We are happy to announce our partnership with Beyond Profit – A New Social Enterprise Magazine. Their mission is to bring you the most interesting and unique stories, people and ideas from the social enterprise sector. We believe this is similar to our objective and hence it made sense to join hands! The following is the first post (podcast infact ) as part of this partnership:

At Beyond Profit, we hold female social entrepreneurs close to our heart (probably because we are a team of mostly women!). Microfinance is a field in which women have long been a majority of customers, but a minority of the leaders. Praseeda Kunam is an exception, a pioneering woman who launched and runs her own microfinance institution. Praseeda left the job market after getting her MBA to start Samhita Community Development Service, which serves poor women in Madhya Pradesh, a particularly impoverished state in India.

In this podcast (link provided below), hear Praseeda speak about the challenges of being a woman entrepreneur in the financial inclusion space, the role of technology in the rapid expansion of Samhita, and the road ahead for her organization and the sector.

Praseeda was the winner of the Srijan 2008 “Most Promising Business Idea Award.” The Srijan Microfinance Forum recognizes emerging and innovative microfinance initiatives in India and serves as a platform for public debate about some of the sector’s most pressing issues.

Click here to hear Praseeda Kunam’s Interview with the Srijan Secretariat.

Srijan Website: www.intellecap.com/srijan2009

Perhaps not many Indians know him, but he is widely credited to have been the inspiration for Nobel laureate Al Gore’s interest in climate change. Now, renowned environmental scientist Dr. Ashok Khosla has plans for creating 100 million jobs by 2018 in rural India. As founder and chairman of Development Alternatives, a New Delhi-based non-profit involved in the creation of micro-factories that would make basic facilities available to the village-dwellers, and enable them to generate employment. The initiative has already created 3 million jobs over the past 15 years.

Sunita Sohrabji writes in indiawest.com about the ideas and ideals of the man who is the brain behind the successful $120 million venture:

“Poor people are seeing more products, but have little access to them. The poor do not have purchasing power,” said Khosla, the 2002 winner of the United Nations’ Sasakawa Environmental Prize, and the Schwab Foundation’s outstanding social entrepreneur award in 2004. Khosla, an alumnus of Cambridge and Harvard, was recently made an Officer of the British Empire.

Development Alternatives uses a market based approach to further its cause, rather than relying on charity. Wondering how it works?

In a typical model, the village will form a cooperative to purchase the equipment needed for the project, and determine wages for the workers, typically slightly above the area’s minimum wage. Development Alternatives’ social enterprise arm, Technology and Action for Rural Advancement, markets the products created by the villagers.

The organization’s compressed earth block technology is being used throughout the country to ease the shortage in housing for rural dwellers. More than half a million homes have been built using the technology, in which villagers mix raw earth with a stabilizer to create a brick, with a mechanized or manual soil press.

The organization believes in innovating to create new opportunities for the poor, and lays particular emphasis on social as well as environmental sustainability.

TARA and Development Alternatives have also created a new-generation weaving machine that allows its user to be more productive and create higher-quality handlooms.

The organization has also created a paper-making machine, which recycles wastepaper and cotton rags into high-end paper goods, or standard paper for use in classrooms.

This is not all. Besides helping the villagers in improving their agricultural output, Development Alternatives has now started a new project – franchised village cyber kiosk. Called Tara-kendras, these centres can impart vocational training, career counseling, agricultural and medical advice, a market place for buying and selling as well as accessing government services.

“This is one of the most revolutionary things we’ve developed,” said Khosla. “It brings the village into the global economy and the global economy into the village.”

“It’s extreme value at very low cost and one of the major solutions to solving the problem of poverty in India,” he asserted. Three hundred Tara-kendras are currently in operation throughout the country, and the enterprise will become profitable when 1,000 kiosks are established.

The efforts of Development Alternatives and Dr. Khosla are laudable. He has several awards and achievements to his name, not the least of which is that as a Harvard teaching fellow, he was responsible for designing and teaching the very first class on the environment! Yes, the same that Gore took during his first year there!! In spite of all his success, Dr. Khosla’s heart lies with India’s rural poor, and his endeavors speak highly of his commitment.

Development Alternatives and TARA have taken some innovative steps in promoting rural employment. Read more on these in the article here.

Image courtesy: indiawest.com

Act Now For The Better India.

India is one of the biggest unbanked countries in the world. Lack of a permanent address and other collateral keeps millions away from the banking and credit sector, which could otherwise improve their lives by a huge margin. In order to facilitate this financial inclusion, Grameen Solutions (the Microfinance powerhouse founded by Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh) and Obopay (the service provider for payments via mobile phones) have come together to form the Grameen-Obopay Bank A Billion initiative. This will provide access to financial services like cross-border remittances, money transfers, payments, and saving and credit accounts through the omnipresent mobile platform.

Priya Kekre reports in CIOL:

One of the biggest challenges the world faces today is financial inclusion or what one may call banking the unbanked sectors. There are many research and economic studies that state that when a critical mass of people or consumers are brought into the banking sector it has a multiplier effect on the countrys GDP, leading to economic growth. It is estimated that the banking sector itself grows by 10x while the countrys economic embassy undergoes a revamp. If millions of people are included into the banked sector, they get access to credit, savings, financial services, and remittances, which automatically increases their purchasing and investment power, says Vijay Balakrishnan, CMO, Obopay. Hence, many developing nations are looking at financial inclusion as an economic and strategic objective.

The thrust is on the inclusion of the poorest sections of society who cannot afford banking and financial services nor have the credit-worthiness to be eligible for these services, but have basic earning capacity. The mobile phone having become an easily available commodity all over the country, providing such solutions on this platform becomes the best way forward. The concept of ‘mobile micro credit’ is here to stay, and hopefully will reach and uplift a billion of the poorest in India and rest of the world.

Read the complete article here.

Home Page Image Courtesy: GrameenFoundation.org

We all know that tourism provides employment and income to millions in India. But have you heard of an entire village being trained to become a tourist hot-spot? This is the story of a small hamlet in Assam, mainly populated by impoverished families displaced by floods. These people have been trained for four years to play the perfect hosts to tourists, and come November, they will get the opportunity to display their new-found skills.

Durgapur, the little village on the fringes of the Kaziranga National Park, has about 70-odd families and has been jointly adopted by the ministry of tourism and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). These families have borne the brunt of the worst floods, and most live below the poverty line. They do not have much to call their own, and there are not many avenues for making a living in this place. The skills being imparted to them via this initiative, with the help of several help-groups and NGOs like North East Social Trust (NEST) and Indian Institute of Hotel Management, aims to provide a regular source of income for these families.

Pullock Datta reports in The Telegraph about this interesting project:

Most of the families living in the village are below the poverty line and only a few own small plots of agricultural land.

“The villagers were provided training by the Indian Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Services at Guwahati and handicraft experts from Bangalore,” the NEST official said.

A troupe of dancers from the village even took classes at Uttar Kamalabari Satra in Majuli.

“Six youths were also provided training as tourist guides,” he said.

All the houses in the two square km village are Assam-style dwellings with thatched roof and bamboo walls.

It may sound a bit like a large-scale drama production where all the inhabitants have a role to play, and the entire village is a stage. However, if the production helps these unfortunate people earn a decent and honest living, it is an innovative solution to combat India’s enormous poverty.

Read the complete article here.

Image Courtesy: The Telegraph

About DEEDS:
DEEDS is a Charity for the Hearing Impaired. It is an acronym that stands for Development Education Empowerment for the Disadvantaged in Society.

Their Vision:
‘To Enrich & Touch the lives of at least 10,000 deaf persons  by the end of this decade’. In pursuance of this Vision, so as to make the deaf financially Self Reliant & Contributors in main stream Society’.
 

Key Areas of Focus:
 - Free Education for the deaf
- Free Vocational Training for the deaf
- Ensuring Job Placements

Ongoing Projects: 

They have 11 ongoing projects in Mumbai ,Vadodara , Noida and Dehradun.  
Some of their projects are as follows:

• Noida Deaf Society – Noida (Computer centre providing Basic & Advanced Computer knowledge)
• DEEDS Ishara Initiative – Mumbai (Teaching English Literacy with the help of Sign Language)
• The Bajaj Institute of Learning – Dehradun (Provides education from KG to XIIth totally free
• DEEDS Catering Institute – Mumbai (Provides a one-year full-time diploma with stipend in catering certified by Maharashtra State Vocation Board)
• DEEDS LTMG Tailoring Project- Mumbai. It provides free training in the tailoring vocation.
• DEEDS Computer Center at Sanskardham at Goregaon. It imparts basic and advanced skills in computers.
• DEEDS Computer Center at Samvad Karnabadhir Prabodhini at Dombivali. It imparts basic and advanced skills in computer.
• DEEDS  Computer Rooms in  schools like Rochiram Thadani School for the Hearing Handicapped, Chembur and Pragati Vidyalaya for the deaf, Dadar.
• DEEDS also provide material support to 27 schools for the deaf in Mumbai as per requirements.

Achievements:

Their success rate in placements also has been considerable.  They have placed over 400 candidates in various fields like banking, hospitality, catering, house-keeping, traffic attendents at petrol pumps, Brew Masters, Jewellery-making, diamond sorting, clerical jobs and back office processes. They are constantly striving to improve our ties with the various sectors of industry to identify lucrative opportunities for their candidates. 

Upcoming Events:
DEEDS is conducting a fund raising event on the 22nd October in Mumbai. It is a hilarious play with a comic twist, adapted and directed by Shubha Khote. Click here to know more about the event.

Stay tuned for volunteering opportunities with DEEDS.

Contact DEEDS at:
Development, Education, Empowerment of the Disadvantaged in Society
8 Bajaj Arcade,
31, Union Park, Khar(W),
Mumbai 400 052. India.
Tel: +91-22-26005083/84.
Email: humanity@deeds-india.com

Read more about DEEDS and their work at their website: http://www.deeds-india.com/

The Tsunami that wreaked havoc in Dec, 2004

Everything that M Malar owned was washed away in December 2004. After eking out a bare subsistence for four years, this mother of three has finally been shown a ray of hope. She and 37 other Tsunami survivors like her can begin life afresh working as permanent staff members of “Green Friends” at the new vermin-compost yard set up at Sholinganallur by the town panchayat.

The yard has been set up with the help of an NGO Hand-In-Hand (HIH), which runs 19 yards in Kancheepuram district with the participation of the local bodies.

D Madhavan reports in this article in The Times of India:

Two years ago, Malar, originally a resident of Odaikuppam in Besant Nagar, was accommodated in one of the 6,700 quarters built by the Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board for tsunami survivors in Semmancherri.

But this was not enough for Malar. She had to feed her children and give them an education – she did several odd jobs, from working as a maid to hawking goods.

Two months ago, there came another turn in her life. She and 37 other tsunami survivors of Semmancheri were offered a permanent job by HIH in the new yard.

A self-help group was formed to help them sustain their livelihood. “It is a second life for me. Now I can ensure that my three children get a good education. I want to ensure at least one of them pursues medicine,” Malar told The Times of India.

The tsunami-survivors were given free training on all aspects of maintaining the yard. These women in turn will teach the residents about the need to segregate their waste into biodegradable and non-biodegradable parts. Initially, the “Green Friends” will receive monthly compensation, but after a year they will be in charge of sustaining the project.

Read the complete article here.

Image Courtesy: Inmotion Magazine, AREDS Team

The Irulas are one of the lowest groups in the Hindu social order, found in Tamil Nadu. Many of them work as rat catchers in the farms of others, who pay them a small sum for each rat they catch. This being the chief occupation, the Irulas live in abject poverty.

Jerilyn Watson writes about this tribe and their ways of catching rats in this article:

The traditional way they catch rats is to light a fire in a clay pot. They blow air through a small hole in the bottom to send smoke into the underground spaces where rats live.

Then, for food, the catchers dig out the rats and any grain stored in their burrows. But often the rats escape, and the rat catchers get burned on their lips and hands. Many also suffer lung and heart disease from breathing the smoke.

Sethu Sethunarayanan, the director for the Development of Disadvantaged people in Chennai looked for a way to improve this technique, and dvised a new steel trap.

With the new trap, the rat catcher still forces smoke into the burrow. But the trap is attached to an air pump operated by hand. The catcher no longer needs to blow into the trap. And the pump has a wooden handle to prevent burns to the hands.

The Irulas asked for and received almost one hundred thousand dollars from the World Bank. They used the money to establish a factory to build the traps. It employs fifty women. The traps are sold for about twenty-five dollars each.

This small contraption has led to a dramatic improvement in the lives of the nearly three million Irulas. They’re earning more money, getting better health care, and more importantly, their children can now go to school instead of catching rats.

Scavenger women from Rajasthan participating in fashion show in New York

A group of scavenger women from a town in Rajasthan called Alwar sashaying down the ramp with leading supermodels in New York? Thirty seven women who, a few years ago earned their living by cleaning dry latrines and carrying night soil in containers on their head, now attending events and speaking at the United Nations headquarters? Unbelievable??

This has been made possible by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak and his organization Sulabh International Social Service Organization. He decided to liberate these women of their stigma and train them in vocations like food processing, tailoring, embroidery and beauty treatments. Thus was born the programme called Nai Dishayein (New Directions) in 2003. Now these women can walk with their head held high and hold conversations with heads of state without feeling any inferiority due to birth and circumstances. Read more about the remarkable story of Dr. Pathak and the success of his initiative in the Women’s Feature Service article available in an interesting Nepal publication called Gorkhapatra here.

Also, you can find more about Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak and the work his NGO Sulabh International has done to deal with issues like hygiene and sanitation, among others by visiting their website: http://www.sulabhinternational.org/

Alright, the restaurants talked about in this article are not quite as philanthropic as the title seems to suggest. Yet, it is a great business model where the poor benefit too. Those of you who might have never been to Mumbai, India’s financial capital, there is a possibility that you are unaware of the restaurants in this city which feed the poor and needy, based on the donation or charity they receive on a daily basis.

The New York Times carries this article in its Mumbai Journal, written by Anand Giridharadas:

The world is filled with eating houses of every kind, from hamburger joints to three-star restaurants. There are places you drive through and places where you sit down. But the world may be unfamiliar with a Mumbai variation on the theme: the hunger cafe.

It takes a city like Mumbai, formerly Bombay, frenetic, transactional and compassionate, to erect eateries for the malnourished. They are not soup kitchens, for denizens of this city have little time to serve other people food. In a city that never stops selling stocks and shooting movies, they prefer drive-by benevolence.

In addition to describing the business cum charity model of these restaurants, donors and beneficiaries, the article also talks about the unique ‘latent’ sense of charity that we Indians possess. Essentially, the people who are hungry and in need of food sit outside these ‘hunger cafes’ waiting. Frequently, one or more cars drive by and deposit their ‘tip’ with the restaurant manager. Based on the amount of this tip, the manager invites a certain number of poor hungry souls waiting outside to a full meal.

Personally, I have seen many affluent business class people offering their money here – sometimes out of sympathy, sometimes as a dutiful charity and sometimes to appease one of their Gods. Whatever might be the reason, it is nice to see that hundreds of people go to sleep on a full stomach due to these restaurants and their respective donors.

Read the complete article here.