Parrjak www.prasjak.org
Deep is a devoted young men who finished his MBA and work two years in business and then decide to switch his career to social enterprise. After a small unpleasant moment, his family supports him by allowing him to use the first floor of their house as office for PARRJAK.
Start out with a mission to work his organization out of the picture, Deep adopt a strategy of always putting government institution at the center stage for any achievement. By doing that, they also put the obligation back to the government to ensure the program works. Deep believe to partner with government and utilize their resource is critical for changing the unjust situation for child abuse problem. Without a clear mission and strong desire to focus into the well being of the child, it will be difficult to come out with the same strategy.
I wish more young man and woman could find their satisfaction and passion through Social enterprise. I wonder whether today's world of opportunity in business and public sectors are still encouraging enough to get all the energy and passion out of the hidden capacity somewhere....
Patrick
Saturday, November 29, 2008
AWWD
Association for Women with Disabilities (AWWD) www.awwdindia.org
Watching a group of disable women rehearsing their drama play inside this hollow structure of the fountain inside a park is a powerful statement to endorse Dus's strategy of empowering disable women to fight for their own right and rebuild their confidence to make a living for themselves.
When one is faced with the illiterate, disabled women without any esteem of themselves, thinking their committed sins in the past life is why they are what they are, how could someone figure out this approach for the organization. Dus, herself also handicapped, started association for women with disabilities after failing to convince the NGO she worked for to tackle on this area of marginalized disabled women. She also chose to start the project in rural areas all by herself. It was tough as building trust with the villages is difficult and consumes a lot of time and energy. After being accepted by the villagers, they told her where the girls with disabilities are. Typically they stayed home because of lack of accessibility.
The first approach to these DW is personal development. After these DW realize being disable is not shameful and they are just another human being they also have their own right, then Dus will encourage them to find opportunity to do some income generation job. AWWD also extend small credit to whom she might need some small capital to start. The DW themselves must decide what to make, where to sell and how they could make money out of the activities. With their improved economic situation, they gain more acceptance and respect from their family. These DW regain their confidence and have the potential to receive more training from AWWR until they could be leading other unfortunate DW to improve their livihood.
Here is another good example of devotion and extreme passion to help those who suffer from the same problem. Dus also show exceptional quality in her Vision and leadership in training and grooming the whole new generation of leaders out from DWs. The big smiles from those DW make humanity shine.
Patrick
Watching a group of disable women rehearsing their drama play inside this hollow structure of the fountain inside a park is a powerful statement to endorse Dus's strategy of empowering disable women to fight for their own right and rebuild their confidence to make a living for themselves.
When one is faced with the illiterate, disabled women without any esteem of themselves, thinking their committed sins in the past life is why they are what they are, how could someone figure out this approach for the organization. Dus, herself also handicapped, started association for women with disabilities after failing to convince the NGO she worked for to tackle on this area of marginalized disabled women. She also chose to start the project in rural areas all by herself. It was tough as building trust with the villages is difficult and consumes a lot of time and energy. After being accepted by the villagers, they told her where the girls with disabilities are. Typically they stayed home because of lack of accessibility.
The first approach to these DW is personal development. After these DW realize being disable is not shameful and they are just another human being they also have their own right, then Dus will encourage them to find opportunity to do some income generation job. AWWD also extend small credit to whom she might need some small capital to start. The DW themselves must decide what to make, where to sell and how they could make money out of the activities. With their improved economic situation, they gain more acceptance and respect from their family. These DW regain their confidence and have the potential to receive more training from AWWR until they could be leading other unfortunate DW to improve their livihood.
Here is another good example of devotion and extreme passion to help those who suffer from the same problem. Dus also show exceptional quality in her Vision and leadership in training and grooming the whole new generation of leaders out from DWs. The big smiles from those DW make humanity shine.
Patrick
Parichiti
Parichiti
Today we visited two NGOs. Parichiti is devoted for helping domestic workers and Praajak is devoted for protection of children's right.
Four professional and business women came together for promoting women's right in west Bengal. They pick domestic workers as the group that need help the most. They went out of their comfort zone and spent huge amount of time and patient to build the trust with this community before they could successfully establish "Room to rest" for the domestic workers. The rental place provides the toilet which is normally not permit to be used at workplace. It also gives them a place to chat, rest and socializing between works at different locations. Parichiti also provide legal help and support when domestic workers are faced with violence either at home or at workplace.
Certainly the key members are very devoted but it seems to me that something is still missing. For the two NGO founders we met yestarday, they all came from the community themselves. (Mentally ill or being a lesbian) We see the passion and the devotion and bonding within the group. I guess if the NGO could work on capacity building on domestic workers and make them in charge on some of the programs, I think the impact would be bigger.
This visit convinces me further passion is the key to success to SE.
Patrick
Today we visited two NGOs. Parichiti is devoted for helping domestic workers and Praajak is devoted for protection of children's right.
Four professional and business women came together for promoting women's right in west Bengal. They pick domestic workers as the group that need help the most. They went out of their comfort zone and spent huge amount of time and patient to build the trust with this community before they could successfully establish "Room to rest" for the domestic workers. The rental place provides the toilet which is normally not permit to be used at workplace. It also gives them a place to chat, rest and socializing between works at different locations. Parichiti also provide legal help and support when domestic workers are faced with violence either at home or at workplace.
Certainly the key members are very devoted but it seems to me that something is still missing. For the two NGO founders we met yestarday, they all came from the community themselves. (Mentally ill or being a lesbian) We see the passion and the devotion and bonding within the group. I guess if the NGO could work on capacity building on domestic workers and make them in charge on some of the programs, I think the impact would be bigger.
This visit convinces me further passion is the key to success to SE.
Patrick
Association For Women With Disabilities
Close your eyes and imagine you are a woman in a society where you are considered to be much less important than the men in your family. Now imagine you are also very poor, in a country where there is no educational, health or monetary support from the government. Add to that; imagine you are disabled and living in a distant village where even the fully able find it difficult to fulfill their basic needs.
Can you survive a day, a week or even a month that way? How about your WHOLE life?.....
1) A social enterprise founder who has faced the same problems as those of their beneficiaries, is often more passionate and driven than a founder who has never personally experienced similar issues. This passion is a great advantage in getting others to join your cause or provide resources.
2) However, this passion can also hinder the growth of the social enterprise, as the founder is too emotionally attached to let go and allow other, more skilled people to take over senior management responsibilities. I’ve seen this problem in many NGOs which have failed to scale up because of the dominance of the founder.
3) Often as visitors to a project, we tend to mainly speak to the social enterprise founders and keep to ourselves when we meet the beneficiaries. We often do not introduce ourselves and do not interact on a one to one level with them. At the AWWD visits, we broke our self imposed barriers and interacted with the beneficiaries. I personally found it to be one of the richest experiences of the trip. Sometimes it’s the people the most unlike you, who can teach you the most.
4) Both sets of the girls we met agreed that our leader, Richard would make a fine Bollywood film hero. There was great competition among them to be chosen as his heroine. Richard’s ears turned a deeper shade of red than usual :-).
To learn more about the AWWD, check out their website at http://www.awwdindia.org
“I am nothing“
Today’s journey took us to the old part of Hyderabad. This district has been suffered from continuous riots and social tension between Moslems and Hindus since the independence.
Here, in a shaken residential area, the small NGO Shaheen is active. Shaheen addresses two issues: 1. Domestic violence and women rights, and 2. conflicts between Moslems and Hindus. It provides a space, where women from both religions can come together, get training (e.g. in handcrafts, self defence and legal rights) and spread out together to visit their neighbours raising awareness for those issues.
And since those issues are not just restricted to one area, Shaheen is scaling up with having opened houses in three other neighbourhoods.
We met the energetic founder, Jameela Nishat, and approximately 20 girls and women. Hearing their personal experiences was just so frustrating; here is one: A women with a deformed face told us, that her husband had cut off her nose while she was pregnant. She was brave enough (with the support of Shaheen) to take that incident to the court – and after seven years she has been adjusted a little financial compensation; however, her husband has not been sentenced in any other way. Statistically, in every other household women are victims of domestic violence. And that behaviour seems to be so deeply engraved in the society, that nearly everyone is willing to accept it is a given. Being raised in such an environment, the following quote of one of those girls is not a big surprise: “I am nothing”.
However, seeing those women, there is hope, that there will be a change in society, even if there seems to be a long way ahead. And eventually, all girls will proudly state “I am something special”.
ar
Everyone needs to dance
Meeting remarkable change makers and social entrepreneurs on this learning journey has been a humbling and moving experience. On the fourth day of visiting projects in Calcutta, I entered the world of Dance Movement Therapy (DMT) and met the dynamic members of Kolkata Sanved. As I believe that dance is a necessary component for my own mental well being, I felt an instant connection to the programmes of Sanved, and was eager to find out how DMT was applied in the process of psychosocial rehabilitation.
We began the day by sitting with the director of Sanved, Sohini Chakraborty, and 8 of the DMT trainers who they themselves have been through a process of recovery and healing. Our discussion with them introduced us to the rhythm of Sanved’s history and the issues which shape it today. Sanved works to provide, through DMT, an alternative approach of psychosocial rehabilitation for victims of violence, marginalisation and trafficking. Sanved took its first steps over 10 years ago in a shelter home. From this beginning they are now working with 30 partner organisations in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Sohini was awarded an Ashoka Fellowship in 2003 and has established DMT as a proven alternative method of psychotherapy, and worked with over 2,500 individuals since its inception. Despite the initial scepticism of organisations, questioning the credibility of DMT in rehabilitation, Sanved has shared its programmes, built capacity in other organisations and developed networks with therapists overseas. Sanved is partly funded by the Ministry of Education and is striving for DMT programmes to be incorporated into the government’s Life Skills Programmes.
Talking of the philosophies behind DMT, Sohini and the trainers opened my mind to endless possibility. They taught me that state of mind is directly related to the use and understanding of our bodies. A cure for mental illness can be achieved through the physical use of the body. In essence a victim’s trauma is in the body; once they understand “I’m the controller of my body” they realise “I can control my mind, and my future.” Everybody can benefit from DMT as the body is the gateway to release stress and mental tensions.
The trainers themselves are supported to build their own capacity in human rights awareness, psychology, leadership skills, confidence and the way that they speak and present themselves. These skills are then directly transferred when every participant has a needs assessment in order to determine the appropriate DMT approach. In the eyes of Sohini, a rehabilitated person is someone who says “If I want to, I can do it. Yes I can.” They have confidence and a voice to achieve their dreams. Participants are awakened, recognise their potential and have a new self belief.
Throughout our time talking with the Sanved members, their faces and expression of speech were direct, concise and confident, and their belief in their work was unshakable. The group told us of their struggle as they are often pressurised by their families to leave Sanved. There is a fear amongst parents that they will lose their children who become more independent and will leave home, and the one man in the group told us he would continue to work at Sanved even if his family were to disown him. Through Sanved he has gained confidence and has a dream that in the future, people will use DMT instead of going to conventional therapists.
After the discussion we travelled to the All Bengal Women’s Union, a shelter for women and children. Classes are held twice a week with the children, many of whom have been victims of abuse and trafficking. We were invited to take part in a DMT session in which we witnessed energetic children enthusiastically dancing and always conscious their peers were ALL involved. As the music played and the girls giggled at my dance moves, the trainers voiced clear instructions and enjoyed the love and respect of the students.
From a young age dance has meant a lot to me. It allows me to forget myself, my anxieties and insecurities and I’m transferred to another place of acceptance with no boundaries. I have had no history of abuse being afflicted on me or desperate hardships put upon me, yet, I somehow relate to the work of Sanved on so many levels. I treasure the time I had with the members of Sanved and only hope one day my dancing ability will be a fraction of theirs.
Roshan Vikas: Working to empower Muslim women through microfinance
Empowering those who are marginalised at the ‘base of the pyramid’ has been a recurrent and powerful motif for the majority of our site visits. Our visit on Saturday afternoon to Roshan Vikas, a Microfinance Institute, was no exception.
9 of us (Richard, Patrick, Akhil, Debbie, “GG”, James, Sonia, Rees and I) fought our way through considerable (and apparently not atypical!) Hyderabad traffic to the ‘Old Part’ of the city. We met the founder-director, Ali Askar and the new COO, Jeevan Kumar. Following on from the stunning morning spent at Acumen Fund (well I certainly found it stunning!), the Roshan Vikas (R.V.) team were always going to have a tough act to follow.
Before continuing, it is probably worth explaining that Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to poor or low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. It is an area I have personally been spending some time looking into during my sabbatical. But rather than yabbering on about it here, it probably makes sense to give the Wikipedia link (especially coz that’s where I stole that definition from!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance. :)
One of the reasons microfinance is so powerful is that it fills the massive gap that commercial banks leave; banks don’t feel that the poorest in society are worth providing any financial services to. I know – outrageous!! Roshan Vikas’s mantra is “Kindling Hope, Saving Lives”. Their concept is to promulgate a ’double bottom line’ – that is, returns that are both economic and social. One of the best things about them though is that they are involved in many areas, beyond just providing small or ‘micro’ loans. They are focussed on the issue of empowerment and provide education loans, health access and skills training (especially to artisans who make classic Hyderabadi Zardozi clothes and fabrics). At present, R.V. empowers 17,000 people, the vast majority of whom are women and, in turn, the vast majority of whom are Muslim Women. In an Indian city made up of 40% Muslims, it is fantastic.
R.V. has very aggressive growth targets and they talked us through these in detail. In some ways, this makes sense given the massive need – over 32% of the urban population lives below the poverty line. Oof! Something must be done! But, in other ways, microfinance institutes must be careful in over-stretching with such aggressive, ambitious expansion.
Just as we have seen the unprecedented crisis faced by all banks around the world – caused by slackening lending standards and expansion at unsustainably high pace – this must act as a salutary lesson for the microfinance industry. Microfinance has tremendous brand equity, particularly after Muhammad Yunus, the father of the microfinance industry, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. So it would be devastating if microfinance institutes recklessly repeated the mistakes of such recent past.
The site visit concluded with a very interesting visit to a workshop of women producing Zardozi clothes, who had received the loans from R.V. Given the co-operative structure, it was wonderful to witness these Muslim women who were not only earning their wage, but having a share of the profits too. And what better testament to the impact of R.V.’s success – Debbie and Geraldine bought a few pieces and were then disappointed they could not buy some more salwar kameez pieces as they were already on order by Fab India! We had a good chuckle and it really made the women smile. It was a great way to end the visit.
- Vinay, Hyderabad, 29/Nov/08
9 of us (Richard, Patrick, Akhil, Debbie, “GG”, James, Sonia, Rees and I) fought our way through considerable (and apparently not atypical!) Hyderabad traffic to the ‘Old Part’ of the city. We met the founder-director, Ali Askar and the new COO, Jeevan Kumar. Following on from the stunning morning spent at Acumen Fund (well I certainly found it stunning!), the Roshan Vikas (R.V.) team were always going to have a tough act to follow.
Before continuing, it is probably worth explaining that Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to poor or low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. It is an area I have personally been spending some time looking into during my sabbatical. But rather than yabbering on about it here, it probably makes sense to give the Wikipedia link (especially coz that’s where I stole that definition from!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microfinance. :)
One of the reasons microfinance is so powerful is that it fills the massive gap that commercial banks leave; banks don’t feel that the poorest in society are worth providing any financial services to. I know – outrageous!! Roshan Vikas’s mantra is “Kindling Hope, Saving Lives”. Their concept is to promulgate a ’double bottom line’ – that is, returns that are both economic and social. One of the best things about them though is that they are involved in many areas, beyond just providing small or ‘micro’ loans. They are focussed on the issue of empowerment and provide education loans, health access and skills training (especially to artisans who make classic Hyderabadi Zardozi clothes and fabrics). At present, R.V. empowers 17,000 people, the vast majority of whom are women and, in turn, the vast majority of whom are Muslim Women. In an Indian city made up of 40% Muslims, it is fantastic.
R.V. has very aggressive growth targets and they talked us through these in detail. In some ways, this makes sense given the massive need – over 32% of the urban population lives below the poverty line. Oof! Something must be done! But, in other ways, microfinance institutes must be careful in over-stretching with such aggressive, ambitious expansion.
Just as we have seen the unprecedented crisis faced by all banks around the world – caused by slackening lending standards and expansion at unsustainably high pace – this must act as a salutary lesson for the microfinance industry. Microfinance has tremendous brand equity, particularly after Muhammad Yunus, the father of the microfinance industry, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. So it would be devastating if microfinance institutes recklessly repeated the mistakes of such recent past.
The site visit concluded with a very interesting visit to a workshop of women producing Zardozi clothes, who had received the loans from R.V. Given the co-operative structure, it was wonderful to witness these Muslim women who were not only earning their wage, but having a share of the profits too. And what better testament to the impact of R.V.’s success – Debbie and Geraldine bought a few pieces and were then disappointed they could not buy some more salwar kameez pieces as they were already on order by Fab India! We had a good chuckle and it really made the women smile. It was a great way to end the visit.
- Vinay, Hyderabad, 29/Nov/08
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