

After a good night sleep we had our breakfast and took a cab to our Logica office in Bangalore. They told us that about 2500 are working here. After a security check we could enter the Logica building. Actually working in Bangalore is almost the same as in the Netherlands. Except, in India they don’t know the term ‘flexplek’ and you won’t see a fighting aircraft landing every 20 minutes in the Netherlands. Also in the Netherlands isn’t a young man who asks you if you’d like to drink coffee or tea and also in the Netherlands there isn’t a young woman serving you the coffee or tea. Unfortunately… Every employee has his own cubicle. Around 12.45 pm Ashok invited us for lunch. A lot of Indian food in Logica’s restaurant and also a lot of Indian music. Please check the following movie to gain an impression of a lunch break in Logica Bangalore.

We also met Veronica and Mary today. Very nice and polite ladies. Mary was very delighted with the chocolates we brought her from Amsterdam. In a few hours we’ll be leaving Bangalore to Hyderabad to meet the people from MV Foundation. More about MV Foundation in our next blog.

Fasten your seat belts! CMS ready for takeoff?

Today it’s Friday, June 11th and in less than 48 hours Gerrit and Vincent will go to India. But it’s not just the two of us who will travel to Bangalore and Hyderabad. Lieke Rozendal will join us.

Lieke is a student at Nijmegen University and she already is a member of the Hivos team. As a part of her study she is exploiting a research project. She wrote in her ToR: “The purpose of this evaluation is to conduct a scientifical research on NGO-business partnerships on poverty alleviation. The evaluation of this specific case study (the partnership between Hivos/Logica and the MV foundation) can provide useful information to the theoretical discourse on multistakeholder partnerships. It will also present practical recommendations to the involved stakeholders to improve current process of cooperation between the three main stakeholder and to use lessons learned for future partnerships.”

The CMS team has expanded as well. Since May 28th three test analysts have joined the CMS project team. From Rijswijk (the Netherlands) Satyn Ramlal, from Chennai (India) Shivakumar Veeranna and from Bangalore (India) Baskaran Narayanasamy have joined us.

At least one day per week the whole Dutch team is together in our Logica office in Amstelveen. You can see us together here in Amstelveen (from left to right: Satyan, Ruud, Mark, Vincent and GeertJan). Gerrit wasn’t in Amstelveen when the picture was taken.

Despite that Gerrit and Vincent leave in less than 48 hours still a lot of things need to be done. Some practical things like packing our suitcases, but also Gerrit and Vincent have to make sure that they leave the Netherlands with the most up to date documentation and with the prototype of the Child Monitoring System.

During the stay of Gerrit and Vincent in India, the rest of the team will continue working on CMS, hopefully with the tips and tricks provided from India. I.e. a complete Child Monitoring System cannot be shown. Maybe Gerrit and Vincent (and Lieke of course) are ready to fasten their seat belts, but CMS isn’t ready for takeoff (yet).

A few weeks ago we wrote down that our Indian colleagues are very friendly. Last week Gerrit and Vincent asked them if they had any tourist tips for us in Bangalore. They told us: “We all are eagerly looking forward to meet you guys. And how can we let you guys spend the Sunday doing nothing, we will plan out something”.

CMS - from scratch to sourcecode

It is already in the end of May and all of us are, besides some public holidays, already busy for three weeks with creating the Child Monitoring System.

Geert Jan de Boer, Gerrit Koopmans, Mark Manders en Ruud Rietveld, together with our Indian colleagues Animesh Kumar and Ashok Aritakula, are very busy developing the required functionalities in the Child Monitoring System. They're doing this, after it has cost a lot of time to solve issues that had to do with environments, synchronization, check-ins and check-outs of sourcecode, realization of the database, etcetera.
Vincent Hegeman has, together with our Indian colleague, Arpuda 'Mary' Theerka Das, already made quite some progress with writing the Use Cases. They provide our developers a basis to realize the system, as required by MV Foundation. For writing the Use Cases we mostly use the documentation written by our colleagues and analysts Mark Artz and Geert Mouwen, who went to MV Foundation in India in March.

Until now the contact with our Indian colleagues is remarkable and special. Each of them is very interested in who we are, they are very committed to the project, they work very hard and on top of all they are very friendly and kind. Most of the time the contact is via Office Communicator. Via this medium we communicate en discuss a lot. We also had contact by phone, but that requires a lot of concentration. Our 'Dutch' English is quite different from 'Indian' English.

On Saturday June 13th Gerrit and Vincent will leave the Netherlands by plane. Not straight to Hyderabad, where the head office of MV Foundation is located, but first via Frankfurt to Bangalore. At the Logica office in Bangalore we will meet our Indian colleagues and we will exchange information with them as well, after we had a full day to get used to the climate (40 degrees Celsius) and the food (it is said that we should never forget to take tissues or toilet paper and drink no water from the tap). After our visit to Bangalore, we'll leave for Hyderabad. There we shall show our CMS prototype to MV Foundation. In over a week time we will collect issues and defects and adapt other requirements by MV Foundation. Probalby we will solve issues and defects in the Netherlands and maybe also in Bangalore, to mutate CMS from a prototype into a reliable and suitable end product. In that week we will also visit some schools to see with our own eyes how a school registers childrens' data and what a school does with those data and what MV Foundation does with those data as well.

So far the job is very nice and interesting and it's done by a congenial devoted project team. One of the biggest challenges is to realize most of the required functionalities in a short time of throughput.

Start ontwikkelfase CMS

Op maandag 4 mei zijn wij, Geert Jan de Boer, Vincent Hegeman, Gerrit Koopmans, Mark Manders en Ruud Rietveld samen met onze Indiase collega’s Ashok Ariatkula en Animesh Kumar gestart aan de ontwikkeling van het monitoringssysteem voor MV Foundation in India. 

 In het kader van ons Maatschappelijk betrokkenheidprogramma gaan we werken aan een opdracht voor MV Foundation. MV Foundation is een stichting die strijdt tegen kinderarbeid. Sinds hun oprichting in 1991 heeft ze al 550.000 kinderen uit arbeid gehaald en naar school gebracht. De samenwerking in dit project is voortgekomen uit ons partnerschap met Hivos. In maart hebben collega’s Mark Artz, Geert Mouwen, Mrudul Godbole en Kishan Kumar de requirements voor het systeem opgesteld. Aan de hand hiervan gaan we in de komende maanden het functioneel ontwerp maken, een prototype bouwen en valideren bij MV Foundation en het systeem definitief afbouwen. Eind juni gaat een nieuw team naar India om MV Foundation te trainen in beheer en gebruik van het systeem. 

From an other Indian point of view

This project was a very good learning experience for me, not only work wise, but more in terms of understanding the society I am leaving in and the present social problems.

In the last two weeks I got the chance to visit the some villages where MV Foundation is actually working with the children and also some school and the RBC camps where the students stay. I would like to mention about my experience on the last visit to the girls camp in Hyderabad.

It was the last day of our tour to visit the RBC camps and while returning back to the hotel, we decided to visit one more camp which is in Hyderabad before going back to the hotel.

The camp was located in the crowded part of the old city in an old school. We were told that majority of the girls here were working as domestic help in the cities. When we went there, they welcomed us and asked if would like to see a drama which they usually perform in villages and streets to promote actions against child labour.
In spite of not understanding the language, we were able to make out from the acting what the play was all about. The acting was fantastic and it was really an eye opener for us. Staying in India, I was not aware of these situations. I had heard about child labour and even seen, but after actually witnessing these incidents, I was able to get the real feal of the situation.

Apart from the work, we had a nice interaction among ourselves. It was great to interact with Mark and Geert. They were very enthusiastic to know about Indian culture and even try out different Indian food varieties.
We too got to know more about Netherlands from them, and would definitely like to visit it sometime in future.

Mrudul Godbole

An Indian point of view

We have been in Hyderabad almost two weeks, during these days we visited in six camps.

We also visited some villages. After visiting Bridge course camp we realized how much difficulties children are facing over there. They don’t have proper class room and clothes. Almost first week we spent to visiting all camps, some villages and we met some villagers. They told MV foundation is taking care of most of the children who belong from poor families. Second week onwards we started working on requirement gathering .I was responsible to collect all non functional requirement, Use Cases were taken care by Geert, DataModel had been taken care by Mark and Mrudul was responsible for Business Case. Everybody has completed his/her task on time. We have delivered all documents to MV foundation staff for final review and feedback. Today (24-03-2009) we had meeting with all MV foundation staff, they asked some questions regarding CMS. Mark answered all the questions.

Currently I am working in Logica, Chennai and Mrudul is working in Logica, Bangalore office. She has lot of skills apart from information gathering skill, like she is a very good team worker.

Something about Dutch colleagues Mark and Geert, both are very good team players. Both have very good analyzing skills. Apart from our work we have shared so many things related to India and Netherlands. I never have been to Netherlands. When I met Geert and Mark, I came to know how is the culture there.

I have been working in software development from last 2.8 years, so this kind of work was completely new for me. I learnt so many things from our team.

Finally I would like to say that we had really very good experience with MV foundation.

Final day

Laatste dag al weer in Hyderabad. Afgelopen vrijdag onze bevindingen gepresenteerd en maandag een eerste versie opgeleverd ter review. Het is allemaal kort dag. Liefst willen we het afhebben voordat we gaan: bij elkaar zitten werkt toch nog altijd het makkelijkst.

Het zijn intensieve dagen geweest. Oude antwoorden leidden tot nieuwe vragen, review van elkaars documenten gaf nieuwe inzichten. De samenwerking met de 2 Indiaase collega's gaat goed; hun beide achtergrond en ervaring is wel zeer verschillend en vraagt daardoor telkens wat afstemming.
Vanuit MV Foundation is de medewerking prima. Gelukkig snappen we inmiddels voldoende van Indiaase lichaamstaal om te begrijpen dat Nederlandse 'nee'-schudden hier instemming betekent. Wel zo handig :-)
Hopelijk komt het nieuwe Child Monitoring System snel beschikbaar, dan kan MVF de papieren administratie verminderen en daardoor meer tijd besteden aan het echter werk. Afgelopen periode heeft wel duidelijk gemaakty dat ze nu veel tijd kwijt met registreren, optellen en overtikken; en dan nog is de kwaliteit onzeker.
Nog een paar uurtjes...

Caste - Fathers name - Upper Primary School - Gram Panchayat

Vrijdag alweer. Afgelopen dagen zo veel mogelijk uitgewerkt. Nieuwe vragen komen op, mooie oplossingen komen naar voren. Maandag en dinsdag werden we nogal gehinderd door gebrek aan elektriciteit. De batterij van een laptop raakt uiteindelijk leeg, de ventilator werkt dan ook niet en op een gegeven moment wordt het donker. Naar een andere plek gaan waar wel elektriciteit is, is ook niet handig: We hebben genoeg vragen aan de medewerkers van MV Foundation. Ze zijn erg gedreven, komen snel met antwoorden en hebben goede ideeën over waar ze naar toe willen.
De woensdag en daarna was er wel gewoon elektriciteit, dus ging het wat soepeler. Verdere beschijving van de werkomstandigheden: werktijden van 10:30 tot 20:30, lunchpauze een uur, 2x daags een thee ronde (zoet met melk), temperaturen tussen de 35 - 40 graden, met z'n allen aan een tafel.

In 2,5 weekjes 'even' een informatie-analyse doen is ambiteus. Even een team vormen met twee Indiaase collega's, even het Indiaase schoolsysteem snappen (met PS, UPS, HS), de bestuurlijke structuur (met zoiets als Gram Panchayats), rekening houden met ontbreken van geboortedata, naamgeving van mensen (in deze regio 'name' en 'fathersname', maar dat is in andere regio's anders) en ook een uitdaging: daarnaast moet hetzelfde nieuwe bedrijfsproces ook handmatig gedaan kunnen worden en toch hetzelfde rapporteren. Daarnaast nog wat taalproblemen, maar verder niets bezonders :-) We kunnen gelukkig ook verder bouwen op de kennis van het vorige project wat via Bloom door collega's hier is uitgevoerd. Het Management Informatie Systeem wat dat heeft opgeleverd, wordt op verschillende plaatsen gebruikt. Op andere plekken willen ze ook wel, maar ze schijnen in die mandal offices nog geen elektriciteit te hebben...

Veldonderzoek

De laatste dagen hebben we ons bezig gehouden met het verder verzamelen van de requirements. Hiervoor hebben we op vrijdag 2 Bridge Camps bezocht van MV Foundation en 1 highschool. Ook hier kwamen we weer tal van enthousiaste kinderen tegen die maar al te graag op de foto wilden; zodra we de camera te voorschijn haalden verdrongen ze zich om maar op de foto te kunnen, of om handjes te geven en te vragen naar onze naam. Binnen de kortste tijd waren ook al onze zorgvuldig gerantsoeneerde Logica pennen en snoepjes op; we konden het gewoon niet over ons hart verkrijgen om er maar een paar uit te delen en de rest niets te geven.
Indrukwekkend was het verhaal van een meisje genaamd Kiran; ze vertelde hoe haar vader haar moeder had vermoord, ze hulp zocht bij een oom welke haar mishandelde en op straat belandde. Uiteindelijk kwam ze terecht in een bridge Camp van MV Foundation en is ze nu bezig met afstuderen. Ook vertelde een ander meisje ons hoe ze in een steengroeve stenen klein moest hakken tot gruis, tot MV Foundation haar daar weghaalde.

Zaterdag hebben we een veldonderzoek uitgevoerd op een mandel (regio) kantoor van MV Foundation. Hier hadden we al naar uitgekeken omdat we nu de kans hadden om de daadwerkelijke gebruikers te kunnen spreken en ook om te zien hoe ze met het eerder door Logica gebouwde MIS systeem omgaan. Het was goed om te zien dat er intensief wordt gewerkt met het MIS systeem, en dat er grote belangstelling was naar onze komst. Groot voordeel was dat onze collega's uit Chennai en Bangalore zeer gericht vragen konden stellen in het Hindi aan de gebruikers welke geen Engels konden spreken. Grappig detail was dat de pc's er werken op grote autoaccu's; omdat de stroom in India nog zeer geregeld uitvalt. Op de terugreis van deze zeer vermoeiende, maar leerzame dag, besloten we om ook nog een Bridge Camp in Hyderabad te bezoeken; hetgeen een goede zet was: zodra we daar waren leefden we weer helemaal op!

Zondag hebben we gebruikt om de stad verder te verkennen en om de zon onder zien te gaan in de smog van Hyderabad vanaf de witmarmeren Birla tempel. Morgen gaan we dan eindelijk starten om alle opgedane kennis om te gaan zetten in de eerste bouwstenen van het Functioneel Ontwerp.