| In July 2006, QSSS for the first time in its history had made tie-up with International Labour Organisation and had become its partner agency in November 2006. ILO-ALP-UNTRS project is implemented by International Labour Organisation and is being funded by UNDP for a period from 2006 to 2008. In India the project is being implemented in two districts - Kollam in Kerala and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu. In Kollam the project is being implemented in five gramapanchayat in first cycle of phase 1 which is notified by GoK as tsunami affected. The selected GP's under 1 st cycle are Alapad, Kulashekharapuram, Clappana, Chavara and Panmana. QSSS as project partner is facilitating the project implementation in the first five wards of Alapad and the entire wards of Chavara gramapanchayat. The project implementation team is headed by Mr. Ramesh Krishnan, assisted by two Community Coordinators - Ms. Sibi.A and Miss Subha. C and 6 other Community Organisers. ILO-ALP focus on women SHG's, youth, differentially abled person, members of women headed families in the age group of 18-40 by providing skill and vocational training for creating gainful alternative employment on a sustainable manner. For Kollam district the project envisages to cover 1000 SHG members, 1500 youth and establishment of 150 enterprises during the project period. The strategic partners of ILO-ALP-UNTRS project are government agencies- state and local, employees and employer's organisation, NGO and training providers. Special emphasis is given to employees' and employer's organizations by way of consultation and Liaison. Post training support is yet another concern prime of the project in which trainees would be linked to potential employers, to banks for loan for starting self employment activities and to existing government programs- both central and state. Field level activities: As part of project orientation, the society had conducted a total of 26 awareness programs in both Alapad and Chavara GP with in a period of 10 days. The first program was held at ward 1 of Chavara GP on the 27 th of November 2006 . 1020 people had attended the awareness program organised in both the Gramapanchayat. Representatives of various political parties and employees organisations' also attended the awareness program.
RCA - Rapid community assessment (training need identification) exercise using 6 distinct indicators is a tool propagated by ILO for training idea generation and prioritization. RCA program started on 6 th December 2006 in ward no. 1 of Alapad gramapanchayat and was completed on 1 st January 2007 in ward no. 15 of Chavara gramapanchayat. The project team had conducted total of 25 RCA meetings. Two RCA meetings were cancelled in Chavara gramapanchayat due to some inconveniences at field level. Through RCA, the team had identified 76 training trades (25 SHG training trades and 51 individual trades). The team is now engaged in prioritizing the most viable training trades and developing proposals for submission to ILO for approval. Field level observations' & learning's: • Male youth are more exposed to new vocation and trades • Most of the SHG members have conventional thinking in selecting trades • SHG are more interested for individual activities rather than group activities • Most of the SHG members are of the mentality of getting things in freely • Trade unions do not have proper orientation of the project • Male participation in RCA and awareness meeting found minimal • PRI members needs more indepth project orientation to act as support mechanism • Involvement of dalits and other socially deprived communities found minimal |
