Last July, the brand new Green Village West Bengal welcomed its very first batch of young women! Catalysts share their thoughts on this opening!
Green Village West Bengal staff, India
Elodie Cuau - GV Leader: “Opening a Green Village? It was surely a lot of stress and challenge. I do remember the day we were given the "keys" of the castle, I felt overwhelmed by the work to do. Cleaning the place up being left with a ton of garbage, and a lot of renovation work. But 2 months and a half months later, oh, boy, what a result !”
Julien Drouineau - PM Mobilisation: “For me the GV opening was a mix of renovation works and mobilization. Handling the workers (mostly electricians), the purchase of material and at the same time making sure that we will have Youth for the opening was a bit of a juggling! Even if it was a bit hard sometimes to live in a building site, I loved to see the place transforming into a GV! At the same time, I was already working on my PM Mobilization mission, which was a good way to remember why we were doing all the work we were doing!”
Noémie Battini - Coach: “Launching a Green Village is for sure a big challenge, and you always have to keep in mind that everything you do, you do it for the Youth. My mission was about preparing the pedagogy and integration of the Youth, as well as focusing on the plumbing part of the renovations. My tasks would vary from finding suppliers, to drawing plans of bathrooms, to meeting future partners. Needless to say, I never got bored! The Green Village opened less than two weeks ago and I am now a coach. The renovations are (almost) behind us, and it's quite amazing to see the Youth living and working in the Green Village everyday, and to think that without our hard work they would not be here!”
Thomas d’Harcourt - Coach: “At the beginning it was confusing to open something that I didn't know without any building found yet. When we moved to the building and with the arrival of more experienced Catalysts, everything became more real and we entered into a sprint of work and challenges. I found it difficult to find my right place at the beginning because no mission was officially assigned. With the progress of the work and the clarification of my mission I was getting more and more excited. At the end, I really loved the renovation part, felt proud of all the work done, and a bit stressed by the arrival of the Youth. I feel so happy now to be coach!
Simran Das - Community Catalyst: “To open a GV it has all the mixed feelings, about if we would be ready in time or if the place will be liked by the Youth. But everything falls into place once the Youth are here. We always have to remember that we need to focus on progress and not perfection. While working for the opening it's also an overwhelming feeling that this place was built from the scratch by the Catalyst now and it will be a Green Village residential training centre once it's completed. In the end we feel proud after seeing the before and after images of the place. The work done by the team and the wait of the Youth make me more motivated to work on the opening. It was nervous the night before as there is going to be a change in everything now, for the good!!
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