How CREDA works
Field Findings on CREDA
Haruno Nakashiba

CREDA Central Office Staff
The CREDA central office at Mirzapur comprises the Secretary, Coordinator, Additional coordinator, Project manager, Project assistant, Sub-Programme coordinator and a Medical doctor as the social workers. The Computer operator, Accountant, Office assistant, Attendant and three drivers are the administrative staff.
Working days are Monday to Saturday and working hours from 10:00 to 17:00.

CREDA staff are devoted to their work. They often work beyond the time bound according to the programme schedule and field requirements. CREDA social workers put importance on the field visits, direct interaction with field staffs and the community. Through these interactions, they are highly motivated by seeing the changes among the target groups. They are proud of what they are doing. The staff recognizes the Secretary as ‘guide’ but at the same time they have built up a family like bond.

CREDA Field Office Staff
CREDA has two field offices. One is in Dubar (Lalganj block) and the other is in Sukhura (Halia block). There are four field supervisors in Dubar, two in Sukhura and four in Madihan block. Most of the field supervisors have been working with CREDA for about ten years. The communication between central office and the field office are done by phone or mutual visits.

CREDA’s field staffs, i.e. field supervisors, field organizers and teachers, can be called CREDA’s strength. They cater CREDA projects directly to the communities and maintain close relationships with the beneficiaries. The field supervisors who have been working with CREDA for long have rich experiences of interacting with community people. Those who have taken part in the earlier struggle of CREDA to liberate children from carpet looms seem to have strong confidence and sense of achievement within themselves. they don’t care about the amount of the workload for the causes which they are working for. At the same time they are working as a good team and whenever they have some problem or challenges they discuss with each other. As they are seeing the grass roots reality everyday, their view often goes beyond the scope of currently ongoing projects.

Community Cottage School (CCS)
CCSs are running well though most of them are located in the very remote villages. There are simple huts built by the villagers and teachers for classroom but most of the time children prefer studying outside. It is touching to see children studying with intensity, in the middle of the field or a barren land. Some children come to school from 4-5 Km. away by walk. They study with simple equipment, one blackboard, plain sitting mats, used textbooks and notebooks. Children are well mannered and whenever there is a visitor, they stand up and greet. While studying they are quite earnest. CREDA provides them school uniform, bag, learning materials and mid-day meal. Considering the socio-economic background of the children who are from the poor family, these supports are quite helpful.

CREDA teachers’ enthusiasm and responsibility for the work are quite high. Teachers take an important role as communicators who convey CREDA’s message to the communities through meetings, pasting posters or wall writings. They hold meetings with various groups in the villages formed by CREDA, for example Child labour vigilance committees or mothers’ groups. Teachers regularly keep in touch with CREDA field offices (Dubar and Sukhura). There also is a regular meeting between CREDA central office staffs including the Secretary and teachers once in a month. Through these meetings, teachers are given the latest information, suggestion or ideas. Teachers are satisfied with the support from CREDA.

Village Community
CREDA has been successful in mobilizing the community. There are various changes, which have been brought by the NGO’s intervention to the village community. Changes can be found in the behaviour of parents that they start sending children to school and various groups were formed by the NGO (Child Labour Vigilance Committees, Mothers’ Groups etc). These groups are taking role to ensure that the children go to school regularly and do not go back to the work or they also work as pressure groups so that the Government schools function in a better way. It also brought the change in caste consciousness among the villagers through the meetings and the experiences of working together for the same cause. One of the strengths of CREDA is that they have been successful in involving the village Panchayats and the Pradhans who have a strong presence in the village. The village people value education mainly because it brings a better job opportunity. Education may be useful to the village people as it gives them the mobility socio-economically. There is a bud for change in their perception of self as well. One father of CREDA school going child said, ‘illiterate people can work only for others but literate people can do their work’. Not only working for ‘others’ but for ‘their own self’. This may be a meaningful statement as it shows the confidence within themselves and change within their psychology.

edited from
Observation Report of CREDA, Unpublished Thesis
written by Haruno Nakashiba,
University of Tokyo, Japan.