During the past few days we have spent more time with the women working in our social business and with the women who are members of Prayas’s self help groups located throughout the slums of Delhi. Yesterday we also had the opportunity to meet with Mr. Kohli, director at Vidya Sankar. These interactions helped refine our goals for the future.
At our meeting with Mr. Kohli, we discussed how we can make our educational and vocational training more impactful by focusing on service jobs that are in high demand, such as plumbers, carpenters and electricians. By focusing on jobs like these, the students not only have a higher probability of being employed but they on average earn more than their peers who have nontechnical college degrees. Another way we can help increase the success of our students is to offer classes on basic skills we take for granted, like the importance of personal appearance and language skills. We also continued to discuss the hardships we will face with our center, including how to motivate children in the slums to become educated.
We are going to start importing bags from our social business into the United States in order to increase sales and be able to employ more women. While the bags will still be sold in India, we believe that as University of Florida students we can add much more value selling the bags in the US rather than in India where a Prayas employee is better suited for the job.
We are starting to realize how accustomed we are to life in Delhi after only 8 days. All we could do is laugh when our drive to Vidya Sankar school took 3 hours instead of the estimated 1 hour in a car with no A/C while temperatures outside hit 115 degrees.
When we got off the Metro at Adarsh Nagar this evening (Sunday May 23rd) we noticed that things were a little darker than usual. We quickly came to the realization that due to weather in excess of 110 degrees (F) and huge demands for electricity, rolling blackouts were sweeping the area. We are crossing our fingers that we have power tomorrow to post this blackout written blog.
The past few days have been amazing. We have had the opportunity to visit three different communities throughout the city where Prayas has established integrated economic development centers. Our plan is to be able to fund one these centers in the next year. These centers provide a full circle solution to alleviate high rates of illiteracy and unemployment. They offer alternative education (to help drop out students reach the levels necessary to reenter government schools), vocational training, and self help groups where women entrepreneurs come together to gain funding (through microloans) and support for their entrepreneurial ventures. The centers seem to truly transform a community, as can be seen in the following testimonial by Priyanka, a project manager at Naya Prayas in the Singh Camp of Vasant Vihar. Each of these centers provide education for 40 school children, vocational training for 250 individuals, literacy education for 100 illiterate adults, and entrepreneurial support for 250 women. Health services are also offered at these centers. It is estimated that 1,000 members of the community benefit from the centers.
These individuals working at these centers are truly amazing and inspiring. One man we met working in a center located in the slum of Ashokvihar had previously worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta for 15 years. His experiences included working with the poor in Calcutta, Delhi, Japan, and South Africa. He told stories of having dinner with Nelson Mandela and being blessed by the late Pope John Paul II.
After four full days of work (including Saturday), we have learned about Prayas and the specific problems the organization is facing in trying to alleviate poverty throughout India. We will use the next week to begin implementing our action plan of how UF CHI can address the immense needs of poor in Delhi. First, we would like to move forward with our jute bag social business by marketing and selling the bags in the US. This sustainable initiative will help us expand the business and employ more impoverished women. As previously stated, we also plan to fund an integrated economic development center. This week we will be meeting various Prayas leaders and selecting a site for this project. Finally, to help our students interact with students at Prayas, we are in the process of setting up a pen pal system. This will help the Prayas students with both their English and their computer skills.
We took our Sunday off to recover and explore historic Delhi. We had been avoiding bike rickshaws up to this point but after a visit to the Red Fort the heat had worn us out and we wanted a quick lift to the nearest Metro station. It was an enjoyable ride and we realized that we are much more likely to sustain serious injuries from accidently walking in front of a rickshaw, rather than riding in one.
After an overnight flight from London to New Delhi and arrived at 10am, we found ourselves at the Delhi airport without our scheduled driver. Luckily we were quickly able to find a taxi to introduce us to the streets of Delhi and a myriad of cars, trucks, rickshaws, bicycles, people, and cows. We hurried to Prayas to get started working. Our first step was to tour the facility in Jahangir Puri. The site houses over 150 orphaned boys and teaches them (and girls from the area) both academic and vocational skills. The facility has a large computer room where the kids learn the vital skill of using the computer and the internet. They are also taught carpentry, electrical skills, English, personal finance, beauty, and crafts.
UF CHI directly supports sewing training and a social business involving making jute bags also housed in the facility. Men and women are first given extensive training in sewing and are then able to make jute bags and special orders for large corporations. Currently they are working on a bulk order of bags for a French corporation. The social business provides impoverished men and women with not only a fair salary but additional opportunities for vocational and academic training (including courses in English and personal finance). Many of the artisans are also members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) organized by Prayas. These groups give them access to a support network of women in similar situations and provide them with opportunities to take out small micro credit loans for personal needs or entrepreneurial ventures. This business is an excellent example of sustainable charitable enterprise. Through the sale of the bags the organization has retained all of its seed financing from UF CHI although additional funds are necessary to expand the business and help more impoverished individuals.
While the streets are chaotic and heat is intense, everyone is welcoming and the people and children of Prayas warm our hearts.
It is hard to believe that the culmination of months of preparation comes down to a check list of essentials for India. While these items are important, the closer I get to departure the more I focus on what really matters for our trip: establishing lasting connections for the future of UF Children’s Hope India.
Before we get into all of that, a few introductions: My name is James Nichols and I am a recent graduate of the University of Florida. In July I will be starting full time with General Electric in the FMP Program. I will be traveling to India with Carol Skordas, a senior at the University of Florida. Carol is a finance major and will be interning with Goldman Sachs starting in early June. We are excited for the trip and will both coincidentally be traveling in the U.K this week (me in Scotland, Carol in London). We leave for India on May 19th from London.
This summer’s internship trip reflects not only the hard work of Carol and myself, but also the past leaders of UF CHI. The organization has evolved from an education project into a sustainable social business initiative. This year we are looking to build on the social business initiative and strengthen our partnership with Prayas India. Our goal is to lay the groundwork for multiple UF students to work directly for Prayas from the U.S. remotely. We hope to help connect impoverished women in India with UF students through the internet to create opportunities for economic empowerment. The trip will provide us the opportunity to build valuable connections to make this happen. We will keep everyone updated on our adventures throughout the trip using this blog. Be sure to check back for more pictures, video and writing from us!
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