It Is Still a Life That Is Good, Beautiful and Joyful My Prayer at this juncture of my life.Grant me Lord the following:A father's tenderness and a shepherd's care like your mind and heart.A leader's courage which the cross can bear.A ruler's arm and a watchman's wakeful eye,A pilot's skill to fly in storms A fisherman's patience and a labourer's toil,A prophet's inspiration from above,A teacher's knowledge and a Saviour's love to impart I'm not sure which is most correct: either I fit priesthood, or priesthood fits me. But I'm glad that I was given this gift. What fits so well for me is the fact that priesthood is so erratic. I mean it takes you everywhere. One minute you're presiding at a funeral and the next you're baptizing a baby. I like that, it's so human. Which can also, at times, make life so messy. But it keeps me bumping into God's work. And the array of people I've come to know in these 11 years is so huge: The good, the bad and the ugly. Each one impacting my life in some way or the other. Some leave me questioning, 'What planet are you from?' And some leave me inspired with a glimpse of God's kingdom.I've always found being a priest a matter of being called, a vocation, a matter of deeper joy. When I was 16, God called me to be a priest, and soon enough thereafter I answered the call, and here I am, 11 years a priest. It has worked, I am blessed to be able to live this way of life. The world, the Church, the priests, me - we are all imperfect, we keep making a mess of things, we can spoil the gift - yet the fact remains that God really does call, God insists, and somehow we find ways of listening to God. There is both room and work for everyone who responds to the call of Jesus. God wants those who answer his call to be "the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world." Is this too hard for us humans? Is it possible when you are misunderstood, mocked, certainly not if we have God's grace. What would we do if we did answer this call to serve? We need only to take a quick look around us, our place of work, the various means of communication, in order to grasp what he wants to be done.I have been grateful for the terrible and wonderful life of a priest - alone, lonely, yet ever among new friends - plus all the small moments where I have loved and been loved, the opportunities to gather with communities in prayer, in meetings and workshops with people from all walks of life, counseling and interacting with people from all over the world has been challenging and at the same time nourishing me as a priest.

I love my priesthood in the confessional box. It was here that I discovered that ordination brings us close to people just when they feel farthest away from God. We are one with them, at their sides, as together we face human frailty, failure and sin, ours and theirs. God's call keeps giving me life, helping me to make the connections.

 Being a priest is obviously something that occurs within the Church, but it is also a matter of finding a place in the world. For example, my work with the youth over the past several years hasn't been simply a question of an assignment. It has been about being a Catholic priest who travels through young minds and hearts, learning their wisdom, seeing the holiness of so many amazing boys and girls. I've learned from them how to follow Christ more deeply and to speak in Christ's name for peace in the world even if it costs your life.

My impression as a diocesan priest is that the life of the diocesan priesthood is deeply grounded in the life of our people. Diocesan priests belong to the community of the disciples of Jesus Christ. We face the same struggles as every person, and we live in the same world as they do. It is, in the deepest sense, a lay spirituality, a spirituality with and for the laos, the people. I do feel that our great high priest was in fact a lay person.May I take this opportunity to thank you for sustaining and supporting my priesthood, let me say with St.Paul, each time I think of you I pray with joy.

What significance does advocacy have, what kind of role does advocacy play in you project (s)? How much time do you spend in advocacy work?

Advocacy: A Powerful tool for change

We believe that advocacy is a powerful tool of influence using persuasion, dialogue and reason to obtain change. It is a ministry of influence with and for the marginalized and is undertaken at the local, regional and national levels. It is not a quick-fix or a band-aid. It is rather a process that seeks to facilitate long-term and sustainable responses in our region. We have followed a three-point agenda for advocacy:

• To challenge and respond to the root causes and consequences of human suffering eg.Bandh culture, ethnic violence, corruption.
• To empower local communities and Churches to take responsibility
• To address issues at local, regional and national levels through seminars, press statements, press conferences, and meetings.

Advocacy is integral to all our programs and we continue to challenge assumptions around issues and work to influence the government’s and public institutions.  We recognize that poverty, displacement, disease, violence etc   marginalizes individuals and families and these marginalized sections of our society have to undergo untold sufferings.

Our Advocacy Context

In our society, we have to address the politics between ethnic groups, among different classes of society, and between civil society and political society. We have to address not only the questions of how to control our government, and our political leaders but also how to solve ethnic conflicts that have been kept under surface.

At the same time, we have to deal with the real situation, how to cope with conflicts. At the time where the economic crisis is still at the bottom we have to face conflicts created by the vested interested parties. Looting, vendetta killings, robbery and so on are our daily reality. Our feeling of safety has been lost and replaced by anxiety and fear of unseen enemies. As an activist, I do not know where my enemies are, I could be robbed, mugged or killed without knowing who did it.

The structural adjustment program (SAP), trade liberalization and debt has its impact too. Very few political and society leaders are aware of the other side of the coin, the impacts of SAP and trade liberalization on grassroots and small holder farmers, workers and small and medium enterprises. 

Over the years we have developed a two pronged approach: advocacy inside and outside. Inside, we have to make sure that the issues that are mentioned above will not bring back the region into chaos, human right abuse and deep trouble. In this case, we have to make sure that the democratic mechanisms will work. We need to build trust among our people that democratic mechanisms can work and can prevent us from deteriorating into further chaos.

There is a need for all out campaign for democratization, especially at district level. More civic education is needed. Civic education programmes should accompany development projects, so that increasing welfare will result in civil society developing at village level. Similar arguments can be put forward for community organizing. Community organizing for cooperatives, for instance, should be developed further into community organizing for local governance watch. Therefore, the seeds for civil society could actually spread from income generating projects.

Advocacy outside India should be directed at the compliance of the Indian government to a universal democratic standard. We have to avoid the WB or the IMF or the WTO setting human rights, good governance and environmental standards to be followed by our government. Those organizations should follow universal standards that have been agreed within the UN body, or under multilateral agreements.

Our Methodology 

We have been working in the formation and strengthening of People’s Organisations like Self Help Groups,Peace committees, Pathar Parisalana Samitis (Farmers’ Organisations) among rural communities. We realize that advocacy can play a significant role in bringing change in the community. One of the main focus in the projects involving SHGs and PPS is advocacy and lobbying.

Besides stressing on economic strengthening of the groups, many project activities aim towards developing skills of the groups in advocacy, especially in the field of linkage with Governments and financial institutions.

Encouraging SHGs, youth groups and PPS to solve social issues like alcoholism, violence, family health and education is also part of the activities undertaken by the organisation.

One of the strategies of our projects is involving People’s Organisations to sufficiently strengthen them so that they avail of schemes under Government, financial and other institutions for rural development.

Our Strategy

• Community and Social Advocacy
• Political Advocacy
• Civil Society Advocacy
• Legal Advocacy
• Media Advocacy

How do we advocate? How we have mobilized community leaders, government officials and government departments:

We use multiple advocacy tools. Some of them are, research papers, participation in various official meetings, lobby meetings and writing lobby letters, organise public seminars and use the media in a variety of ways to articulate social concerns. It also include;

·         Phone Calls

·         Katheang Asong Street theatre group (public demonstration using dance, drama, speeches and songs)

·         Inviting officials to special occasions

·         Using celebrities for functions and programmes ( eg. famous singers)

What were the results of our advocacy?

·         Significant increases in people accessing and public utilities and programmes.

·         Significant increases in youth and women accessing services.

·         A network of groups and association in two districts of Assam .

·         Endorsement of our programmes by local government.

Lessons we have learned from doing advocacy.

·         It was important to build upon the strengths and not concentrate on the weaknesses of existing services.

·         Our past achievements gave credibility to what we said.

·         Advocacy strategies are often not recognised until they have been successful.

·         Let the community members/society have more information about what you want to do and achieve.

·         Involve key players in the area to be part of the Steering Committee,  for example, District Education Officer.

In which areas / fields do you see a need for more advocacy work within your context (in your country)? What are the topics about? Are there any ideas of what should / could / has to be done? Where and how?

CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE FUL COEXISTENCE AND END TO ETHNIC VIOLENCE

We felt the important of civil society to build strategic alliances that will influence technocrats to get involved in the redress process. The civil society was engaged in a broad range of strategies as a long-term measure to address the root causes and consequences of conflict, and to promote a culture of peace among the population. These were done through;

Training of women, children and youth and providing skills in their understanding of how to use international and national human rights instruments in their advocacy work; analysing conflict, and being able to manage trauma, peace processes and conflict resolution, as a way of creating a critical mass advocates for peace building, and preparing them for engagement in formal peace negotiation processes.

CAMPAIGN FOR IMPLEMENTATION FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF GOVERNMENT PROGRAMMES

One of the vital areas of our advocacy work has been putting pressure on the local government to implement the government programmes for the benefit of the poor.

Pubic pressure was exerted through peoples forums to do away with the political and bureucratic influence in getting the programs sanctioned and the ensuing unethical practices involved within.

Drought prone development programme was implemented through peoples movement in the drought affected regions.

CAMPAIGN ON ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS
Our continuous dialogue and constant interaction created much awakening among the community who have come forward to solve their community problems linked with the problem of deforestation and Jhum cultivation (Shifting cultivation).

CAMPAIGN AND ACTION AGAINST ALCOHOLISM
The illegal brewing and the sale of the country liquor was curtailed through the influence of the youth and the women groups in several villages. These have been possible due to the existence of the grass roots forums and our street theatre groups. These actions increased their participation in social issues and the women’s solidarity was built through the process. Further they challenged the monopoly of many vested groups who have been engaged in these illegal activities.

CAMPAIGN FOR ACTIVATION OF PRIMARY HEALTH CENTRES
One of the key objective of this campaign is to strengthen the government services and its reachability to the people. In the absence of the PHC and its non-functioning , the people are forced to rely on the private practitioners or depend on the untrained medical practitioners . The services which are meant to reach the people are not reaching them and forcing the people to entirely depend on unscrupulous medical practitioners. The village health nurses and anganwadi workers who are supposed to visit the villages are not visiting regularly. In its operational areas, its campaign led to changes in the form of revival of closed schools, improved school functioning with increased co-operation among the school teachers and villagers, increased action against erring school teachers, increased enrollment and reduced drop-outs. Further community monitoring of schools became institutionalised in many of the villagers.

With regard to what needs to be done to achieve bigger impacts from advocacy, the community should be motivated, People’s Organisations to be strengthened and guided. For this to happen grassroot level activities like sensitizing the community and capacity building of rural community leaders need to be done.  Besides this, networking between different People’s Organisations needs to improve. We have promoted the formation of Federations in four clusters for maximizing the impact of advocacy.

Are there any organizations in your environment that engage to a greater extent with advocacy work? Is your organization part of a supra-regional network that works with a specific topic? If yes, in what kind of network and how does the work look like?

At the regional level (North East India), there are organizations that engage in advocacy work to greater extent. We are in fact linked with regional level networks like the North East Diocesan Social Forum (a network of Diocesan Social Service Societies) in the field of rural development and North East Regional Youth Commission (network of Diocesan Youth Organisations) for youth development.  

The network is useful for information sharing, common capacity building programme for staff and management and developing common strategies in the field of development.

You as an organization, do you keep an eye on global discussions and developments?

Yes, the organization does keep an eye on global and national discussions and development. We are aware that the world is far from a romanticized village or "global citizen". These are concepts that no-one can relate to, other than via the images and language of advertising agencies. Globalization has its positive manifestations, such as the ability to instantly communicate with someone else from across the world. But globalization has a nastier side as well, which is a tendency to either centralize or delocate political decision making to an arena which excludes legitimate representation or the right to representation or participation of people affected by these decisions. In today's world, a decision affecting a local community in a developing country may very well be composed of an initiative in Washington , standards set in Brussels and money provided out of Tokyo . Growing numbers of people are governed by political regimes which are increasingly ineffective in establishing and realizing policy objectives in their own political space. The average person is left with diminishing political choice and is perhaps more aptly described as a global serf rather than a global citizen. To us Globalization is an economically driven process, which incorporates an increasing institutionalization of unequal relationships. It affects social, cultural and political patterns as we know them:

• In the organization of industrial production, where increasingly powerful multinational corporations demand concessions of suppliers and governments and demand the so-called "flexibilisation" of labour.
• Governments and parliaments in developing countries are becoming more sensitive towards parliaments in developed countries or to the Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade Organization (WTO) rather than to their own people.
• Sustained expansion of the Bretton Woods Institutions and the WTO is taking place at the expense of the United Nations system.
• Traditional cultures, languages and knowledge-systems are becoming increasingly dominant, while others are destroyed.

What kind of cooperation do you expect from the NGOs of the north and how could a concrete cooperation look like? What is important for you in this context?

In the light of the above discussions, we are trying to undo unequal relationships, individually and jointly. We d so in a practical sense - by providing capital, services, knowledge etc. where it otherwise would not be provided and by voicing opinions in national, international and local arenas. However, it is to be noted that we have not done much work in the national and international levels.  For example, it cannot be expected that a grassroots social organization like ours in the hinterland of India will know all of the politically important people in Washington D.C., who will understand the protocol associated with contacting relevant decision makers, or will have the resources to bring pressure to bear in that political arena. The opposite is true as well. Organizations based in Washington , New York or Geneva may be intimately familiar with the way in which those arenas work and how decisions are made, but will not be able to understand the pace, the mechanisms or the reality of a local situation in our region. In this context we have the following suggestions.

Agenda setting and strategy building

The major issue which we need to engage is the question of agenda setting and strategy building. What are the substantive priorities, for whose benefit, these are some of the questions which need to be answered, pointing at the fact that agenda setting and strategy building is closely related to the management of risks. Tactics and strategies decided upon can have major consequences for all actors involved.

Allocation of available financial resources:

The need for financial resources varies from arena to arena. The availability of financial resources is a major factor contributing to the risk of lopsided relationships around the globe.

Information flow

Information is the most powerful tool. In social service delivery, information is critical to decision making. The ability to actually analyze, process or generate information is equally important.

Information frequency and format:

The frequency with which we relay information to one another is not only important in the context of the management of political responsibilities, but also in the effectiveness of the same campaign. Significant events can erupt at any given moment and can either positively or adversely affect any member of a campaign. Getting information out can help other partners in the campaign to be prepared and/or protected.

Articulating information into useful forms:

Information by itself is not enough to pursue effective advocacy. Often the available information needs interpretation in accordance with the political arena in which it is being articulated.

Tom Mangattuthazhe