Future Generations I

Posted 27th September 2008

Let me please tell you about this fantastic organisation, how we met and the work they do. I went down to Future Generations’ office in Itanagar and met with Dr. Kanno, their Executive Director. I explained that we were a new UK-based tour operator called Travel The Unknown, and that we wanted to support some local community projects in the areas where we ran tours. I told him that we had identified Future Generations as an organisation we would potentially like to support, through contributions but also through promotion and in any other ways we could. Our idea was to spread the benefits of our tours and ensure that tourists would become a welcome feature, an arrangement whereby everyone could benefit and not just the tourists. He liked the idea and explained that their nearest projects were based around Ziro, a five hour drive away, and the heartland of the Apatani tribe (a place we visit on our tours). He agreed that he could bring me on Tuesday.

So early on Tuesday morning we set off. As we drove he told me about the history of the organisation, how the founder had been given the task by the UNDP to examine development projects around the world and determine which factors most influenced the success of projects. After an extensive research programme he discovered that by far the biggest factor was community participation. With this discovery he lobbied governments and NGOs around the world, citing the research carried out. Response was slow and often little more than lip service was paid to his findings. So, frustrated with this, he decided to pursue this avenue himself and set up Future Generations in 1997, initially in Arunachal Pradesh and Tibet.

The concept was to provide skills and education to a voluntary section of the community who then act as local specialists. They then dispense advice and in turn run workshops in the villages to transfer these skills within their communities. He explained that Future Generations in Arunachal has 13 full time staff and around 1,000 volunteers. I was very impressed by this fact and keen to see their work in the field.

This blog is part of an Off-The-Beaten-Track Travel Diary. Click on the links below to navigate through this journey.