Getting the Message Out

On Tuesday the 18^th of January, Green Village Ventures (GVV) and Jay Yash Bahuddeshiya Pratishthan (JYP) organised a stakeholders meeting and a press conference about the success of the Barshi Pilot Project and about the future expansion of the project.

After successfully completing the first phase of the Pilot project in 56 households in the Barshi taluka area, GVV proceeded to the next step in the CDM approval scheme and organised a stakeholders meeting. This stakeholders meeting is necessary to prove to the CDM Executive Board that the future CDM project is backed by the general populace and is in accordance with the principle of Sustainability. It is paramount that the inhabitants of the involved areas give their ok go for the increased scope of the project and the further upgrade of up to 660 000 households the rural area.

The stakeholder meeting was organised on the 18^th of January in the 18^th Century Gopalkrishna temple in Gopalpur (Pandharpur). Over 100 people attended amongst which many prominent leaders of the involved villages. Also present was Mr. Sah, who was elected Validator by the Conference of Parties (The CDM Executive Board).

The GVV team talked about the Pilot Project and answered questions. This was done partially in Marathi and partially in Hindi to accommodate the public as much as possible. Ms. Rajmane spoke about climate change and global warming, the dangers inherently linked to them, how to mitigate it – by using energy efficient lighting and less kerosene – and about the social, economical and environmental benefits associated with that. Mr. Chitalia talked about the GVV approach to these problems and our solutions, and particularly about how the latter took shape in the Barshi Pilot Project.

As a resident of Dhembrewadi, Mr. Shaikh – the leader of one of the teams responsible for the survey assessing patterns of electricity & kerosene use – had a lot to say about what his fellow villagers and he felt about the project and about all the advantages they could already witness in their homes. Mrs. Thombre - the head of the NGO Jay Yash Bahuddeshiya Pratishthan – agreed with the former speakers and delved a little deeper into the beneficial relation between JYP and GVV.

Mr. Bhadule – lawyer by profession but social activist by choice – introduced the Q&A moment and made sure everything went smoothly. The general attitude of the speeches was one of positivity about the past and hope for the future, a sentiment that was clearly shared by the audience whose main question was about when the project would be implemented in their village. Other questions were related to practical matters, such as the price of the product and the project amount of energy savings.


The same positive attitude prevailed at the Press Conference, where the reporters did not seem to have any doubts about the usefulness or the sense of the project, but were mainly interested in the practical implementation of the future projects and in the financial side of things.

All in all, both the stakeholders meeting and the press conference were a success.