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Be the Change you want to see in the world: A conversation with Judith Crosland Part II

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Part II of my blog post on Judith Crosland is about her first and subsequent travels to India, her work with non profits supporting rural women and livelihoods, the books she has written and other experiences that highlight her authenticity, empathy and the ability to motivate and inspire others. I first met her in 2009 when I started working with Jeevika Trust, a UK based intermediary. Our travels took us to remote corners of the South and East India and In the evenings, after we were done with work, we would connect over a drink together either in the comfort of our hotel room or in a nearby restaurant. We were women from two different worlds separated by age, culture and social conditioning, yet we felt a kinship and a sense of ease and comfort with each other, that allowed us to easily discuss our lives, our families and share confidences. It has been a few years since we last met in person (we keep in touch via Whatsapp calls and messages), but we still carry within  each other the deep bonds that cannot be severed by time and distance. Read on …

Tell us about your travels to India. You spent a considerable amount of time in India and you returned many times.

I had never been to India before then: all I knew was that people in villages lived a hard life there. The first time I went to India to evaluate the mint-farming project, I found India overwhelming: its beauty and poverty, its customs and its people; it was a way of life I found fascinating. Most of all, I was aghast at the poverty but this made me more determined and passionate about making a positive contribution to the lives poor rural women in particular. I was amazed at how bereft they were and how they survived the tough life they led.

I became involved with various livelihood projects: beekeeping in Uttarkhand, goat farming south of Agra, water development, crab cultivation, health and hygiene (sanitary napkins) and other projects where women could improve their quality of life for themselves and families. I visited India every year, from the early 2000s to 2018 during which India Development Group (IDG) renamed itself as Jeevika Trust. I would visit for weeks at a time to devise and design projects along with the local Indian representatives and consultants. Together we would visit the villages to assess and evaluate project implementation. I visited twice as a tourist, travelling through Kerala and then again through UP to Varanasi and Sarnath. On one occasion, my son travelled with me. He was so shocked by the extent of poverty that he couldn’t stop giving money to beggars and to others in the villages. I needed to explain to him giving money in that way simply entrenched dependency; it did not help individuals escape their poverty. If we want to help poor rural villagers, especially women, we need to ensure that we are able to involve them in projects that provide the skills and support required for them to be able to help themselves become independent.

Apart from the work I did in India, I had the opportunity of working, collaborating and developing close friendships with my Indian colleague and the people associated with the non-profits I worked with. They left a huge impression on me in terms of their compassion for the villagers they worked with and what they had achieved for them. Their sense of affection and caring and the deep bonds that I formed with them will always be with me. Even though they are at a distance, they still feel very much a part of my life.

You also started your own non-profit?

I was with IDG for three years when there were difficulties raising funds and the money was running out. I was asked to leave because they couldn’t pay me. At that stage I started a non-profit called The GEN Initiative which worked in Haryana. GEN focused on literacy, income generation for women, and support for farmers for agricultural and horticultural improvements, including upgrading their dairying practices and a wide range of rural and village development activities. I administered it for ten years and it only worked in Haryana. After ten years, I was back working in IDG, now rebranded as Jeevika Trust.

You are also a cancer survivor, but very few people know about it.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2010. I was living on my own and decided not to tell anyone except my closest friends and my yoga teacher. I didn’t want people sympathizing with me as if I was going to die. I just went through the treatment and recovery process in my own way. After I was done with surgery and radio therapy I went about my daily business. When I came home it didn’t stop me from doing my work. I was able to use the computer and phone as usual. I continued my yoga and meditation and kept positive through this process and I continue to use alternative and natural therapies to heal myself.

You are a prolific writer and have self-published three books. Tell us about them.

When I travelled to India, I would travel on to Australia every other year to see my son. On one of those visits, I met with a relative of mine. He and I were curious about a mutual friend who had always hinted of a mysterious past. After his death, our research uncovered the story of how he had allegedly murdered a man aboard HMAS Australia while at sea during the Pacific War in 1942. My relative suggested I should write a book about it. Back in London, I was having coffee in a cafe where pinned on the wall was notice about a writer’s workshop. That workshop, research and a Writer’s Circle – where my fellow writers helped critique my writing – gave me support over the two years of writing the book. The book was self-published in 2016 titled Murder on HMAS Australia. My second book, called Life Without You, is a memoir about the romantic relationships I had and what I learned from them. My most recent book, titled Inroads: Lessons learned in Village India, was published in 2020. Currently I am writing about my present life in France. In years past, life drawing and abstract painting kept me busy and, for a period, I found the writing and painting fed off each other. Now it is the writing alone with which I am most interested – with a computer it is possible anywhere, especially if I’m travelling.  

The pandemic has resulted in you moving to France.  How do you spend your days and keep busy?

In a strange way, I have come full circle because of the Pandemic. Earlier on in my life when I left Australia to come to France, I wanted to buy a house and live there, but didn’t get the opportunity. Twenty years later, my partner Chris and I bought a house in the South of France, as a holiday home. Since then, we have spent short periods here. In 2020, we came here to spend a couple of weeks, then found that because of Covid we could not travel. Since it was difficult to return to England, we were obliged to become French residents. This has now become our permanent home.

I resigned from Jeevika Trust in 2019. Since then, in between writing, I have taken on various small voluntary assignments. I am currently working as a volunteer advisor for the Otterman’s Institute which educates children and young adults through online AI (artificial intelligence) tutoring.  Apart from writing about my life in France, I am also care of my partner, who is not currently in good health. The development sector remains dear to my heart and there is much that can be done to contribute online. Right now, it is difficulty to think much beyond the moment: I’m learning to go with the flow.

Do read Part I of my blog post with Judith Crosland to know more about her early life, and how travel broadened her horizons and changed her perspectives on career and personal growth.

Be the Change you want to see in the World: A conversation with Judith Crosland – Part I

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My blog wouldn’t be complete, if I didn’t write about Judith Crosland – a friend, ex-colleague and mentor, who has been an inspiration and role model. For close to ten years, we travelled across Tamil Nadu and Odisha, assessing our grantees (small non-profits) and their programs. In the evenings, after we were done with work, we would connect over a drink together either in the comfort of our hotel room or in a nearby restaurant. We were women from two different worlds separated by age, culture and social conditioning, yet we felt a kinship and a sense of ease and comfort with each other, that allowed us to easily discuss our lives, our families and share confidences. It has been a few years since we last met in person (we keep in touch via WhatsApp calls and messages), but still carry within each other deep bonds that cannot be severed by time and distance. Read Part I of Judith’s conversation with me, as we talk about her early days of travel, her decision to go to University as an older student, her transition from working with the government  to working with a non -profit and how her intention to empower poor rural women took root.

Could you start by telling us a little bit about where you are from?

I was born in 1944 in Sydney but grew up in a seaside village on the west coast of Australia. My mother had a business on the waterfront and my father worked in an oil refinery.  It was a seaside village visited by tourists during the summer, mostly pastoralists who owned holiday homes there.  Following high school I went to a business school where I learned typing, shorthand and bookkeeping. I taught in that school for a little time before joining the Commonwealth Public Service in Canberra as a government employee where I worked for a couple of years. Like Delhi, Canberra is the country’s Capital centre for  embassies and government departments.

But you were bitten by the travel bug…

I was young and decided I wanted to see the world. I went by ship to Canada. My original plan was to travel via Europe to a Kibbutz. (A kibbutz is a community settlement in Israel). But I never got there. (Laughs…)  I got a few odd secretarial jobs in Canada and then soon moved to Washington DC where I worked in the Australian Embassy. I was young, in my early twenties and seeking adventure so wasn’t too worried about where I might work: I had some money saved and I was prepared to take a risk.

Your experience in Washington DC impacted you, didn’t it?

Yes, while I was in Washington DC, two major things happened. JFK had been assassinated a few years before. During my time in DC, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated: it was a tumultuous time with curfews and military police and riots and looting. These events left a deep impression on me about world affairs. I spent two years there. I decided to return to Australia where I met my future husband. I continued to work and then had my son.  A couple of years into my marriage, I decide that in order to achieve a more fulfilling work life, I needed to go to a university.

I was in my thirties when I attend the University of New South Wales in Sydney.  I went with the intention of studying psychology, but the timings did not suit me as I had two step-daughters (from my husband’s previous marriage) and a son to look after. Instead, I took up sociology, as the timings fitted with school hours. Sociology confirmed my understanding of inequalities and the role of women: as a housewife and mother, I felt certain inequalities in my domestic life. It was also true that gender roles in the workplace were not equitable and were defined very differently in society. What worked for men, didn’t work for women and the issue of gender became personal and a passion.

It took me four years to finish my undergraduate degree, because of my commitments and responsibilities and then another two years for an MA in Gender Studies.

Did your degree in Gender Studies open up interesting avenues for you?

I was again working with the Commonwealth Government and at the time that legislation had just been passed whereby all Govt departments were required to have equal representation of women, men, indigenous communities and non-English speaking employees within their workplaces. I was in the right place at the right time, working in the area of human resources: I applied for the newly created position of Equal Employment Coordinator within each Department. In that position, I had the responsibility for bringing equality into the workplace of some thousands of employees.

And then the travel bug bit you again…

I worked with the Commonwealth in this position for ten years which was challenging and difficult work. Entitled to take six months of leave with full pay at this time, I went to Perugia in Italy to a language school, for three months then travelled through Europe. When I returned to my work, I felt it was time for someone else to take over.

My life had gone through many changes; I divorced mid-way through my Masters. I experienced other relationships; my son went to university and I no longer had the same level of responsibility. I decided I would do something different and planned to find a retreat in France where I might run a workshop on creative arts – writing, photography, painting and spirituality in France.

At the language school in Toulouse I met a friend with similar ideas and we found ourselves a farmhouse deep in the French countryside which provided gites (tiny dwellings that people rent for holidays). It was perfect accommodation for the workshop. I coordinated the six workshops and employed others to facilitate their content.

At the end of the workshops, a friend of mine asked if I would be interested in a position at the Commonwealth Secretariat based in London. To my surprise, I was selected and, in 1995, I began to work with the Director for Gender and Youth Affairs. I was employed to do two things: to turn around inequalities in the Secretariat itself; and to develop a Strategic Plan to ensure that the programs developed by developing countries brought about equality and equitability. It was this plan that the Secretariat took to the UN Conference on Women held in China. By this time, I was in my fifties.

 And then there were a few events that changed your perspective and direction of your career?

Yes, when I was with the Commonwealth Secretariat I attended a Microcredit Conference in Washington, DC. At the conference, I got into the elevator and found myself alone with Dr Muhammed Yunus who set up the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. We had a very brief exchange: I told him how much I admired him for what he had achieved and that I wanted to do something to help women. He said, “If I can do it, so can you.” That had a real impact on me, as did the conference. I thought microcredit was a brilliant idea: it gave the most impoverished women the opportunity to work for themselves.

Around the same time, I got involved with the Gandhi Foundation in London. I met the Secretary General of the Gandhi Foundation, Mr. Surur Hoda and discussed the concept of microcredit at Foundation meeting. He was impressed with my passion and asked if I would help run his charity, the India Development Group (precursor to Jeevika Trust). I told him I had never worked for a charity and wasn’t sure I could help. He asked me to take his card anyway.

Eventually, my consultancy work dried up and I went to work for Surur Hoda and his charity. The very first funding application I wrote brought in a lot of money – around £240,000 for a microcredit mint-farming project for women near Lucknow in UP. My dreams were on their way!