Me and Vijay decided that it would be beneficial for me to bring my internship forward and start today to see how far he is spreading the Parichay Philosophy. Vijay has been assisting with an NGO called Vidhya Niketan for the past 2 1/2 years. Vidhya Niketan is a Christian Organisation based in Bilaspur that focuses on providing education to children up to the 8th standard.
They also work heavily on women's empowerment:- giving women practical advice on nutrition (and during lactation especially), dealing with social/familial problems (domestic violence, child marriage, female foeticide). Today Vijay gave two workshops I felt were delivered in a very practical and approachable way, given the context. The first focussed on showing how women from other rural communities in India such as Chennai are coming together to improve their financial situation such as producing handicrafts, working in the food industry and so on. The second focussed on birth control and family planning, and revealed the benefits of careful planning when beginning a family.
I felt that the incorporation of music in to the first lecture and comedy films in the second helped create a sense of approachability between Vijay and the ladies from Bilaspur. The promotion of Parichay's philosophy of working as a community and being self-reliant was present throughout and gave me a great introduction of what Parichay is truly about - a borderless philosophy promoting self help through education and community.
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