site visits in madurai

Our first site visit was with an organization called Mahasemam Trust which is a microfinance organization headquartered in Madurai. When we arrived at their main office, Mahasemam's fundraising lead gave us an overview of their activities and initiatives. We learned that they recently converted from a self-help group model to a Grameen-group model, which has increased their repayment rates. Mahasemam also provides health insurance, access to hospitals as well as new initiatives in housing, infrastructure and sanitation. Once the general presentation was over, we were split into groups and driven to one of the central Madurai offices. We got a presentation on their new housing program and also got to see the organization's record keeping materials. We were shown large journals, receipt books and even the small passbooks that women used to track their loan repayments. Afterwards, a gentleman gave us a presentation on their housing initiative. They have built around 200 houses, that members of Mahasemam are then able to purchase. It seems like a really great opportunity for their members, especially those who have not yet had an opportunity to own their own home.

after the housing presentation we ate lunch and then we climbed back into our mini-buses and headed off to separate sites. our bus ended up at a local field office where several loan officers were working. the office was located in a semi-urban neighborhood and we were told that this office was around 10 kilometers from all of the groups. as we walked off the bus into the office, we saw a group of women, who we assumed were loan recipients. i was hoping that we would get to speak with these women at some point during the afternoon. we were shown to a room upstairs and as we walked into the second floor space several of the loan officers sprung into action to find seats for our large group of fifteen people. after a few minutes of sitting and waiting expectantly for what was going to happen next, mike, one of the interns, decided that it might be a good idea to try and chat with the women we had seen earlier. so, we asked the branch manager if it would be acceptable to chat with the women who we had seen and he obliged.

A small group of us walked downstairs as the branch manager bellowed to the women that were still around and asked where the rest of the women had gone. In a few minutes, the women, which were a group of 10 or so women, gathered at the steps of the branch office. the branch manager, in tamil explained that we were interested in asking the women some questions and asked if they would participate; the women agreed. I'm not sure how it all started, but i somehow found myself in the middle of a conversation with this group of women using my limited tamil. My fellow interns had several questions, as did i, so with the help of the branch manager, we were somehow able to have a conversation with these women. It was the first time I had ever acted as any kind of interpreter. it was also the first time i was forced to reach for words that I had only heard in passing by my parents or grandmother, but never included them in my own vocabulary. moreover, I was trying very hard to engage with the women but also was trying to ensure that all of the non-Tamil speakers were able to participate in the conversation as well. It was a really challenging but exhilarating situation.


The women, we eventually found out, were actually their to get their yearly loan disbursement, so we caught them on the right day. We asked them a lot of questions "is your life better after joining a group? what do you use the money for? have you utilized the health clinics? how many of you have children? how many of them are in school? what type of work do you do? do your husbands work?" and so on...

in general, it seems like having loans make life a little easier for the women. they said that they do utilize the health clinics and that they use the money for their home businesses and consumption smoothing. All of them had two children (at least), of which school-aged children were attending. Finally, the women did a range of work including sewing to making and selling pappadam (a crunchy south indian snack).

The best part about this exchange was that it was a very informal, conversational interaction. They were joking around and telling little stories and laughing a lot, which put everyone at ease. At one point, I had said something like "thanks so much for taking the time out of your day to talk with us." The one woman, who was the leader of the group and also quite a personality responded by saying something along the lines of "listen, i don't mind taking a break, we all don't mind stopping work, but we do mind if something cuts into our lunchtime." She proceeded to put her hand on her stomach and the entire group laughed. It clearly loses something in the language/social context translation, but nonetheless it was hilarious and a good ice breaking moment. (The woman I am referring to is the woman in the blue sari standing in the front left.)

A side note, this was the first of several exchanges where I went back and forth between the group of women and group of interns and a more authoritative figure, in this case, the branch manager, who often was translating my tamil into tamil that the women would understand. so it was sort of like cmf interns -> veena, veena -> branch manager, branch manager -> ladies, when my vocabulary just didn't include the tamil words necessary.

The women eventually left to get their loans and more importantly to get lunch :) Our group boarded a bus that dropped us off in another semi-urban neighborhood, where we were going to observe one of the monthly group meetings. We disembarked from the bus onto a street that was lined on both sides by houses and small shops. The neighborhood seemed The women were sitting facing the opposite direction. From the bus we could see that they were sitting in rows of five with their group members. All of the women had their Mahasemam sari on. The branch manager somehow decided that I would be the official interpreter for the day, and after the song was played and the meeting had come to a close, he asked me to begin the interview.

I began asking a similar set of questions, but this time the dynamic between the interns and the women was a lot more formal. They were sitting in rows, almost like it was school and listening to my questions and statements, but not really engaging in a conversation with me. The women said many of the similar things... "life was better, they appreciate Mahasemam..." and so on. However, it was a lot more difficult to have a conversation because of the environment. I will add pictures to demonstrate. I didn't feel right taking pictures at this place because I didn't have an opportunity to get to know the woman.

I should also mention at this point that the children and other people who were not involved in the group meeting had come out of their homes to observe what was transpiring in the street below. the little kids were walking by fascinated at all the different people sitting in their neighborhood. After the meeting, women came to talk to us, one woman asked me to tea, another asked if I could help her son find a job. I was sort of taken aback at the amount of responsibility or faith they had in me after talking with me for ten minutes.

We eventually left these women and got back on the bus and drove another fifteen minutes to another neighborhood. we found out later that the women had already conducted their meeting and had been waiting for us to show up. we walked down a road that had significantly dilapidated homes, piles of bricks and trash in the road. When we got off the bus, several of the children in the village began running towards us. They followed us as we walked with the branch manager to the site of the next group meeting. They were talking to all of the interns, practicing their English and asking all kinds of questions. Some of them were shy, some of them were bold, some of them were giggling every time we would respond to questions. We turned the corner and made our way down one more small path to a little clearing by a seemingly polluted pond, where another group of women sat waiting for us. These women did not have matching saris, and were a lot more boisterous; they were joking and laughing a lot more.

After the branch manage explained why we were there, he turned the "stage" over to me. At this point, we had been on our feet for hours, and everyone was tired. However, no one wanted to leave without making an effort to talk with these women. I asked a similar set of questions that I asked the first group of women. They responded in some similar ways. However, unlike the first group of women, these women were not running joint businesses. Most of them were involved in their own businesses. They seemed to be much bolder than the previous group and I think had more issues with microfinance because towards the end, the group leader seemed to be in a heated discussion about how she wish Mahasemam would provide more educational loans so the kids in the village had an opportunity to go to college. While they do provide educational loans, each loan cannot exceed 3000 rupees per school year and they can utilize this for up to two children. However, there are currently no opportunities for these women to use these loans for larger more long -term consumption like college.

as we left this group meeting, the women and children all came to shake my hand. at that moment, i felt so touched by everyone around me. i smiled at everyone, asked "eppidi irrikail" (how are you) to all of the people as I passed their homes and walked towards the bus. I was overwhelmed again, by the kids' enthusiasm, the warmth of the community and the patience of the group members, who had waited more than an hour for us to arrive.

as we got back on the bus, i sunk into the back row, covered in sweat and dust. i was happy, i was just where i wanted to be...