Ashraf Patel

Information:

Name:

Ashraf Patel

Age

42 (2009)

Nationality:

Indian

Profession:

Organisation development and youth development

Country:

India

State:

Haryana

City:

Faridabad

Describe your background, your interest in development, your affiliation with NGOs, etc.

I am an organisation development professional by education. I studied Human Resource Management, after which I worked in the corporate sector with two financial services firms. My interest in development goes back to school and college, where we as students were engaged in many social work projects. While studying management at Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), there was a big focus on industrial relations and labour rights, and on the importance of developing psychological, social and physical health of human beings in all spheres of life to create a healthy society.

In 1993, after the communal riots (post Babri Masjid demolition) in India, Arjun, Meenu and I, all working in the same company, began as volunteers in schools to do a program on conflict and non-violence. That work later developed into a non-profit called Pravah, which was started with more friends, such as Adeesh, Gouran, Shivani, Renuka and Gagan, and many more.

Since then, we have been working on youth development and active citizenship issues. Many different programs have been started for a wide range of age groups, right from adolescents to youths, as well as for professionals in organisations. Over the years, we have also provided consulting and advisory support to nearly 100 organisations.

I was on the working group of the Youth Ministry for the development of the XIth Plan for Youth and Adolescents. Over the last 15 years I have been involved in the incubation of three more organisations, Commutiny, i.e. the Youth Collective, which works on media and policy in the area of active citizenship, and Patang, an organisation in Orissa working on youth development, and the Pravah Jaipur initiative. I am also on the board of the National Youth Federation.

How did you first get in touch with World Comics and grassroots comics?

Through Sharad Sharma, I think five or six years ago. It must have been in connection with Oxfam’s We Can -program. It was very interesting to get to know about all the campaigns and to see the comics which had been made.

What are your experiences of grassroots comics? Do you plan to use grassroots comics in your future activities?

My experiences began with a short program Sharad Sharma conducted for our youth program called SMILE, through which we promote youth volunteering and active citizenship. What followed was a workshop Sharad conducted for roughly twenty youth fellows of a Pravah program in Rajasthan, together with Urmul (Uttari Rajasthan Milk Union Ltd), SWRC (Social Work and Research Centre) and Sankalp India Foundation. It was a huge success and after that we never looked back.

Later on, we have had the benefit of World Comics with our programs in Delhi and Jaipur, as well as with our partners in Orissa and other places. In Jaipur one of our deepest partnerships began with a five-day intensive training of youth from Jaipur and some organisations outside. Another partnership was formalised into a long-term program to train trainers in the field of youth development and active citizenship as a part of the Pravah Learning Voyages Institute Initiative. The workshop we conducted together led to many positive outcomes and concrete actions which are documented in a blog called Comics Crusaders. There is also further collaboration with Commutiny, to enable the use of comics for media and policy work in the area of youth development.

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Sharad and his colleagues Sundar Mohan, Rajeev, Manas, Amrit and all the others in the workshops. Each workshop is always professionally conducted and has always more than met the objectives that it was meant to achieve.

There is no doubt about the power of the medium of grassroots comics. It is like magic to me how the power is unleashed in the course of a workshop. World Comics trainers bring into the workshops also a clear perspective of social issues that the participants do not only take back a new skill but also a world view. To me, this is the most critical factor and something which is usually hard to find in such interventions.

Also, how the organisation of World Comics is structured as a very loose network of people across India and the world is very interesting to me. World Comics is flexible, creative and sustainable and promotes a social entrepreneurial spirit. This is something I would like to study more and write about, as an example of best practices in this field.

I have seen the campaigns that World Comics has done on different issues and I find that the true potential of comics as a grassroots advocacy tool is fully realised through them.

We would like to continue to partner with World Comics to train more facilitators and youth activists to use comics in advocacy work among youth and other communities, and as a means for youth development.