There Is Still A Lot of HOPE

One of the issues that has plagued my mind for long is the plight of children whose parents are migrant workers. These children do not have access to mainstream education purely due to the nature of their parents work. These migrant workers are usually daily wage earners, men working at construction sites and women find temporary domestic help jobs.

Moreover, once the construction work is done, the workers usually move on to another destination and hence the family has to move along. This does not allow a child to settle down in one place. And the obvious fact, that parents do not have the necessary financial means to send their kids to study.

Just when i thought all was lost for these children, i came across an NGO named HOPE Foundation which is renowned globally and has it's sister concerns in India in the form of Field Partners. HOPE foundation has an average of about 10 training centers in most metros across India. These centers are mostly funded by corporate giants such as EMC Square, Wal Mart etc.

HOPE Training centers are set up with the primary aim to provide Vocational Training, Spoken English and specific women empowerment courses such as tailoring. They offer these courses at a very nominal rate for those who can afford it and for the ones who cannot, the fee is absorbed by the NGO. HOPE foundation employs one trainer for each course.

I visited one of their centers at Yeshwanthpur, Bangalore, which is roughly 25 kms away from the central part of the city. The training center is nestled among an array of houses in narrow lanes, with literally just a foot separating every house.

I reported at 10.00 in the morning, just in time to interact with the first batch of students attending their vocational classes. These students got to work straightway. The guys started working on Word, Excel, PowerPoint while the girls mostly worked on their typing skills with a specially designed software to guide them.

I was shortly joined by the director of HOPE Foundation Bangalore, Mr. Joseph who introduced me to the students and they in turn introduced themselves.

What was my purpose of this visit?

While talking to Mr.Joseph the previous evening, i was told about the courses being taught. The courses included computer fundamentals, MS Office Suite, Tally etc, i decided to talk to them about the power of the internet.

So, i spoke to the students about the importance of using the internet to empower their skills, build their knowledge and how if one could specialize on internet searches and data collection. It would not only open their doors to mainstream work but also a chance to self educate.

I shared instances of companies who look for specific individuals who can source data. I introduced them to wikipedia and google. Though they are not well versed with english, the spoken english classes help them in staying in touch.

I moved on to the tailoring section, where girls of the age group of 16 -19 were learning tailoring taught by a volunteer who is a housewife at a nearby locality. She volunteers to teach tailoring here every day. Most of these girls are daughters of Daily laborers and some of them have even abandoned their daughters and wives. HOPE foundation is providing tailoring classes so they can work at factories so support themselves while their mothers do domestic chores at various houses.

My Assessment of the impact created by HOPE

The idea is very logical indeed. To provide short and specific courses and enhancing their computer skills as their stay may not be permanent. While their parents may work at a construction site for 5 months, the kid here can learn how to type, use excel and make clothes. This is an initiative that can go a long way.

Moreover, the students are enthusiastic and eager to learn, provided a platform given to them to excel. On interacting with them, i learn that they are well aware of the IT boom, and how it is a necessity to learn computers. Moreover, Students who have done courses here have been picked up by companies for data entry and accountant jobs in the past. So, there is a lot of HOPE for migrant/nomadic children.

The Future, the Challenges and the Solutions

On having completed a 3 hour interaction with the students, Mr Joseph and I sat down to discuss what the future holds for HOPE foundation and it's students. Mr Joseph believes that a lot can be achieved if certain challenges are tackled.

1. Ensuring student interests are kept alive

Some of the students, he points out, attend classes for a week or so and do not turn up due to lack of interest and deviation largely due to their teenage.

2. Finding more pockets such as Yeshwanthpur

Mr. Joseph wants to create more centers close to migrant settlements and hence generate interests among any children who would be keen to learn.

3. Creating Jobs

These individuals will be far more confident and eager once they know there is a secure job to be had on learning the course. Hence, Mr. Joseph intends to tie up with job providers to provide suitable jobs to the students.

The Solutions

1. My suggestion to Mr. Joseph was to tie up with micro credit organisations to help fund the education of these individuals. Micro credit will bring in more responsibility and with the money, HOPE foundation can also be self sustainable. With it will bring more trainers and facilities.

2. Identify market places for clothes. Since the girls learn to make dresses, if one could optimize their manufacturing, through micro credit again, it would benefit them to a great extent.

3. Introduce more courses. Such as Sales & Marketing. It will broaden their perspective and also increases their chances for finding more jobs.

4. Mr. Joseph also spoke about the need to network with more NGO's who are doing similar if not complimentary work.

CONCLUSION

Overall, my interaction with the students at HOPE foundation was very insightful. Gives people like me a chance to explore opportunities in social development. An impact both ways has been created!

Rangde makes a mark at International Tech Park-Bangalore

Rangde was invited by Namaste India!: the organizers of one the most happening exhibitions at International Tech Park, Whitefield, Bangalore. Resident to some of the most prominent companies in the world such as Microsoft, TCS, Seimens ..etc, presented rangde a chance to interact and spread awareness about the power of micro finance.

With 'Holiday and Resorts' being the theme for the exhibit, rangde managed to bring a different auro and flavor to the event under the theme of 'Knockout Poverty' There we were nestled between Makemytrip and SOTC holidays, giving the attendees something different to look at.

Like in any exhibition, there were large crowds picking up their holiday packages for the summer. With Rangde positioned at the Entry/Exit, gave a double advantage for us to talk to people coming in as well as the ones leaving.

With limited resources in the form of a few bookmarks and a poster, we managed to capture the attention of employees. We had managed to speak to about 35 people about rangde. Based on the feedback given, most of them felt it was a very innovative concept. We requested them to visit the website and also share it with their family, friends & colleagues.

Mr.Guruprasad from First American Corporation also requested us to send an e-brochure so he could send out an official mailer to all the employees and spread the word.

Overall, In a span of 4 hours , we were able to create an awareness and the event also got a mention in the local telegu newspaper.

Rangde woud like to thank Mr. Sanjay Jalan, Director of Namaste India for providing us a platform such as this to bring a community driven approach to alleviate poverty. We sincerely hope to associate with Namaste India in the future.

RangDe meet up at Jaaga 21st Feb, 2010

Firstly, Credit should go to Sreekanth for choosing Jaaga ( http://www.jaaga.wikidot.com/) a meeting place. It was nothing but a makeshift steel pellet rack structure on an empty piece of land powered by solar energy and equipped with wi-fi, projector & Sound system. The ambiance was truly colorful(complementing Rangde if you like)

We had a decent turnout, but most importantly we were joined by two individuals who chose to make the first stroke of the brush to spread some color- Founders of Rangde, Ram N.K and Smita Ram who drove down from Chennai along with Vibhore(Technical Backbone of RangDe) specially for the evening. Their presence surely enlightened the purpose of the meet.

Customary to any meet, we had a round of intros of everyone present. Glad to see 5 new volunteers (Siddharth, Vamshee, Anil, Shashwat & Robin) who had come along with some of the prominent one's. We jumped into our agenda straight away.

Sreekanth gave a talk on the activities having been conducted as part of the Bangalore Chapter thus far and the resulting impact of the same. We voiced our opinions on the strategy used and things to look forward to in terms of planning and executing future campaigns.

Then, Ram and Smita spoke about the Rangde model at large. It was an integral part of the meet as volunteers got to understand why Rangde stood out from other MFI's as our core values was to create maximum social impact. Primarily Ram spoke of the reason behind the difference in the interest rates among Rangde and other MFI's and its subsequent social impact.

Among the volunteers Mr.Anil, who had come along with a long time associate of RangDe Mr. Jagadish spoke about his field experiences of running a Self Help Group in the Haveri district. It was an intriguing conversation as we drew parallels between the RangDe model and his personal model. It enlightened the entire audience about the scope and opportunities that lay ahead. During this talk, Mr. Anil suggested that RangDe should look to partner with the Dell Foundation, who were on the lookout for a model similar to that of RangDe.

Such was the intensity of the meet, we overshot our intended deadline for the meet. That did not bother any of us as we moved to an important part of the discussion. Ram and Smita discussed the road map for RangDe in the year 2010, they shared their vision and laid out expectations for the bangalore chapter.

They shared their experience of putting up a punching bag(our theme being Knockout Poverty) at a clothing store in Chennai, and how it attracted the kids who would bring along their parents. We discussed a little further on implementing those ideas in Bangalore.

The idea of connecting the colleges of India, something that i have taken upon myself to accomplish, got a mention from Mr. Ram who spoke of a PAN-IIT connect to provide vocational training to the needy along with guaranteed work.We had a quick word on the Bangalore chapter's Holi campaign and on the organisation structure to be implemented by the chapter. We felt more work needs to come out in both areas.

We overshot our deadline by 40 minutes, but what came out of this intriguing meet was far more valuable to us than time. To sum up, Ram and Smita shared the uniqueness of the RangDe model and laid a road map for the coming year. It helps to understand the vision and mission of the founders as it will trickle down to the concerned chapters to ensure uniformity of brand awareness.

RangDe Bangalore Chapter Meet

I was brimming with excitment over meeting the RangDe Bangalore team. When i got to this famous hangout called The Egg Factory at St.Marks Road, i was surprised to see a low turnout.

But that did not dampen our spirits, we got down to business staright away. We discussed key issues with regard to spreading awareness and increasing our volunteer base. After an hour long disussion, we decided on two key agenda's.

1. To establish the bangalore chapter as a corporate with designated individuals accounting for their roles and responsibilities

2. To focus on one key activity that will aid the RangDe cause in the coming month.

The second agenda got the 7 members throwing in ideas, we narrowed it down to a painting competition to be organised in schools with theme : Colour the RangDe Logo : A very thought provoking idea generated by Mr. Srikanth.

The first agenda will take shape over the next couple of weeks as Ms. Archana will formulate the draft for designating individuals in the team.

As for my personal agenda, i have decided to prepare a presentation on rural entrepreneurship which is to be presented in all B-schools and leading institutions to raise awareness and bring in social investments! Excited and looking forward to it!

My First Meeting towards Social Change

Finally,After 7 long years, i had arrived in the land of southern dreams! - Chennai!. I was there to realize a dream too.

Sitting in an auto reminiscent of the days when i used to travel to the beaches, parks and local sites of chennai, heading to a popular coffee cafe - Amethyst. Whats my dream got to do with Coffee? i'll explain.

I was there to meet the founders of RangDe- one of the most proposing NGO's in the field of micro finance in the country. I had called Ms. Smitha a week before my arrival and we had discussed on certain ideas for the organisation. It was finally great to meet the people who started this organisation with a single aim to alleviate poverty. That completely coincides with my dream!

Did not take too long to get introduced to a group of 15 enjoying their cup of coffee. Apparently, it was the organisations second birthday, and i could not have got the timing better!

We started discussions on how we can improve our impact over a large scale and i had suggested that we involve various b-schools in this country to create direct impact by taking forward the beliefs and principles of RangDe (Micro Loans to create Big Impact)

A small discussion then began to spread among other members in the group and ideas starting pouring in. Was wonderful to be interacting with people from various corporate backgrounds and education backgrounds. Vibhore : who works for Texas Instruments is working full time with Rangde and part time with T.I after coming across RangDe.

Many such interesting stories but time was short as the founders had to leave for another meeting. By then the idea had a base, and gave me a platform for start work on it. Will always remember the day(26th Jan, 2010).

With this i start my blog on social change. I will discuss my experiences, ideas and more importantly look to interact with future change agents...