CIH Annual Conference - Harrogate 2010

This is the week before Harrogate and all the issues seem to be coming together quite well. The concept of swans gliding on the surface but paddling like crazy underwater comes to mind.

The AGM will be pretty pivotal this year as the Governance review is going for approval. This is a real opportunity to modernise the organisation so it is a key point for the future. (if you are not going to be there, send in your proxy)
Grant Shapps, the new Minister is attending so I half expect that we may get some interesting announcements as the week and the emergency budget unfolds.

My Charity of choice, Homeless International will be there in force this year and Ocean Media have been great in there support of them, so a big thank you to Trevor and of course Maggie and your team.
My latest thought is to have collection points at all the conference and exhibition entrances to ask for a £1 donation from every entrant---their chance to make a difference!!

I will try and do some headlines throughout conference week so roll on Sunday!

Howard Farrand
President

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A Special Night In Northern Ireland

My life as President is pretty active at the moment and much of it involves, making a speech, food and drink, unsurprisingly I find myself two kilograms heavier than last year.

The other odd occurrence is that I seem to have become a talking point for the Housing Press, was Howard wearing a tie? - Come on guys there are enough serious issues about.

On Thursday 25th February, I flew to Belfast to speak at the first Northern Ireland's Awards Dinner. What a great evening, I was flanked by Ministers from both sides of the border, a great example how collaboration across jurisdiction is working well. David McCallum did a sterling job by kicking the evenings events off which was followed by the achievement awards. The whole thing was then topped off by music from one of the top local bands.

It was a privilege to be invited and to speak at a celebration of real achievement. I have been a visitor to Northern Ireland over the past 20 years and I have been impressed with the progress over the last few years. Housing has proved to be a focal point for community change and long may it last.

CIH is also changing to meet the developing agenda and is making significant progress in gaining members in the South.

A really great event that celebrated real professionalism and excellence in the sector.

Fun Fundraising

Well I am home safe and sound from Mumbai and what an experience it was. I met the Director of Housing for Mumbai and was able to better understand the issues facing the authorities. One of the bigger 'problems' to address is how to scale up the intervention work that is required of some if the rebuilding of the slum areas is to take place.

We discussed the concept of Housing Associations, how they worked and how they could have a role in delivering scale. this discussion naturally lead to the relationship between Housing Associations and Government and the nature of a regulatory framework.

One of the useful outcomes that I have been able to initiate since my return has been to make the connections between Homeless International and the TSA (in the form of Peter Marsh, who has always taken an active interest in this type of work).

At a personal level I gained a great deal of understanding about the issues facing pavement and slum dwellers. I have a powerful story to tell and can now explain how any support we can provide can really change the lives of some of the poorest people on the planet.

Nearer home I have been pretty busy with a series of speaking events and fundraising initiatives. In January, ConsultCIH and HouseMark organised a 'Battle of the Bands' in Solihull. Wates Living Space, helped sponsor the event which raised £4,200 for Homeless International. It was one of the best nights I have been to for a long time. We had a lot of fun. I have the photographs of some of my colleague Chief Executives dancing in the spaces between tables (they are getting a bit long in the tooth to dance on them any more). But I think I will save those photos in case I ever need them.

Then there was the Presidential Dinner in the Natural History Museum on the 10th February. What an amazing environment for a dinner, the Central hall of the Museum with 740 guests miniaturised by the fossilised remains of a Diplodocus Dinosaur. This is the big event dinner in the Presidential year and we tried to lighten the feel of the dinner this year to make it an enjoyable evening with a serious message. To highlight the work of Homeless International, the Apprentices from West Mercia Homes displayed the portable 'slum dwelling' that they had researched, designed and built to represent visually the type of dwelling that is home for millions of the worlds poorest people.

When you make changes you are never going to please everyone, but I have now had over 100 individuals 'feedback' comments and with a few exceptions these have been incredibly positive and we are already taking bookings for next year. Weeks after the event I am still receiving positive emails and at a separate awards event the other day I was approached by half a dozen individuals who sought me out to say how much they enjoyed themselves. This success was in no small part due to the good planning and extremely hard work put in by Richard Docker and Carole Garner at CIH - well done you guys - who were last seen (allegedly) heading off to bank the £4,200 we raised on the evening in aid of Homeless International.

Mumbai - Day One: Dharavi slums

Banu sits opposite me cross legged on the floor of the living room of the one room dwelling. I call it a one room but it has an area used for cooking and washing and a sleeping shelf you can reach by the removable ladder. She is accompanied by a group of other Pavement dwellers, all women.

In fact most of my day is to be spent with the women of Mumbai's slums. The 'Mahila Milan' - 'Women Together' are a powerful force in these slum communities as both state and national government have come to recognise.

As Banu explains to me: "Yes Mahila Milan built the 20 seat community toilet blocks and we manage them within our own community". These blocks are clean and well managed by a caretaker elected and paid for by the slum dwellers organisation. This block replaces the Municipal block which is unusable. I know this is the case because I have just visited a block with Homeless International to see the type of results they are achieving on the ground by investing in local organisations.

I don't think many will have heard of De Bono but the thinking style is very similar. When the Municipal blocks we always filth, the smell appalling and the caretaking poorly done, the community took responsibility and designed a block with a caretakers house on the top of the block. The house goes with the job and the community selects the caretaker. The block is spotless and smells are absent. Now that is neat thinking!

These little changes are transforming the lives of thousands of slum and pavement dwellers across the world. Banu is, like the rest of "her sisterhood", illiterate, poor and living in a pavement shelter that is scheduled for demolition, but sitting here, shoeless, in this ten foot by ten foot home, I realise that it would be insulting to think of any of them as victims. They certainly don't see themselves this way, in reality they are a highly organise community of interests that have learned to use their network of connections to mobilise pavement and slum dwellers into action.

They first discovered their power when they organised passive resistance to the state when it moved to bring in demolition contractors to bulldoze slums built on illegally occupied land. Their initial forages into community politics were helped by an amazing man called Jockin Arputham, a slum dweller himself, Jockin helped organise slum dwellers into recognisable communities that could interact with government agencies.

Jockin is President of an organisation called National Slum Dwellers Organisation but in the 1980's Jocklin learnt about SPARC (Society for Promotion of Area Resource Centres) an organisation established by Professional women who believed, with help, poor women could organise themselves and play a significant role in bettering the lives for slum dwellers. It was the coming together of SPARC,s director Sheela Patel, an educated upper middle class activist and Jocklin the street wise slum leader that really started the sparks to fly.

Mahila Milan was now energised but most importantly help was at hand to show them how to develop the skills and know how to be more effective. As Banu told me we started our own savings group. Every day our street leaders would start the savings run. They visited every house in the street and collected any surplus money. Maybe one rupee maybe more whatever could be spared, it is entered in the book and micro credit was in action. Soon loans were available to help with crisis situations and later for business 'start ups'.

It is banking, but not as we know it! The real other side effect is that this united the community of women and empowered them, not only within their own society but also within their own family structure. With growing confidence they are now able to engage with government and are now consulted in proposals to remove pavement dwellings and how resettlement will take place. They are actively involved in the design of their new homes and even manage the priority selection for resettlement.

Banu explains that Jocklin is joining us in the meeting and moments later he arrives. A diminutive, quiet spoken Indian he has an aura of real presence and is so at one with his community. I know that he is doing similar work in a range of countries across the world, despite diabetes and a bypass he is a powerhouse of energy. Homeless International explain the reason for my visit, we have a short discussion, interrupted by calls to his two mobile phones, you should meet our Sec. For Housing Jocklin announces and one call later that is exactly what we are doing. Tomorrow at 12.30, he is a good man says Jocklin he is really interested in listening to us and is trying to help.

As I sit in the taxi on my way to the recourse centre, my head is in a whirl with all I have seen, and this is the tip of the iceberg. India has 100 million slums and to date Homeless International has sponsored 400 community toilet blocks. A fantastic achievement but what is needed is scale, well one step at a time.

On the Road Again to India

Well I am travelling again, I only ever seem to get the time to catch up when I am on a plane or train.

This time I am on my way to Mumbai. When Larry English the CEO of Homeless International invited me to join him on his visit to the Projects in the slums of Mumbai I was a little hesitant. I had read Slumdog millionaire and I had also seen the film. How close do I really want to get to this?

Well, I suppose the answer to that is 'as close as I need to be to make a difference', so here I am getting ready to be up close and personal to some of the success stories that Homeless International have helped create. The schedule looks pretty gruelling. Fly out on Sunday (10 January) and back on Friday evening with a full schedule in between.

I want to look at exactly what Homeless International is doing and how they are doing it. I will be talking to some of the people who are participating in the projects and most importantly, some of the people whose lives have been transformed by your support. I hope to be able to talk to street dwellers that save every rupee they can towards projects that change lives. I am also hoping to speak with one of the women's groups that seem to have developed a successful model of hosing that is now being recognised across India as a way forward.

Well that's the plan, you have read the trailer. I will keep you informed about the cast and the production crew but as always it is the strong storyline that makes the difference.

If you would like to make a donation please visit my Just Giving Site.

President Overseas - Diary Update: Final Leg

New Zealand - Well Auckland was great, I loved it! - despite the rain.

We were met at the airport by Peter Jeffries C.E.O. of an organisation called Community of Refuge Trust. I had met Peter in Australia and he kindly offered to meet us on our arrival. He then spent some time showing us Auckland the surrounding area and the housing issues they face. This proved to be an invaluable background to my conference session.

The next two days were lost in a bit of a whirl of activity, presentations, a meeting with their Housing Minister and then the conference itself. Very interesting and again it feels to me as if there are real parallels with the Northern Ireland Executive here.

New Zealand appears to be structured in a similar way and also faces issues that may sound familiar to many of us. They need to invest in the existing stock but also need to build new affordable housing at a time when Government money is tight. (With me having the speaking slot on "A global Housing Community" and a separate meeting with the Minister. Well at least we sparked some ideas!!!

And Home - Home sweet Home! The trip was an experience of a lifetime. So many places, such interesting environments, so much potential new business. But the thing that will stay with me longest is the amazing friendliness of the people I met. We were made welcome in all the places we visited, nothing seemed to be too much trouble for our hosts who in some cases gave up their own time to escort us from place to place.

To all of them - thank you.

Now it is back to work. I hope you had a great seasonal holiday break.