Archive pour September, 2009

Well, you’ll be surprised to hear it is still raining, so I haven’t been distracted from work by the luxurious resort islands yet. Jeroen, my predecessor, and his family left the country on the 13th August, and since then I have been getting to know the national staff and partners better, as well as learning more about the current issues. It has taken some time to understand the different aspect of the work because the Maldives programme has so many initiatives.

We have finalised the finishing dates of all staff, which now includes only me, Aishath, our Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR) Coordinator in Khulhudhuffushshi, an island in the North, Arushad our CBR Manager, and Suneetha, our Administrator. We also have a consultant, Ron, conducting the survey I mentioned in the last post, and another short term consultant who is busy analysing some legislation for us which is in Dhivehi (the language of the Maldives).

As a team, we have many lists of things to do, and the count-down to closing the programme at the end of October has truly started. Lots of the work at this stage is quite logistical, but there are also a number of interesting projects to conclude. As examples, we have been working with the Ministry of Health and Family to produce a directory of services and service providers relevant to people with disabilities. This is designed to be made available as a data base and as a hard copy publication. Due to some technical difficulties with the design of the data base, it is taking longer than expected to complete. Of course it is now important to evaluate whether or not it can be completed before the end of October. If not, I shall need to clearly define what is needed to finish the project, and if possible identify another partner for the Ministry who would be able to work with them on this. There are a number of other issues in a similar vein.

Actually, I am writing this blog posting now as next week myself and Aru, CBR manager, are going on a monitoring visit to the CBR project on two of the islands in the south – Thinadhoo and Hithadoo. The trip involves three flights in small planes and will take the whole week. Life on the islands is very different to life in Male. Where Male is a densely populated (relatively) fast moving capital, the islands, especially the smaller ones, hardly have any traffic, often small populations, white sandy paths, houses traditionally made our of coral and a much slower pace. I shall let you know what these two islands and our projects are like when I am back. I am also curious to see what it will be like during Ramazan… in Male I can go home to eat and drink during the day, but I am not sure what will happen on the islands. I can manage without food all day, but am reluctant to go with out water, especially in this climate…

Excitingly, we have agreed to make a short film on the situation of people with disabilities in the Maldives, and just signed the contract with the film company. The film crew will join us on the CBR trip which will be very interesting, so I am eager to seeing how a film is actually made, even if I am thirsty!