What a blessing and privilege to enter the portals of ISIB

Here dwell the peaceful persons whom God favours. I was warmly welcomed by a very dynamic director, Fr. Joseph Xavier SJ, a person full of affability, tranquillity, and spirituality. Fr. Joe along with the administrator, Fr. Francis Balaraj and other fathers and all staff members in the campus are exuberant with garden greenery and fragrant flowers and one can feel sincerely that ISI is really an abode of God. Here, I realize and experience God’s work.

Every rich and nurturing experience at Indian Social Institute, Bangalore (ISIB), invites me to give thanks to God. It is a great opportunity to be deeply rooted and to grow a step higher in my life journey. It is indeed a great joy to know many people from different places and cultures and to experience their personality and warmth. It is a beautiful occasion to share my life with each other in all the activities assigned to me. I am sincerely indebted to Fr. Joseph Xavier SJ, Fr. Joy James SJ,  and Fr. Francis Balaraj for their constant accompaniment and encouragement.

ISI-B is a place of learning and a research and training centre. I thank them for imparting me knowledge about the Indian Constitution, organizing systematic cadre and capacity building of youth programmes in Kerala, and giving me many learning opportunities. I am working as a regular staff, as facilitator of programmes in Kerala in the Social Inclusion and Democracy Unit. I travel to Kerala as per the needs of the programmes. My main work is to plan, coordinate and implement training programmes in Kerala and to participate in some NGO programmes in Bangalore, participate in the preparation of the resource modules, to initiate and strengthen partnerships in Kerala, to maintain live contact with partner organizations and follow up with the potential cadres to encourage and guide them, to maintain documentation of the programmes organised, reports and evaluations and the programmes organised virtually on critical issues and submitting bills and vouchers after the training with proper documentation.

I am grateful to my provincial Sr. Antony Mary Dasary for clearly presenting her ideas on walking with the poor and the excluded, especially working in collaboration with the Jesuits. I admire her passion and commitment to transform the lives of millions of poor in the world, especially those chained by the cycle of poverty and deprivation, living in the developing countries.

ISI-B works in close collaboration with different organizations and institutions. The knowledge I gained through this institute has helped me to be self-confident and a person with dignity. This institution has given me exposure to social work at the grassroot amongst the most marginalized. Field-based activities helped me to understand the issues faced by the adivasis, dalits, fisherfolks, women, youth, children, migrants, etc

I am happy to say that earlier the Institute had only one zone in Kerala, AADI at Attapadi, Palakkad. Currently, for the next cycle of basic training, with the help of the fathers, I have worked out 4 Zones in Kerala, namely, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Trivandrum and Kollam districts.

In Kozhikode and Wayanad districts the focus will be on the adivasi or tribal communities. In Trivandrum district I will be training youth from the fisherfolk communities and in Kollam district, dalit youth will be trained. Youth of these areas will be capacitated through various training sessions on socio-cultural analysis, Panchayath Raj, social movements, care for common home, people’s entitlements, and social animation skills, who will lead their local communities. Kerala unit will be organising 3-day training sessions for 35 youth in each zone once in every 3 months.

Finally, I can say that by organising many training programmes and due to my proactive participation in all common activities I have gained a lot, as ISI plays a vital role in the development of every individual and communities with intellectual depth in building dalit, Adivasi, women and youth collectives for social change.

I have been working at ISI-B for 10 months. I consider this opportunity as a unique gift in my life as I have received so many blessings. In the beginning everything looked strange as I was not prepared to work in an institution in a systematic manner. I felt that my capacities were limited. Everyone I came in contact with taught me something. I met so many wonderful people who inspired me to cross my limits. They taught me to think more about society first and myself later. I can proudly say that I have grown. I am a different person now. I owe all this to ISI-B, the staff and the partners.

Sr. Lilly ED

Facilitator of Programmes

Social Inclusion & Democracy Unit, Kerala