It has been more than a year since I wrote my last blog and I don't feel too good about this. The whole idea of writing a blog was to share the updates of our efforts and similar such non-profit efforts and hopefully get in touch with more like minded people. Though the desire of writing was immense, just couldn’t execute it and the easiest excuse is perhaps lack of time!!!
Though the blog succumbed, fortunately our effort hasn’t. We have managed not just to stay afloat for the past 18 odd months but also execute some very interesting projects. Also lots of things happened in the interim which has made the whole exercise that much more challenging. Today’s blog will be more of a warm-up where I shall just touch base upon the activities of the last 18 months and hopefully as my brain cells get warmer to recollect events I shall get on with the details of each activity
With the events of the past 18 months, we now classify our efforts into the following 3 categories:
a) Urban youth program
b) Rural youth program
c) Schools
Brief on each category:
Urban youth program:
This is essentially what we do for the youth of employable age within Mumbai. After the first batch for St.Xavier’s night college students we did one more batch in mid-2007 and very recently followed it up with a 6 session refresher program.
Through these 2 sessions we managed to reach almost 30 odd students. Though the sessions concluded as scheduled, I do not consider this effort successful since we delivered only on half of our intentions (Shall dwell on this in following posts)
The good thing is that we have managed to update and build new content based on our experiences of the last two batches. The content is more or less in shape and hopefully for our next batch (planned somewhere around Oct 2008) we shall come out with cyclostyled copies
Rural Youth program
This has been most satisfying from an effort point of view. We finally managed to conduct a course in Shirpur. The course started in July of 2007 and concluded in December 2007. Through this program we managed to reach 11 participants (10 boys +1 girl).
Especially for this program we designed Audio Video content (though still needs updation). The idea was to build proficiency in spoken English through the medium of mother tongue.
The execution was pretty daunting but we managed to pull this one off. Here again the results were way short of expectations however the shortfall was primarily due to the infrastructure handicaps prevalent in rural areas like Shirpur (will have to dedicate multiple blogs to describe the entire experience and shall do that)
Our rural desires are yet alive and burning and God willing we shall realise it much sooner than later. Rural effort is the most challenging part of the entire jigsaw. Personally it would be a good life lived if we manage to change atleast 1 rural life (though the intention is to change many such lives)
Schools:
During one of my Shirpur visits, I had a chance to chat with some school students at Shirpur Vishwa Mandal. All these school going students were checking if we intend to do any course for their age profile.
Having spent time with the elder youth, one thing was pretty clear – the best method to have an effective long term impact was to start young i.e. Start the entire English training program for our target profile from a young age. For the elder youth, a lot has to be unlearned and lots to be learned. If these guys start young, the unlearning bit could be done away with, additionally whatever they would learn would be correct right from the beginning.
Hence we decided to foray into vernacular medium schools. And so started our first school project at Holy Family High school (Marathi medium) and our audience were Std V students. The whole idea behind the school effort is – We shall be with financially underprivileged students from vernacular medium schools from Std V – Std X and take them through a proper English training program. I firmly believe that if we succeed in doing this, at the end of 6 years (V – X) these students would be able to speak English as good as their private school counterparts.
We have again developed content for this profile and have completed one batch (2007-2008). The results have been encouraging (I can saythis effort has succeeded)
Having finished 1 grade at Holy Family, we shall have 3 batches this year – new Grade V batch in Holy Family, Our last batch students who go into Std VI and we shall replicate the same effort in 1 Municipal school
From a teaching point of view, I enjoy teaching school students the most – its fun (will again write about the entire academic year in much detail in further blogs)
So this has been our journey in the past 18 months but it has not been without mishaps. We were a team of 7 when I wrote my last blog. However with increasing personal and professional commitments the number of working members for almost a year now has been reduced to 2 - 3. Though the work has increased the shoulder space has become narrower – I just hope they don’t sag.
My biggest challenge now more than ever is set up a team. Honestly this has been the driver of me returning to blogging again. Hopefully my return is not short lived and I am able to reach few more people to lend their shoulder space
I shall end today’s blog here.
Insanity must prevail for change to happen!!!
All you guys take good care and do well
Cheers,
Pranil
And the most important thing – We finally have a name, our effort is called “Leap4Word” (the whole exercise of having a name was way too dramatic, can make a good story if we survive and succeed)
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sunday, March 4, 2007
The Shirpur visit
During the course of our sessions for the first batch which was conducted at the St.Xaviers college, we came across various opportunities to extend our services to different places and for different people. One such opportunity was the possibility of trying to do something in the area of Spoken English & Communication skills for the youth in a place called Shirpur.
When we first got together to start something like what we are currently onto, the audience that we intended to target was essentially educated people in areas of no or very less opportunities. Hence we all were very excited to have something like Shirpur come our way.
Four from the team started for Shirpur on Saturday, February 23rd. For most of us this was the first time we were ever visiting a village, hence that much more excitement to begin with. Shirpur is 400 kms from Mumbai and comes in the Dhule district. It was an almost 12 hours bus drive. Our halt at Shirpur was at a beautiful place called Shirpur Vishwa Mandal (SVM) . Our host for the visit was a wonderful man named Fr. Godfrey.
SVM is a small campus consisting of 2 hostels - one for the college students & one for the high school students, quarters for staff and guests and a big area where experimental farming is practised.
After a good breakfast we got into our first meeting for the day at 10:00 am. The meeting was with a group of young college going/went men. 19 students had turned up for the meeting. 16 of these stayed on the campus while 3 had come from nearby villages (25-30 kms).
We started with a brief introduction. Most students were in their second year of senior college, couple had completed their M.A but only one of them was working. He was a teacher at a secondary school. The striking point from this whole discussion was almost all had opted for Arts. When we probed more we realised that this could be because of two reasons:
a) The medium of instruction for the Arts & Commerce streams was Marathi. One had to be fairly conversant in English to opt for science
b) Everyone present there wanted to become a lecturer. They apparently were not aware of other employment opportunities. Most decisions were driven based on what others were doing.
Two amongst this group had completed their MA but were unemployed. They said that they had tried looking for teaching jobs, but there weren't many vacancies in the government jobs. And possibly if something didn't work out soon, they would end up working on farms.
We thought of doing a small reading test. Unfortunately the only magazine that we carried was Business Today. We identified the easiest articles from this magazine and made each of one of them read it. We were really surprised to find that most of them managed to read those articles. The pronunciation was not good, pace was extremely slow nonetheless the performance was beyond our expectations. Personally i felt that as far as reading was concerned the average level was better than the average level of the students at St.Xaviers, Mumbai
So, the good thing was they could attempt to read, but the bad thing was they could not comprehend even a word of what they had read. Possibly this is the state of most if not all students, who are taught english in a vernacular environment. Efforts are generally put to ensure that a person can read, however without the ability of comprehension one cannot communicate in English.
Nonetheless it was a good meeting to attend. We now understand the existing levels of these students, their expectations from us, the amount of time that they have at their disposal. This will help us in working out our contents and identifying the delivery mechanism.
Post this meeting Fr.Godfrey took us around the farms where experimental farming is practiced. There were few women workers on the field harvesting the rice fields. Apparently the crops that they grow on these farms is mostly for internal use, and only if there is excess do they sell in the market. For all of us to be out on the farms was a novelty and we enjoyed our hour in the sun.
Post our lunch, we met a group of high school girls in a place called Anand Sadan. Anand Sadan like SVM is again a campus (though small) which houses school going girls from villages in Dhule district. This was a bunch of very enthusiastic students - i found them bolder than the boys we had met earlier. This meeting was arranged to explore the possibility of doing a course in Basic Spoken English for these students. We had a general chat (with no specific agenda) with the girls. Unlike the boys these girls had varying aspirations - teacher, doctor, nurses, pilots, nuns. They were very enthusiatic and each actively participated in the discussion.
One more meeting was planned which unfortunately could not materialise. We were exploring the opportunity of working on a "Train The Trainer" concept, and we were supposed to meet one of the teachers in the area. However because of some reasons this meeting did not take place.
Nonetheless i thought that this was a fruitful visit. We started back for Mumbai in the evening - yet another 12 hour bus drive. However before starting we visited a Balaji Temple in Shirpur and I sought the blessings of Balaji to help the team successfully execute our Shirpur responsibilities.
There were lots of take aways from this visit.
a) Opportunities are a direct function of awareness & Awareness is a direct function of where you come from (city, state, family, financial condition). You create awareness and people would not want to settle for less (Only Teachers)
b) We in Mumbai or in any other metro have taken some facilities as granted, most common is electricity. All through the day while we were in Shirpur there was no electricity, and there are times we learnt when there is no power for 4 consecutive days. In order to bring about awareness effectively basic infrastructure needs to be in place.
c) The students are deserving, and they want to do good.
d) The students that we met were all Adivasis, and apparently there are many sub tribes in Shirpur. The village adjacent to Shirpur is Nandurbar which is closer to the state of Gujarat and hence people tend to speak Gujarati while Shirpur being closer to Madhya Pradesh Hindi is preferred next to Marathi. Point is that, there is Diversity Magnified. Its really mind blowing to see such vivid difference in dialects, looks even amongst people from the same village.
There is lot of potential outside of Mumbai in the interiors. The biggest challenge is to reach them. With all the shortcomings i believe that our government has done good enough to atleast have these villages accessible by road. The roads in Shirpur that we walked were very good. Another pleasantly surprising thing to know was, there are 2 senior colleges, quite a big feat in a place like Shirpur.
The biggest challenge confronting us is the delivery mechanism with all the infrastructural impediments. However with challenges cometh solutions. Shirpur is our first pilot project outside the city limits, and if we are able to deliver effectively to the young wo/men there, reaching other places should only be a matter of time. We are eyeing the month of May to begin our Shirpur operations. With good men like Fr.Godfrey by our side we are really positive of executing this assignment.
Once again, in the hope of a better tommorrow "Let Insanity Prevail"
All you guys take care.
Cheers,
Pranil
When we first got together to start something like what we are currently onto, the audience that we intended to target was essentially educated people in areas of no or very less opportunities. Hence we all were very excited to have something like Shirpur come our way.
Four from the team started for Shirpur on Saturday, February 23rd. For most of us this was the first time we were ever visiting a village, hence that much more excitement to begin with. Shirpur is 400 kms from Mumbai and comes in the Dhule district. It was an almost 12 hours bus drive. Our halt at Shirpur was at a beautiful place called Shirpur Vishwa Mandal (SVM) . Our host for the visit was a wonderful man named Fr. Godfrey.
SVM is a small campus consisting of 2 hostels - one for the college students & one for the high school students, quarters for staff and guests and a big area where experimental farming is practised.
After a good breakfast we got into our first meeting for the day at 10:00 am. The meeting was with a group of young college going/went men. 19 students had turned up for the meeting. 16 of these stayed on the campus while 3 had come from nearby villages (25-30 kms).
We started with a brief introduction. Most students were in their second year of senior college, couple had completed their M.A but only one of them was working. He was a teacher at a secondary school. The striking point from this whole discussion was almost all had opted for Arts. When we probed more we realised that this could be because of two reasons:
a) The medium of instruction for the Arts & Commerce streams was Marathi. One had to be fairly conversant in English to opt for science
b) Everyone present there wanted to become a lecturer. They apparently were not aware of other employment opportunities. Most decisions were driven based on what others were doing.
Two amongst this group had completed their MA but were unemployed. They said that they had tried looking for teaching jobs, but there weren't many vacancies in the government jobs. And possibly if something didn't work out soon, they would end up working on farms.
We thought of doing a small reading test. Unfortunately the only magazine that we carried was Business Today. We identified the easiest articles from this magazine and made each of one of them read it. We were really surprised to find that most of them managed to read those articles. The pronunciation was not good, pace was extremely slow nonetheless the performance was beyond our expectations. Personally i felt that as far as reading was concerned the average level was better than the average level of the students at St.Xaviers, Mumbai
So, the good thing was they could attempt to read, but the bad thing was they could not comprehend even a word of what they had read. Possibly this is the state of most if not all students, who are taught english in a vernacular environment. Efforts are generally put to ensure that a person can read, however without the ability of comprehension one cannot communicate in English.
Nonetheless it was a good meeting to attend. We now understand the existing levels of these students, their expectations from us, the amount of time that they have at their disposal. This will help us in working out our contents and identifying the delivery mechanism.
Post this meeting Fr.Godfrey took us around the farms where experimental farming is practiced. There were few women workers on the field harvesting the rice fields. Apparently the crops that they grow on these farms is mostly for internal use, and only if there is excess do they sell in the market. For all of us to be out on the farms was a novelty and we enjoyed our hour in the sun.
Post our lunch, we met a group of high school girls in a place called Anand Sadan. Anand Sadan like SVM is again a campus (though small) which houses school going girls from villages in Dhule district. This was a bunch of very enthusiastic students - i found them bolder than the boys we had met earlier. This meeting was arranged to explore the possibility of doing a course in Basic Spoken English for these students. We had a general chat (with no specific agenda) with the girls. Unlike the boys these girls had varying aspirations - teacher, doctor, nurses, pilots, nuns. They were very enthusiatic and each actively participated in the discussion.
One more meeting was planned which unfortunately could not materialise. We were exploring the opportunity of working on a "Train The Trainer" concept, and we were supposed to meet one of the teachers in the area. However because of some reasons this meeting did not take place.
Nonetheless i thought that this was a fruitful visit. We started back for Mumbai in the evening - yet another 12 hour bus drive. However before starting we visited a Balaji Temple in Shirpur and I sought the blessings of Balaji to help the team successfully execute our Shirpur responsibilities.
There were lots of take aways from this visit.
a) Opportunities are a direct function of awareness & Awareness is a direct function of where you come from (city, state, family, financial condition). You create awareness and people would not want to settle for less (Only Teachers)
b) We in Mumbai or in any other metro have taken some facilities as granted, most common is electricity. All through the day while we were in Shirpur there was no electricity, and there are times we learnt when there is no power for 4 consecutive days. In order to bring about awareness effectively basic infrastructure needs to be in place.
c) The students are deserving, and they want to do good.
d) The students that we met were all Adivasis, and apparently there are many sub tribes in Shirpur. The village adjacent to Shirpur is Nandurbar which is closer to the state of Gujarat and hence people tend to speak Gujarati while Shirpur being closer to Madhya Pradesh Hindi is preferred next to Marathi. Point is that, there is Diversity Magnified. Its really mind blowing to see such vivid difference in dialects, looks even amongst people from the same village.
There is lot of potential outside of Mumbai in the interiors. The biggest challenge is to reach them. With all the shortcomings i believe that our government has done good enough to atleast have these villages accessible by road. The roads in Shirpur that we walked were very good. Another pleasantly surprising thing to know was, there are 2 senior colleges, quite a big feat in a place like Shirpur.
The biggest challenge confronting us is the delivery mechanism with all the infrastructural impediments. However with challenges cometh solutions. Shirpur is our first pilot project outside the city limits, and if we are able to deliver effectively to the young wo/men there, reaching other places should only be a matter of time. We are eyeing the month of May to begin our Shirpur operations. With good men like Fr.Godfrey by our side we are really positive of executing this assignment.
Once again, in the hope of a better tommorrow "Let Insanity Prevail"
All you guys take care.
Cheers,
Pranil
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Integration in Not-profits.
It would be really blissful to live the day when every child in India would get to go to school. To be a part of an effort that can make this possible is my long standing fantasy.
Someone said , "Either modify your dreams or magnify your abilities" - so true.
How much ever we magnify our abilities, will it practically possible to ensure that every child - every single child - in this country gets access to schooling? I doubt, hence over the past few months my fantasy has undergone modifications. It now reads " to see the day when every Indian child gets access to education". Suddenly you remove the physical structure of a school and replace it with only learning, this dream looks achievable in our lifetime.
If children who sought education had voting rights then perhaps schools would have burgeoned by the dozen, but by the virtue of not being members of the largest BANK - read vote bank - children stand to only lose.
In Mumbai watching very young kids beg, is a very common sight - at signals, outside temples/ churches, railway stations, bus stands. The question which invariably comes to mind is, will this child ever get a decent living while he survives? One gets to see women with 3-4 kids begging, will any of those kids grow up to ever enjoy the basic essentials of life? It is just not possible in the current system. These kids will grow up if they do not perish under the difficult conditions, with no access to education end up doing odd jobs, some will get into most easily available company and get into drugs, and finally hook up with an equally miserable person of opposite sex and breed. The production of miserables lives long.
The lady who carries those kids may possibly never get to enjoy the fruits of a decent, stable and safe living. Its a shame to all of us who cannot do anything about this, but there is a definite chance to save the kids in her arms from suffering her fate. The generation which hangs on the shoulders & arms of this unfortunate lady is priceless - they should not be wasted. They need to be pulled out, nurtured and raised so that they live unlike their parents who merely survived.
For any person, to lead a life of substance , needs the manure of education. It is not necessary to occupy the seats in formal schools and imbibe conventional learning. What is critical and imperative is to be exposed to inputs which increase awareness, instill dreams, kindle motivation, offer employable skills and ensure that the hope of a better life keeps fluttering.
In my first blog i mentioned about some wonderful people who are putting in efforts to ensure that the lesser sons of God get access to learning. And these are the selfless people who and only who can guarantee that all the lesser sons of God get modest if not equal opportunities to live!!! Social entrepreneurship efforts, not profit organsiations , NGOs operating in the field of education, wherever they maybe, live this dream day in and day out. It would be a pity if their efforts do not bear the desired fruits.
But the reality is that, their efforts will not bear the desired fruits for the following reasons:
a) The task at hand is so humungous that the only possibility of succeeding is, when all genuine, focussed & like minded volunteers join hands. However this is not the reality. Many noble hands work for a common cause but in isolation.
b) The need for resources is great, so great that one can either concentrate on resource generation or either focus on the primary motive of the effort. Most non-profits die prematurely at the stage when they try to scale up, because scaling up requires money which is very difficult to come.
But then the problems that are cited are manageable, infact there is a potent cure to all this. I intend to put a potential solution.
Management talks of INTEGRATION - Forward & Backward Integration.
Forward Integartion - Say a vegetable & fruit grower expanding into retailing
Backward Integration - Say a readymade garment owner going into manufacturing his own label.
Similar to for-profit companies which move into integration either to drive down costs (backward) or increase revenues (forward) eventually making more profits through synchronisation of efforts, not-profits can increase effectiveness by consolidating energies and forming an integrated chain.
Let me give an example:
Consider 4 not-profit efforts:
a) Effort A which is dedicated to underprivileged kids - young kids of pre school, nursery grades age
b) Effort B which is a group of volunteers ensuring that older kids (primary schooling age) get access to valuable educational inputs
c) Effort C which trains teens/adults prepare and clear their matriculation exams/ HSC exams
d) Effort D which spends resources to ensure that the school-went children get access to employable skills and in effect a good job
The key thread in this example is :
All 4 efforts exist in the field of EDUCATION.
All 4 efforts are in a logical sequence.
All 4 efforts have similar problems.
All 4 efforts have volunteers who are driven, passionate and exactly the kind that can realise the utopia.
All 4 efforts work independently
Now if look closely, the first 3 efforts are completely dependent on outside funding to run the show. Mind you, a serious not-profit effort which does not compromise on the quality of inputs requires a fair deal of money. These efforts focus on an audience (young children) which in no way can generate revenues (essentially NOT making theirs a self financing model). However the 4th effort by the mere potential of providing job options becomes a revenue generating model.
The 4th effort can draw in money through various modes:
a) By placing the participants (who would now be employably skilled) in companies and in return get reimbursed for the training costs.
b) By encouraging the kids that succeed to in turn sponsor another kid's training
c) And other conventional methods.
Now if this works, we suddenly have an effort which has the potential of making more than it has spent. What happens to the remainder - part is retained to grow the effort and the remaining part needs to flow backwards to fund the first 3 efforts.
Point to remember here is that there is a mutual exchange of benefits in either direction
(4----->3------->2------->1) & (1--------->2------------>3------------->4)
Success of effort 4 depends on the quality of employees it churns, because companies would want to absorb only those who meet certain benchmarks. Effort 4 will be able to churn out people of a set standard faster only if it gets people who meet its entry expectations. To provide the entry suitable candidates to effort 4 is the responsibility of preceeding 3 efforts. Also if the end effort gets people of a set standard the cost of training will significantly go down as the training will move towards standardisation.
When money flows backwards, the first 3 efforts can concentrate all their energies on inparting skills. The pressures of raising funds will cease to exist, thus ensuring focussed efforts capable of delivering expected results.
Like in For-profits,
a) All those who join hands (there could be many individual efforts at any level say 1,2 ,3 or 4) would need to deliver an expected output, thus ensuring no let-ups in any way
b) Because you get access to funding and your performance determines the training cost incurred by the succeeding effort, every effort will have the pressure to deliver (Sounds like CAPITALISM)
c) This becomes a highly interdependent chain, output of which is as good as the weakest link. Hence energies will unknowingly focus towards strengthening this weak link.
d) Any individual effort which does not deliver at any level will be moved out and other deserving efforts will take its place.
This is no different from an integration in the business world. Such relationships will seek synergies, ensure that they happen, demand quality and weed out substandard performance. All of a sudden we have a chain of not-profit efforts bound by market pressures. Multiple not profits can exist at each level provided at each level the services delivered remain the same.
All this could be put down because all the efforts considered in the example work in the field of education, and hence synergies could be derived from their teaming up. Though this sounds easy it is extremely diffcult and some reasons which i can fathom right now are:
a) Cease control. Unlike business integration where ownership is not divided, here different not-profits will come together. The fear of losing identity may keep some away.
b) The pressure of performing may keep many at bay.
c) There is a great possibility that this may be run with a commercial Heart. Not-profits should be run by a commercial head & a non-commercial heart
Notwithstanding all these problems i personally feel that this is a viable solution because:
a) Likeminded people come together (IMMENSE POWER)
b) Reliance on outside funding goes down thus enabling full focus on the job at hand
To build schools is the the job of the government. To ensure that no child begs irrespective of the womb in which he lay is the job of the government, to ensure that no child is deprived of childhood is the job of the government, and they get Taxes to do it. However for reason mentioned above governments will not want to do all this - its a big task for too little rewards.
Expecting the government to deliver all these is far fetched - way beyond reality.
But these problems can be solved - perhaps that too in our lifetime . For that, like efforts need to join hands, synergise and leverage on economies of scale.
If not-profits are indeed run with a for-profit brain (However the objective still remains to positively affect lives), the utopian dream of seeing every child get access to education may indeed become a reality.
On yet another hope, i end.
Let Insanity prevail.
All you guys, do good and take care.
cheers,
Pranil
Someone said , "Either modify your dreams or magnify your abilities" - so true.
How much ever we magnify our abilities, will it practically possible to ensure that every child - every single child - in this country gets access to schooling? I doubt, hence over the past few months my fantasy has undergone modifications. It now reads " to see the day when every Indian child gets access to education". Suddenly you remove the physical structure of a school and replace it with only learning, this dream looks achievable in our lifetime.
If children who sought education had voting rights then perhaps schools would have burgeoned by the dozen, but by the virtue of not being members of the largest BANK - read vote bank - children stand to only lose.
In Mumbai watching very young kids beg, is a very common sight - at signals, outside temples/ churches, railway stations, bus stands. The question which invariably comes to mind is, will this child ever get a decent living while he survives? One gets to see women with 3-4 kids begging, will any of those kids grow up to ever enjoy the basic essentials of life? It is just not possible in the current system. These kids will grow up if they do not perish under the difficult conditions, with no access to education end up doing odd jobs, some will get into most easily available company and get into drugs, and finally hook up with an equally miserable person of opposite sex and breed. The production of miserables lives long.
The lady who carries those kids may possibly never get to enjoy the fruits of a decent, stable and safe living. Its a shame to all of us who cannot do anything about this, but there is a definite chance to save the kids in her arms from suffering her fate. The generation which hangs on the shoulders & arms of this unfortunate lady is priceless - they should not be wasted. They need to be pulled out, nurtured and raised so that they live unlike their parents who merely survived.
For any person, to lead a life of substance , needs the manure of education. It is not necessary to occupy the seats in formal schools and imbibe conventional learning. What is critical and imperative is to be exposed to inputs which increase awareness, instill dreams, kindle motivation, offer employable skills and ensure that the hope of a better life keeps fluttering.
In my first blog i mentioned about some wonderful people who are putting in efforts to ensure that the lesser sons of God get access to learning. And these are the selfless people who and only who can guarantee that all the lesser sons of God get modest if not equal opportunities to live!!! Social entrepreneurship efforts, not profit organsiations , NGOs operating in the field of education, wherever they maybe, live this dream day in and day out. It would be a pity if their efforts do not bear the desired fruits.
But the reality is that, their efforts will not bear the desired fruits for the following reasons:
a) The task at hand is so humungous that the only possibility of succeeding is, when all genuine, focussed & like minded volunteers join hands. However this is not the reality. Many noble hands work for a common cause but in isolation.
b) The need for resources is great, so great that one can either concentrate on resource generation or either focus on the primary motive of the effort. Most non-profits die prematurely at the stage when they try to scale up, because scaling up requires money which is very difficult to come.
But then the problems that are cited are manageable, infact there is a potent cure to all this. I intend to put a potential solution.
Management talks of INTEGRATION - Forward & Backward Integration.
Forward Integartion - Say a vegetable & fruit grower expanding into retailing
Backward Integration - Say a readymade garment owner going into manufacturing his own label.
Similar to for-profit companies which move into integration either to drive down costs (backward) or increase revenues (forward) eventually making more profits through synchronisation of efforts, not-profits can increase effectiveness by consolidating energies and forming an integrated chain.
Let me give an example:
Consider 4 not-profit efforts:
a) Effort A which is dedicated to underprivileged kids - young kids of pre school, nursery grades age
b) Effort B which is a group of volunteers ensuring that older kids (primary schooling age) get access to valuable educational inputs
c) Effort C which trains teens/adults prepare and clear their matriculation exams/ HSC exams
d) Effort D which spends resources to ensure that the school-went children get access to employable skills and in effect a good job
The key thread in this example is :
All 4 efforts exist in the field of EDUCATION.
All 4 efforts are in a logical sequence.
All 4 efforts have similar problems.
All 4 efforts have volunteers who are driven, passionate and exactly the kind that can realise the utopia.
All 4 efforts work independently
Now if look closely, the first 3 efforts are completely dependent on outside funding to run the show. Mind you, a serious not-profit effort which does not compromise on the quality of inputs requires a fair deal of money. These efforts focus on an audience (young children) which in no way can generate revenues (essentially NOT making theirs a self financing model). However the 4th effort by the mere potential of providing job options becomes a revenue generating model.
The 4th effort can draw in money through various modes:
a) By placing the participants (who would now be employably skilled) in companies and in return get reimbursed for the training costs.
b) By encouraging the kids that succeed to in turn sponsor another kid's training
c) And other conventional methods.
Now if this works, we suddenly have an effort which has the potential of making more than it has spent. What happens to the remainder - part is retained to grow the effort and the remaining part needs to flow backwards to fund the first 3 efforts.
Point to remember here is that there is a mutual exchange of benefits in either direction
(4----->3------->2------->1) & (1--------->2------------>3------------->4)
Success of effort 4 depends on the quality of employees it churns, because companies would want to absorb only those who meet certain benchmarks. Effort 4 will be able to churn out people of a set standard faster only if it gets people who meet its entry expectations. To provide the entry suitable candidates to effort 4 is the responsibility of preceeding 3 efforts. Also if the end effort gets people of a set standard the cost of training will significantly go down as the training will move towards standardisation.
When money flows backwards, the first 3 efforts can concentrate all their energies on inparting skills. The pressures of raising funds will cease to exist, thus ensuring focussed efforts capable of delivering expected results.
Like in For-profits,
a) All those who join hands (there could be many individual efforts at any level say 1,2 ,3 or 4) would need to deliver an expected output, thus ensuring no let-ups in any way
b) Because you get access to funding and your performance determines the training cost incurred by the succeeding effort, every effort will have the pressure to deliver (Sounds like CAPITALISM)
c) This becomes a highly interdependent chain, output of which is as good as the weakest link. Hence energies will unknowingly focus towards strengthening this weak link.
d) Any individual effort which does not deliver at any level will be moved out and other deserving efforts will take its place.
This is no different from an integration in the business world. Such relationships will seek synergies, ensure that they happen, demand quality and weed out substandard performance. All of a sudden we have a chain of not-profit efforts bound by market pressures. Multiple not profits can exist at each level provided at each level the services delivered remain the same.
All this could be put down because all the efforts considered in the example work in the field of education, and hence synergies could be derived from their teaming up. Though this sounds easy it is extremely diffcult and some reasons which i can fathom right now are:
a) Cease control. Unlike business integration where ownership is not divided, here different not-profits will come together. The fear of losing identity may keep some away.
b) The pressure of performing may keep many at bay.
c) There is a great possibility that this may be run with a commercial Heart. Not-profits should be run by a commercial head & a non-commercial heart
Notwithstanding all these problems i personally feel that this is a viable solution because:
a) Likeminded people come together (IMMENSE POWER)
b) Reliance on outside funding goes down thus enabling full focus on the job at hand
To build schools is the the job of the government. To ensure that no child begs irrespective of the womb in which he lay is the job of the government, to ensure that no child is deprived of childhood is the job of the government, and they get Taxes to do it. However for reason mentioned above governments will not want to do all this - its a big task for too little rewards.
Expecting the government to deliver all these is far fetched - way beyond reality.
But these problems can be solved - perhaps that too in our lifetime . For that, like efforts need to join hands, synergise and leverage on economies of scale.
If not-profits are indeed run with a for-profit brain (However the objective still remains to positively affect lives), the utopian dream of seeing every child get access to education may indeed become a reality.
On yet another hope, i end.
Let Insanity prevail.
All you guys, do good and take care.
cheers,
Pranil
Monday, January 8, 2007
Within an arms reach!!!
Before the start of this pilot batch we spoke to a few people currently employed with call centres, and the common thread in all conversations was - Self Confidence & Ability to speak clear, simple and correct English are the most essential parameters to get employment in this field (this is obviously in addition to the required academic qualifications)
If this is all that is needed to get employment in call centres then there is no reason why anyone who is interested should be deprived of this opportunity.
Self confidence and the ability to speak good english are actually interlinked, one follows another and hence these issues need to be addressed parallely. When confidence goes up, unknowingly, clear english words flow and when this happens confidence in turn goes up further.
I was born in a Goan family, my parents converse in Konkani and we brothers in Marathi. We were raised in a predominantly Marathi background. So dominant is the influence of spoken Marathi that it is a great entertainment to hear my mother converse in Hindi with our Dhobi:).
On a more serious note,
despite going to a convent school, fluency in spoken English did not come very easy, all us friends spoke mostly either in Hindi or Marathi - so much was the non-english peer pressure that if someone tried speaking in English he would be a subject of great fun and ridicule.
And hence even though i managed to speak, it was a difficult task to converse in English at great length. The most common technique was to frame a sentence in Marathi, convert it in English and save face!!!
However looking back, i realise that this was the most potent method to learn conversing in English. NO doubt the reflexes were slow but more often than not the responses were gramatically correct. This makes me believe that Learning to speak Gramatically correct English in a time bound manner is absolutely possible subject to the following conditions:
a) The candidate is not alien to the English language i.e even though he cannot converse he can atleast partially make sense of what gets spoken.
b) The candidate is fluent in his mother tongue and is pretty confident about it. Medium of instruction during his education could have been anything!!!
c) He is genuinely interested in improving his spoken English skills thus implying that a serious effort in the stipulated time frame will be offered.
When i first moved out of school after my SSC, despite being fairly decent at conversing in English - situations which made fool of me were not uncommon. I would suddenly find myself at the loss of correct words at the wrong time and this would mostly happen when the person opposite me was either a girl or some hip- hop (I talk English, I walk english type characters) peer hailing from affluent families.
This was possibly the reason of my middle class Marathi speaking background. Lack of self confidence would keep me away from those people who could offer me a chance to improve my spoken skills and, would bring me closer to more me-likes thus strengthening my spoken Marathi!!!
However i have been lucky so far because i got the oppportunity to pursue engineering studies and later get a job thus offering me with ample opportunities to improve my spoken English.
However the candidates that our effort targets and intends to cater to in the long run are not so lucky. Firstly they get into jobs very early in their lives and most of these jobs do not give them any opportunity to speak in English. Back home there is no one to reciprocate in English, thus maintaining and reinforcing their status quo (English Phobia)
Whatever that gets taught and in effect gets learnt, is bound to be forgotten if not implemented regularly and quickly. Same with English - even though a person learns to converse in English if he does not get absorbed fast in an environment where the most common transactional language is English, he will fail miserably to leverage on what gets learned, and then what would stem from this failure is drop in self confidence, fear to face the public at large & inferiority complex.
Hence the key is Learn Effectively & Implement Quickly.
We realised the potency of this when taking Grammar sessions. If the candidates are encouraged to think in their mother tongue and then speak in English, the number of mistakes go down drastically, though this comes at the expense of speed. But again the key is if one learns CORRECT language, building speed is just a matter of more practice and hence time.
Most people who fumble speaking in Engilsh go wrong in the correct usage of verbs & tenses . One need not be an expert in all spheres of English to speak fluently, all that is required is perfection in essential Grammar topics, and the result will be clear & correct english.
It is an easy - to - implement skill if learnt effectively. The duration taken may vary depending on the individuals existing levels on the 3 conditions mentioned above however, it is by no means the fiefdom of any priveleged lot.
Most commercial outfits employ progressive techniques of language teaching. There are many which cater to BPO specific skills training, however there could possibly be two constraints
(a) The training expenses are high thus filtering most of the interested & desreving candidates (EVER WONDERED WHY A DESERVING GUY OR GIRL IS ALWAYS POOR???)
(b) There are institutes which train for free but they reserve the right to refusal i.e If they feel that the candidate cannot be trained in a pre-decided time frame, then he is not welcome.
What we intend is to offer Progressive training sans any strings attached. No interested candidate, should be turned down for either of the above reasons. If he is willing, then he is trainable. If he is deserving, then funding is not a problem!!!
By the virtue of being a not-profit outfit, we can afford not to turn down anyone!!!
Our effort is to bring into the opportunity zone those people who i refer to as "The Ignored Class". This ignored class is deserving, all they want is access to opportunity, which we intend to offer through our effort.
In a market economy, mediocrity dies early and what survives is good quality. We want this effort to live long hence, we cannot afford to be mediocre. Just because a person is a product of a not-profit effort will not ensure good employment opportunities, instead what is expected is, inspite of being a product of a not-profit effort he is best comapred to others.
We realise and acknowledge this fact,hence we arecompelled to run this effort with a non-profit heart and a for-profit brain. Its going to be really exciting,absolutely stimulating and immensely satisfying!!!
In my last post I had mentioned of the fast improvements that our students displayed. What is also observed is that they now appear more confident & forthcoming. Not sure what is the cause and what is the effect?
Thus, to cut the long story short - If spoken english & self confidence are the tickets to a fatter salary and hence a better life, then these ticket can be earned by any wiling one. The time taken and the efforts required may vary with individauls, but the desired result is absolutely achievable if the situation is addressed wisely.
I sign off for the day on this thought - Offer the "Right To Opportunity" and most men will cease mere surviving & start living!!!
Let Insanity Prevail.
You guys take good care & do well.
Regards,
Pranil
If this is all that is needed to get employment in call centres then there is no reason why anyone who is interested should be deprived of this opportunity.
Self confidence and the ability to speak good english are actually interlinked, one follows another and hence these issues need to be addressed parallely. When confidence goes up, unknowingly, clear english words flow and when this happens confidence in turn goes up further.
I was born in a Goan family, my parents converse in Konkani and we brothers in Marathi. We were raised in a predominantly Marathi background. So dominant is the influence of spoken Marathi that it is a great entertainment to hear my mother converse in Hindi with our Dhobi:).
On a more serious note,
despite going to a convent school, fluency in spoken English did not come very easy, all us friends spoke mostly either in Hindi or Marathi - so much was the non-english peer pressure that if someone tried speaking in English he would be a subject of great fun and ridicule.
And hence even though i managed to speak, it was a difficult task to converse in English at great length. The most common technique was to frame a sentence in Marathi, convert it in English and save face!!!
However looking back, i realise that this was the most potent method to learn conversing in English. NO doubt the reflexes were slow but more often than not the responses were gramatically correct. This makes me believe that Learning to speak Gramatically correct English in a time bound manner is absolutely possible subject to the following conditions:
a) The candidate is not alien to the English language i.e even though he cannot converse he can atleast partially make sense of what gets spoken.
b) The candidate is fluent in his mother tongue and is pretty confident about it. Medium of instruction during his education could have been anything!!!
c) He is genuinely interested in improving his spoken English skills thus implying that a serious effort in the stipulated time frame will be offered.
When i first moved out of school after my SSC, despite being fairly decent at conversing in English - situations which made fool of me were not uncommon. I would suddenly find myself at the loss of correct words at the wrong time and this would mostly happen when the person opposite me was either a girl or some hip- hop (I talk English, I walk english type characters) peer hailing from affluent families.
This was possibly the reason of my middle class Marathi speaking background. Lack of self confidence would keep me away from those people who could offer me a chance to improve my spoken skills and, would bring me closer to more me-likes thus strengthening my spoken Marathi!!!
However i have been lucky so far because i got the oppportunity to pursue engineering studies and later get a job thus offering me with ample opportunities to improve my spoken English.
However the candidates that our effort targets and intends to cater to in the long run are not so lucky. Firstly they get into jobs very early in their lives and most of these jobs do not give them any opportunity to speak in English. Back home there is no one to reciprocate in English, thus maintaining and reinforcing their status quo (English Phobia)
Whatever that gets taught and in effect gets learnt, is bound to be forgotten if not implemented regularly and quickly. Same with English - even though a person learns to converse in English if he does not get absorbed fast in an environment where the most common transactional language is English, he will fail miserably to leverage on what gets learned, and then what would stem from this failure is drop in self confidence, fear to face the public at large & inferiority complex.
Hence the key is Learn Effectively & Implement Quickly.
We realised the potency of this when taking Grammar sessions. If the candidates are encouraged to think in their mother tongue and then speak in English, the number of mistakes go down drastically, though this comes at the expense of speed. But again the key is if one learns CORRECT language, building speed is just a matter of more practice and hence time.
Most people who fumble speaking in Engilsh go wrong in the correct usage of verbs & tenses . One need not be an expert in all spheres of English to speak fluently, all that is required is perfection in essential Grammar topics, and the result will be clear & correct english.
It is an easy - to - implement skill if learnt effectively. The duration taken may vary depending on the individuals existing levels on the 3 conditions mentioned above however, it is by no means the fiefdom of any priveleged lot.
Most commercial outfits employ progressive techniques of language teaching. There are many which cater to BPO specific skills training, however there could possibly be two constraints
(a) The training expenses are high thus filtering most of the interested & desreving candidates (EVER WONDERED WHY A DESERVING GUY OR GIRL IS ALWAYS POOR???)
(b) There are institutes which train for free but they reserve the right to refusal i.e If they feel that the candidate cannot be trained in a pre-decided time frame, then he is not welcome.
What we intend is to offer Progressive training sans any strings attached. No interested candidate, should be turned down for either of the above reasons. If he is willing, then he is trainable. If he is deserving, then funding is not a problem!!!
By the virtue of being a not-profit outfit, we can afford not to turn down anyone!!!
Our effort is to bring into the opportunity zone those people who i refer to as "The Ignored Class". This ignored class is deserving, all they want is access to opportunity, which we intend to offer through our effort.
In a market economy, mediocrity dies early and what survives is good quality. We want this effort to live long hence, we cannot afford to be mediocre. Just because a person is a product of a not-profit effort will not ensure good employment opportunities, instead what is expected is, inspite of being a product of a not-profit effort he is best comapred to others.
We realise and acknowledge this fact,hence we arecompelled to run this effort with a non-profit heart and a for-profit brain. Its going to be really exciting,absolutely stimulating and immensely satisfying!!!
In my last post I had mentioned of the fast improvements that our students displayed. What is also observed is that they now appear more confident & forthcoming. Not sure what is the cause and what is the effect?
Thus, to cut the long story short - If spoken english & self confidence are the tickets to a fatter salary and hence a better life, then these ticket can be earned by any wiling one. The time taken and the efforts required may vary with individauls, but the desired result is absolutely achievable if the situation is addressed wisely.
I sign off for the day on this thought - Offer the "Right To Opportunity" and most men will cease mere surviving & start living!!!
Let Insanity Prevail.
You guys take good care & do well.
Regards,
Pranil
Friday, January 5, 2007
Not all 4 letter words are bad, coz HOPE is one of them!!!
Our first batch at St.Xaviers is a mixed lot. Almost all the students work during the daytime and attend night college. Some are from Mumbai while some have come to the city for work reasons. Most stay with their parents while some rent the space with friends while a few are put up at their relatives.
We conduct our sessions every weekend that is when both - students & us - have a day off. Saturday in the evening and Sunday on mornings.
Before this batch began on the 9th december we did a screening round with the students, and we enrolled all those who had turned up. Their levels varied - some were realtively well placed with spoken English while some only spoke in Hindi, nonetheless we felt that a serious effort on our parts and we shall be able to do justice to the hopes of those who turned up.
31 students attended the first session, and over the past month this number has settled at 27. Of these 27 students some are extremely hardworking - what drives them to put in extra hours is the hope of a better lifestyle. And these promising young men & ladies, bring us to their premises every weekend and on many weekdays too (beyond our office hours).
These students do all kinds of jobs like - office assistants, courier boys, data entry operators, salesmen etc. Their average monthly income is in the range of INR 2000 - 3000 and mind you, almost all work for around 8-10 hours a day.
There are a few kids here who are really inspiring - smiling, energetic and enthusiastic despite their difficult daily routines. One amongst them is a canteen boy.
This boy works in a government canteen in Bandra. He hails from Udipi in South and is in Mumbai for the obvious reason. He works 6 days in a week from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, then rushes to attend evening college from 5:50pm - 9:20 pm in VT. He stays in the same canteen with 60 others (yes, the number is correct!!!). He along with his canteenmates sleep on the dinner tables. Other than him no other canteen boy attends college (apparently they are not interested - I feel they have given up on hope).
This boy is extremely hardworking and its really amazing to see him put efforts despite so many constraints (I usually have my bed ready if i come late - i stay with 3 others - i always have variety in my dinner - i never had to work to pay my fees - but still many times i have not done/ did not do what is/was expected of me).
He is currently in his second year of senior college, however he can barely converse in English (remember he works in a government canteen where there is hardly any scope of speaking English).
In a years time he would have the "COVETED" Graduation degree from the Mumbai University. However i wonder without being able to speak English will he ever move into a better paying job even though he is a graduate? And invariably the answer is NO!!!
A commerce graduate waiting tables in a government canteen in Mumbai - This hot headline will ensure the sale of a few more copies of the daily tabloid.
There are definitely many more like him, not only in Mumbai but also in other Tier I cities of India. However there is possibly a very strong reason to this situation (qualified young men stuck in undeserving jobs).
Mumbai is a very expensive place to stay. By working in a canteen he has a shelter, that too in the safe company of his friends. A similar place elsewhere will cost him upto Rs 1000 after sharing the rent. Thus he cannot leave this job for a few hundred more because the rent will more than offset his additional income.
Thus what is necessary is a substantial increase in his current income. Also in order that the fire in his belly does not exhaust he needs to discover this income avenue (a stable mothly inflow of a decent salary) much sooner than later.
And this is possible, very possible. You complement his graduation degree with the ability to speak correct English and suddenly you add a completely new dimension to this kid's life. This biased Service economy (Biased because it considers only those who get a readymade bed to sleep on while it ignores those who sleep on canteen tables) will now want to embrace him with open arms because now he would have discovered the much soughted employability!!!
And now for the heartening part -
Over the past 1 month (9 sessions), this boy has shown tremendous improvement. Though he is not yet up to the mark, he has developed the confidence to come up and address his friends (IN ENGLISH),he makes an attempt to converse and attends all the sessions regularly. He has improved much faster than our expectations and my team has the faith that he would definitely reach where we want him to be.
We have a few promising students in this class but this fella is my Hero. If we are able to pull him out from his current standing and allow him an opportunity in the high paying Service Economy,all this effort will be worth its every minute, every penny, every fear and every hope.
We do not want to relent and we shall not relent because we want to see the day when this boy places an order and not takes one. What a fine day it would be - perhaps the finest of our lives - and come it will, and trust me ...very soon
I shall sign off for the day on this hopeful note.
Its saturday tomorrow and i look forward to meet our guys and see them improved over the last week.
All in hope for a better tomorrow. Let Insanity Prevail
Do good guys & take care.
Regards,
Pranil
We conduct our sessions every weekend that is when both - students & us - have a day off. Saturday in the evening and Sunday on mornings.
Before this batch began on the 9th december we did a screening round with the students, and we enrolled all those who had turned up. Their levels varied - some were realtively well placed with spoken English while some only spoke in Hindi, nonetheless we felt that a serious effort on our parts and we shall be able to do justice to the hopes of those who turned up.
31 students attended the first session, and over the past month this number has settled at 27. Of these 27 students some are extremely hardworking - what drives them to put in extra hours is the hope of a better lifestyle. And these promising young men & ladies, bring us to their premises every weekend and on many weekdays too (beyond our office hours).
These students do all kinds of jobs like - office assistants, courier boys, data entry operators, salesmen etc. Their average monthly income is in the range of INR 2000 - 3000 and mind you, almost all work for around 8-10 hours a day.
There are a few kids here who are really inspiring - smiling, energetic and enthusiastic despite their difficult daily routines. One amongst them is a canteen boy.
This boy works in a government canteen in Bandra. He hails from Udipi in South and is in Mumbai for the obvious reason. He works 6 days in a week from 8:00 am - 5:00 pm, then rushes to attend evening college from 5:50pm - 9:20 pm in VT. He stays in the same canteen with 60 others (yes, the number is correct!!!). He along with his canteenmates sleep on the dinner tables. Other than him no other canteen boy attends college (apparently they are not interested - I feel they have given up on hope).
This boy is extremely hardworking and its really amazing to see him put efforts despite so many constraints (I usually have my bed ready if i come late - i stay with 3 others - i always have variety in my dinner - i never had to work to pay my fees - but still many times i have not done/ did not do what is/was expected of me).
He is currently in his second year of senior college, however he can barely converse in English (remember he works in a government canteen where there is hardly any scope of speaking English).
In a years time he would have the "COVETED" Graduation degree from the Mumbai University. However i wonder without being able to speak English will he ever move into a better paying job even though he is a graduate? And invariably the answer is NO!!!
A commerce graduate waiting tables in a government canteen in Mumbai - This hot headline will ensure the sale of a few more copies of the daily tabloid.
There are definitely many more like him, not only in Mumbai but also in other Tier I cities of India. However there is possibly a very strong reason to this situation (qualified young men stuck in undeserving jobs).
Mumbai is a very expensive place to stay. By working in a canteen he has a shelter, that too in the safe company of his friends. A similar place elsewhere will cost him upto Rs 1000 after sharing the rent. Thus he cannot leave this job for a few hundred more because the rent will more than offset his additional income.
Thus what is necessary is a substantial increase in his current income. Also in order that the fire in his belly does not exhaust he needs to discover this income avenue (a stable mothly inflow of a decent salary) much sooner than later.
And this is possible, very possible. You complement his graduation degree with the ability to speak correct English and suddenly you add a completely new dimension to this kid's life. This biased Service economy (Biased because it considers only those who get a readymade bed to sleep on while it ignores those who sleep on canteen tables) will now want to embrace him with open arms because now he would have discovered the much soughted employability!!!
And now for the heartening part -
Over the past 1 month (9 sessions), this boy has shown tremendous improvement. Though he is not yet up to the mark, he has developed the confidence to come up and address his friends (IN ENGLISH),he makes an attempt to converse and attends all the sessions regularly. He has improved much faster than our expectations and my team has the faith that he would definitely reach where we want him to be.
We have a few promising students in this class but this fella is my Hero. If we are able to pull him out from his current standing and allow him an opportunity in the high paying Service Economy,all this effort will be worth its every minute, every penny, every fear and every hope.
We do not want to relent and we shall not relent because we want to see the day when this boy places an order and not takes one. What a fine day it would be - perhaps the finest of our lives - and come it will, and trust me ...very soon
I shall sign off for the day on this hopeful note.
Its saturday tomorrow and i look forward to meet our guys and see them improved over the last week.
All in hope for a better tomorrow. Let Insanity Prevail
Do good guys & take care.
Regards,
Pranil
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
The Beginning
And Finally I Begin:
This is my first attempt at blogging, and there are a couple of reasons why i decided to do it:
(a) Apparently my e-mails kept getting so longer year after year that they have begun looking more like blogs so after much deliberation and subtle hints from my victims (the receivers of my mails) i thought why not formalise the exercise and save myself the embarrasment of writing "painful to read" e-mails
(b) Since December 2001, I have been assosiated with not-profit efforts in the field of education beyond regular office hours, and in 2006 two wonderful incidents happened;
- First I came in contact with a team of hghly driven & passionate people who run a not-for-profit organisation called DreamIndia2020 &
- Secondly along with five of my MBA batcmates have started a non-profit effort which has progressed beautifully and which we intend to scale up and turn into a formally run non-profit co-operative movement.
As in Computing so in Not-Profits, the real power lies in Networking.
In order that more people join hands and more wonderful efforts across the land synchronise and consolidate - spreading the good word is a necessity.
The problems around are plenty but when one gets to see people trying to bring a positive change in their communities through innovative ideas it is absolutely inspiring.
I firmly believe that the fate of our society in the coming decade will more be a consequence of the actions of our generation more than anybody else.
And hence, the Co-operative & Innovative efforts that will see the light of the day in the coming decade is the key to a really wonderful place - our homeland!!!
Through this blog,
- I intend to update the possible visitors and inturn potential volunteers (for any worthwhile cause related
efforts) on the detailed progress of our initiated effort (From Conceptualisation to the Start)
- Bring forth the good work carried on by passionate people at not-profit organisations like DreamIndia
- Share some thoughts/articles which I have found stunningly true & absolutely inspiring over the years
- Seek opinions on solutions to community problems, that have been lingering in my mind for sometime
Vision: To build a potent team of extremely passionate & driven people, that will address the issues of poor public education and the resulting unemployability.
Mission: Impart employment relevant technical and soft skills to the students of public schools and thus enable them with an opportunity to participate and excel in the service driven economy, through innovative methods that essentially result in self-financing and self-sustainable business models, and at the same time ensure thorough professionalism and focus in the entire effort
The first batch has begun at St.Xaviers college and we are exactly half way through as I write this page.
Signing off for today,
All you guys take good care of yourself.
Cheers,
Pranil
This is my first attempt at blogging, and there are a couple of reasons why i decided to do it:
(a) Apparently my e-mails kept getting so longer year after year that they have begun looking more like blogs so after much deliberation and subtle hints from my victims (the receivers of my mails) i thought why not formalise the exercise and save myself the embarrasment of writing "painful to read" e-mails
(b) Since December 2001, I have been assosiated with not-profit efforts in the field of education beyond regular office hours, and in 2006 two wonderful incidents happened;
- First I came in contact with a team of hghly driven & passionate people who run a not-for-profit organisation called DreamIndia2020 &
- Secondly along with five of my MBA batcmates have started a non-profit effort which has progressed beautifully and which we intend to scale up and turn into a formally run non-profit co-operative movement.
As in Computing so in Not-Profits, the real power lies in Networking.
In order that more people join hands and more wonderful efforts across the land synchronise and consolidate - spreading the good word is a necessity.
The problems around are plenty but when one gets to see people trying to bring a positive change in their communities through innovative ideas it is absolutely inspiring.
I firmly believe that the fate of our society in the coming decade will more be a consequence of the actions of our generation more than anybody else.
And hence, the Co-operative & Innovative efforts that will see the light of the day in the coming decade is the key to a really wonderful place - our homeland!!!
Through this blog,
- I intend to update the possible visitors and inturn potential volunteers (for any worthwhile cause related
efforts) on the detailed progress of our initiated effort (From Conceptualisation to the Start)
- Bring forth the good work carried on by passionate people at not-profit organisations like DreamIndia
- Share some thoughts/articles which I have found stunningly true & absolutely inspiring over the years
- Seek opinions on solutions to community problems, that have been lingering in my mind for sometime
About our Effort in very Brief
Six of us have started an effort to impart employable skills through sessions on "Spoken English & Effective Communication Skills" for night college students. I shall dwell in detail on this later, however today I would like to share our Vision & Mission statement:
Vision: To build a potent team of extremely passionate & driven people, that will address the issues of poor public education and the resulting unemployability.
Mission: Impart employment relevant technical and soft skills to the students of public schools and thus enable them with an opportunity to participate and excel in the service driven economy, through innovative methods that essentially result in self-financing and self-sustainable business models, and at the same time ensure thorough professionalism and focus in the entire effort
The first batch has begun at St.Xaviers college and we are exactly half way through as I write this page.
About the Name of this Blog:
I firmly believe people who directly or indirectly spare time, dedicate resources and devote energies to contribute to the society are CRAZY - who otherwise would want to loom over issues which even remotely do not affect them.
But there are many Crazy people who are bitten by the bug called " In pursuit of a better India".
These CRAZY people selflessly despite being in oblivion pursue their dreams and truly prove their "Purpose of Existence".
And hence I thought of naming this blog "TheMaverickZone". Because people who might repeat their presence at this place; dream of a better India and moreso are willing to participate in the grind to realise this dream can be no less than MAVERICKS
Let "Insanity Prevail"
I end my today's writing with a very wonderful quote (This ones from Apple Computer). Enjoy !!!
Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They invent. They imagine. They heal. They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy. How else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? Or sit in silence and hear a song that’s never been written? Or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? We make tools for these kinds of people. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
- Apple Computer
- Apple Computer
Signing off for today,
All you guys take good care of yourself.
Cheers,
Pranil
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