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Our Spanish volunteer Carlota Masó Giralt, who went to India within our ESC Humanitarian Aid project “HAND”, funded by the European Commission and hosted by our Indian partner, Orissa State Volunteers and Social Workers Association (OSVSWA), completed her 8-month volunteering service in India. During these 8 months Carlota worked on many different projects in collaboration with the hosting organisation in Bhubaneswar and Odisha. She worked in the fields of training the girls on menstrual management, organisation of projects with adolescents, risk prevention, management of projects focused on agriculture and climate change, as well as development and coworking with different entities.
The main projects she worked on were related to youth and women in rural communities: ‘Menstrual Health Management. Me, myself and my friends’ and ‘Youth for change’. Menstrual health management ‘Me, myself and my friends’.
The project focused on menstrual health management through a four-part workshop with adolescent girls. In the early stages of project development, it was important to focus on self-empowerment, to create a base from which to start working on menstrual strength. In a second phase, it was aimed to complement this first phase with the creation of a menstrual pad making group, to create livelihoods for tribal women through sustainable menstrual health management.
‘Youth for Change’. A project among school children in Konark district focusing on climate awareness, disaster risk reduction, hygiene and menstrual health, and promoting cultural exchange. All this in a practical, dynamic and fun way.
Within OSVSWA, Carlota also collaborated in other projects, such as helping in the revision and graphic design of some documents for its partners: OIIPCRA and ICARDA. In particular, she helped mainly in the new project developed by the SAFER volunteers’ team, accompanying them in some field visits, making graphic designs for the project, managing social media and supporting meetings with agriculture and climate change experts.
Outside OSVSWA, one of the projects Carlota enjoyed the most every time was that they helped the ‘Mangroves for Resilience’ project, a regular partner of OSVSWA, which invited them to different field trips to help replant mangroves, riverbank trees that reduce the impact of floods, and coordination meetings for the following year’s actions.
The enormous collaboration and work Carlota did for ADN (Avoidable Deaths Network), helping an independent worker based in Bhubaneswar. Carlota and her co-volunteers were able to participate in two information dissemination days and announcements in Kolkata. In March they organised a big international event with representatives from all over Asia, working together to prevent as many avoidable deaths as possible, such as from snake bites, during floods, in earthquakes, etc. Furthermore, with AND team they made two field trips: one to visit the new snakebite prevention station and outreach centre and another to Ganjam to do outreach and prevention in different schools.
Carlota also took tasks in two days which the women of the group organised: one on 25th November organising a meeting, with some lectures for the day of the Elimination of Violence against Women; and another on 8th March, the activity consisted of a meeting with the women of the community and then planting fifty mangroves on the banks of the river.
Carlota has developed herself socially in many ways, outside of her activities. She has made many local friends. She went to some traditional dance festivals and enjoyed various cultural visits with the Ekamra tours. She also went to trips to various parts of India with other volunteers. We would like to thank Carlota for all her dedication in her work.
