Mana Shah - Facilitator

5 December was a special day for my organization--The International Volunteer Day-- a day to celebrate the efforts and impact made by volunteers! We supported the celebrations five states across in Nigeria including Lagos. Given all the madness that comes with getting 20 NGOs to work together, we somehow managed to pull off the program. Attended by about 160 individuals & organizations, 21 media reps; we got the fabulous Crowne Troupe of Africa to perform a hilarious however brutally real dance drama. The highlight for me personally was when we awarded six volunteers Recognition Awards , it was the first time such awards were being presented in Nigeria (so I think!) . A couple of volunteers also shot a video taking glimpses of the events and interviews with the organizations, volunteers and media--which should add to developing the first documentary on national volunteering in Nigeria! Though my anxiety levels were shooting the roof, the onsite volunteers were agile, attentive...

Osogbo in its heyday, was the flourishing centre of the Osogbo School of Art , a movement which started in the 1960s. It has attracted and produced many internationally acclaimed artists. We visited two prominent art galleries. The first was a two-storey belonging to Nike Davies . It had a dazzling collection of paintings, sculptures, woodworks, clothes, bronze work which were obviously prized for the the expat's budget! It mirrored the vibrancy and ethnicity of Nike's house cum gallery in Lagos. The second one we visited was the home cum gallery of Chief Jimoh Buraimoh, the inventor of the bead paintings! One of the paintings we all fell in love with was priced at Naira 500,000! It took us a while to convince them that we were volunteers with little money! Luckily for us the Chief was home and we had a nice chat with him about his works and life in Osogbo. We were actually also staying in his hotel. The home visit got us an invitation to a special program that evening...

The quiet town of Osogbo in Osun State (about four hours north of Lagos) is world renowned for two things: its vibrant art galleries and the serene Sacred Groves . It has been on my travel agenda since I came to Nigeria and finally with some other VSO volunteers, we finally managed to go! As the name suggests, the 75-acre Osun Sacred Groves is a cool green oasis is adorned with sculptures and shrines of Yoruba deities, particularly the river Goddess Osun (Mother of Osogbo) who according to legend, promised the protection of the town. The area of the forest was home to early settlers and founders of Osogbo 400 years ago where the history of the town was recorded. Each sculpture and shrine created by local and international artists (primarily Austrian Susanne Wenger settled in Nigeria since the 50s) represents the activities, lives and preoccupations of the Gods and Goddesses of the Groves. The forest was declared a world heritage site in 2005 by UNESCO. The annual Osun Fe...

It is hard enough for me to come to terms with the reality that a city like Mumbai, can be rocked by petty politics played out by statists who curse and blame non-mumbaikars and want to throw them out. And now given the recent Delhi blasts in prominent markets, the Mumbai blasts......its just pathetic and ghastly to imagine that anything can happen at anytime to anyone. Northern Nigeria is also seeing communal violence, burnt mosques and churches in the city of Jos over state elections. 300 people have died and over seven thousand have fled their homes out of fear. Its amazing to see how easily and speedily those angry take to violence. Whether its criminals who want to kill for money or its the angered marginalized victim who wants his voice heard. Everyone is raising their hands with an intention to hurt another human being for some goal of which shockingly there are no civilized ways of achieving! Where is the rule of law utopia that all of keep chiming about? When will all th...

If it werent for these pictures, it would be difficult to believe that a thousand people can walk 10 km for a cause on a major Lagos expressway given the stiff competition for space among the bikes, cars, buses and people ! Since 2000, HOPE World Wide Nigeria has been mobilizing thousands of people in Lagos to walk and create awareness on HIV/AIDS and orphans and vulnerable children. It was quite a thrill, knowing me, I was not sure I could walk even half way, but I managed about 8 km before hopping on to the bus!

It was a surreal feeling--landing at the Delhi airport after eight months--given that this has been the longest I have been away from Delhi! Even though my Nigerian lifestyle was so completely different from my Indian one, it was surprising how I adjusted back into old routines and habits. It is a fantastic feeling being on vacation at home, I was treated with royalty and my family fulfilled my every wish for food, shopping and fun! My birthday was a special day--I made all wear Nigerian clothes and my sis made us put on birthday caps! Thanks to my boss's mobilisation efforts, I received many many birthday calls from my Nigerian friends. With a singing flower candle on cake and my favourite meal (makki ki roti and saag), I completed my 28 years in style. After badgering Parth for getting me the perfect birthday gift, I got the latest edition of "We the Living" by Ayn Rand. But what made it perfect were the words, "My dear Mana, I cherish our living, loving and lear...

The Eko Beach Resort just outside of Lagos is THE queen of beaches, being privately managed. The GREEN Trip- -a festival organised by "Children & the Environment (CATE)" --is a day for children and parents to enjoy and learn about environment and creativity and luckily chose the resort as its venue. The "just outside" Lagos can be misleading since we spent eight hours going and coming on the road and only 4 hours at the beach! Anyhow the stress of the travel was quickly dispelled the moment we got there. There were about 60 families with their children from maybe ages 3-15. The short time we had there the children got to learn about origami & painting, watch a play and the parents got a pep talk on how to allow their child to follow her passion and also make them go "green"! Nike has been volunteering with CATE since many years and the director, Aunty Sola put Nike and me incharge of a session with the kids. As with all our very enjoyable bra...

On Nigeria's democracy day (Oct 1) which happened to fall in the middle of the week, the usual gang of four (Ayo who we lovingly refer to as our "Charlie" with his angels = Nike, Yinka and me) embarked on a mission to watch the critically acclaimed Yoruba film, Arugba on the BIG SCREEN! This was my first time in the popular Silverbird Cinemas which is one of the three cinemas in Lagos and probably one of ten in the whole country. At almost 500 rupees a ticket , it falls into the "luxury items" list and Lagosians prefer to have the same experience with a 80 rupees DVD an no go-slow! There were cinemas in Nigeria in the 1960s, but they began going out of business in the 1970s - partly because of the difficulties of operating under military dictatorship. Cinemas closed down across the country and today many are used as churches or Islamic education centres. The scarce and erratic supply of electricity called for seven generators being installed to make sure tha...

Mana's Mom & Dad invited Mayowa for a sumptuous full fare Indian Dinner to their house. See all of enjoying the great meal, Mayowa gifting a handpainting to Mom and Dad, which by the way is already framed and put up in the drawing room due to Dad's supper quick action, and Mayowa wondering at the collection of Mana's photos and pointing at the one he liked the most!

Mana's boss at the GIVE Network, Mr Mayowa Joel, came to Delhi for a meeting and he generously agreed to talk to CCS Team on involving volunteers in CCS work. Well, he is more like a big brother and mentor than a boss! Here are some of the photos of his talk. He also gifted a wonderful handpaiting to CCS which you would see in the group photo. We very much hope that by the time he visits next time, CCS would have adapting his ideas and build up a great volunteer program. Dhanyawad, Mayowa!