1995 - 1999
1995 Links to Zimbabwe:
The South African Federation begins working with slumdwellers around
Victoria Falls. Savings schemes are established, enumeration conducted,
exchanges begin.
1995 — 1996 Kenya — South Africa Exchanges:
The concept of savings and federation is introduced to the settlements
of Nairobi, and helps launch a grassroots movement called Muungano Wa
Wanavijiji in Nairobi. Kituo Cha Sheria (NGO) acts as a link between
Kenyans and the SA/PD alliance.
1995 — Thai Network Expansion:
Expansion of community networks in Songkhla, Chiang Mai and
Northeast lead to increasing numbers of national and local exchanges,
for learning, transfer and assistance. UCDO begins moving from a
credit-service delivery approach to a network style of management. The
DANCED Environmental Improvement Programme begins within UCDO in 1996,
in which networks throughout the country take greater role in
developing, implementing, monitoring and disseminating the environmental
projects going on. DANCED helps the exchange process link with existing
NGOs, new communities, provincial and municipal officials.
October 1995: Workshop in Japan:
Sri Lanka, Philippines, Thailand and India — focuses on how to
negotiate with local authorities and sparks a series of exchanges
between members of the Buraku Liberation League (a minority in Japan)
and the South Korean squatter settlements.
1995: South African Minister of Land Affairs,
Derek Hanekom, visits NSDF/MM in Bombay, along with leaders from the SA
federation.
May 1996: Shack Dwellers International (SDI) is
formed
in South Africa, when grassroots groups from Asia, Africa and South
America come together to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the South
African federation. In coming years, through exchange visits,
exhibitions, meetings and intensifying collaborations, SDI will bring
together hundreds of thousands of poor women and men, creating a
far-flung solidarity and enabling a rapid transfer of development
knowledge, organisational skills and people’s own resources — from
one situation of urban poverty to another. The SDI acronym is
convertible — in Asia we call it Slum Dwellers International and in
Africa, it’s Shack Dwellers International.
1997: Zimbabwe Federation is born
after savings schemes are extended to Harare. Beth Chitekwe comes on as
NGO support person, setting up Zimbabwe Dialogue on Shelter.
1997: Philippines joins exchange process.
Father Norberto (Parish Priest in Payatas, one of Manila’s largest
slum areas) visits NSDF/MM in India. Later that year, Jockin and Joel
visit Payatas. The link helps begin to transform a large micro-credit
project into a federation linking savings with land and housing issues.
1997: Nepal joins Asian exchange process, exchanges with India,
Thailand and Sri Lanka.
1997: Model House Exhibition in Cambodia:
The Squatter and Urban Poor Federation (SUPF) showcases their recent
city-wide slum survey (379 settlements), and affordable house types (one
wood, one brick) — municipal and national governments attend, along
with CBO/NGO teams from India, Thailand and South Africa. The city took
notice! This first, big public event galvanizes the federation and leads
to several “integrated” exposure trips with community leaders and
local officials to India and Thailand, and paves the way for the
federation’s first housing project in partnership with government.
1998 — 1999
First community enumerations in Zimbabwe:
In Africa, the South Africans were the first to ritualize community
shack-counting and enumeration, which they were first exposed to on
pavements in Bombay in 1992. SA shack dwellers help conduct enumerations
in Harare squatter settlements — Dzivareskwa and Hatcliff extension.
Later, Victoria Falls federation uses another survey in Chinotimba
Township to revitalise savings schemes, mobilise new members and engage
the local council in negotiations for land.
Community leaders from SA, Namibia and Kenya came to help. Direct
exchange links between federations in Namibia, Kenya and Zimbabwe
established.
Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG) joins the federation model
and becomes the equivalent of SPARC / People’s Dialogue, working in
alliance with the new Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia.
September 1998: First Assembly of the
Philippines Homeless People’s Federation held in Payatas, Quezon
City, bringing together over 1,000 local members and 200 visiting
members from across the Philippines. Hosted by the Payatas Scavenger’s
Federation, meeting focuses on land acquisition and savings. The new
federation’s first big jamboree marks a shift in VMSDFI’s role from
microcredit service provider to federation support partner. Leads to
first city-to-city exchanges in Philippines between savings groups in
Payatas, Cebu, Iloilo and General Santos.
December,
1998 — Zimbabwe Federation is formally launched:
120 Zimbabwean shack-dwellers meet in Harare, along with slum dwellers
from India, Cambodia, South Africa, Namibia, Kenya and Senegal for 4-day
meeting / launching party for the new Zimbabwe federation. A year
earlier, there were only 5 saving schemes, now there are 50 all over the
country. Meeting is covered by radio, TV and press. Housing Minister
attends, pledges Zim$ 25 million to a special Urban Poor Loan Fund.
January 1999: First Philippines — Indonesia
exchange:
Waste-pickers from Payatas Scavengers Federation visit scavenger
communities in Bantar Gebang, Jakarta.
March 1999: First Senegal — SA Exchange:
Women in the Senegal Savings and Loan Network in Dakar, Senegal visit
SAHPF to look at affordable house design, settlement layout,
brick-making, construction and to compare lending experiences.
May 1999: Formal launch of the Namibian
Federation
(“Twahangana”): following an earlier house model
exhibition at Freedom Land, enumeration of shack-dwellers in Windhoek
and public presentation of survey results to the city — all assisted
by India, SA and NHAG. This event comes after several years of exchanges
between Namibia and SA which helped guide the process from a service
delivery approach to a federation of daily savings collectives.
June 1999: Zimbabwe Model House Exhibition:
Held at the end of an enumeration in Mbare, with help from the South
Africans.
Teams from India, SA, Senegal, Namibia attend, along with bus-loads of
Zimbabwean federation members. Now 140 savings schemes in the Zimbabwe
federation, with 18,000 members. Exhibition results in Victoria Falls
groups being allocated 400 plots by the government.
Shack Dwellers International (SDI) is formally
established,
with federations in 14 countries in three continents.
October 1999: Free State Federation (South
Africa) starts savings schemes across the border in Lesotho.
June
6, 1999 — Inauguration of Women’s Development Bank Federation in
Colombo Sri Lanka
— new women’s federation of savings groups. Join exchange process
with trips to India, Cambodia and Nepal.
October 1999 Model house exhibition in Nepal
held to launch the new Women’s Savings Federation (Nepal Mahila Ekta
Samaj) and coincide with CITYNET meeting of Asian mayors in Kathmandu.
over 1,000 local women and SDI delegates from India, Thailand, Cambodia
and Sri Lanka join. Exchanges with MM/NSDF in India helped develop
savings groups in Nepalese squatter settlements and now direct links are
established with MM/NSDF teams in Kanpur and Lucknow.
JUNE 2000 -- PART 2
What actually happens when poor people go to visit other poor people HERE
