Today was my first day of work here in India, which also happens to be International Women's Day. Kinda funny that I have to come all the way to India to experience it for the first time. There are so many things that we take for granted living in the Western world, and celebrating something like Women's Day doesn't seem that important. But here in India it was a big deal.
So work actually started yesterday, where we all met with our NGO partners at a local hotel, where we had introductions and an overview of each non-profit/project. We met Dr. Vijay and Dr. Vivek from the NGO we are working with and talked a little bit about what exactly it was they wanted us to do.
Pawel (from Poland) and I will be working with the Centre for Development Communication (CDC) (www.cdcindia.org) on their Annakshetra program. CDC started out as a program to help provide waste management for poorer areas (ie. no municipal garbage pickup like we are used to) and has evolved into focusing on waste management at multiple levels, including pickup, social security, welfare of the workers, etc and with a new focus on food waste. The Annakshetra program helps to redistribute food from catering facilities after huge, lavish Indian weddings to those in need that aren't part of any other sponsored program or receive help from govt, etc. It is in a pilot phase still and is a very manual process. They make a point of saying that they are not a charity organization that focuses on feeding the needy, but are looking to develop a program that scientifically helps to reduce food waste. Ultimately they would like to get out of the middle and hope that communities can execute their model. It's a fascinating program and idea.
Our job for the next 4 weeks is to help them map their end to end process and make recommendations on how they can make it more efficient, with the ultimate goal of making it repeatable in other cities. When I say it's a manual process, I mean they do everything by hand. They get the names of the hosts for the wedding (parents normally) and contact them and tell them about the program. They get them to sign a consent saying they will call them after the wedding is done to allow them to pick up the food. They keep all of the donor / recipient info in their program database, which is a three ring binder! Someone picks up the food, it is brought back to their facility and tested by a nutrionist (1 person) and then hopefully within 24-48 hours delivered to an orphanage or leprosy home or school for disabled kids and then a letter is sent to the donor letting them know where the food went and how much. I was really impressed with how much work they have done on the program and where they want to go. We will help bring another set of eyes to things from a process perspective and see if there is anything that we can help recommend or set them up with. Pawel is a software architect so this is perfect for him. If anyone is interested in learning more or has any ideas of how to help or knows of any group in the US that currently does this, please let me know.
They mentioned that they have been promised a new refrigerated van by a Rotary Club in the US, which just happens to be in Atlanta! Such a small world. I'll have to find out where and update them on our visit when I get home.
So, the day started with our taxi picking us up late (yes J, it was an old Tata) and he turned to us and in Hindi asked where we were going (I'm assuming that's what he asked). Since we didn't know, because CDC was sending the taxi I had to call Dr. Vijay. He gave him directions and we were off. Oh goodness, we were finally seeing India. Cars, bikes, buses, motorbikes, tricycles pulling things, camels, dogs, cows, woman carrying bags of things on their head and traffic, lots and lots of traffic. The cab driver decided he needed gas so he stopped with us in the car, first place was out I guess so we kept going and then stopped again. While we were waiting for him to pump (car was left on and he was on his phone) an older lady beggar stood outside our window. As the driver got back in the car, he stopped, reached into his shirt pocket and gave her a coin. Amidst all the chaos, he did his good deed for the day, probably not his first or last. I got choked up a bit to be honest.
We arrived at CDC, which is in an old house in a neighborhood in the south of Jaipur, I think. The building itself was very nice, lots of flowers, the inside was very clean and stark and smelled very hospital like, of disinfectant, which I guess it could be a lot worse. We were brought into a conference room where the entire CDC team was there to great us. They have about 20 employees in this office, mainly woman in their 20s. They went thru introductions, told us about the program and just seemed mesmerized that we were there. We worked with the Annakshetra team to put a project plan in place (of course I had to have a plan!) and then took a break for lunch.
Most people in India bring their lunch with them, so there really weren't a lot of places to go. Vijay and Sunil, one of the marketing guys drove us across the street to a little restaurant. We were the only ones there, it was quite dismal. Pawel had no problem eating though and I just wanted some roti (bread) because my stomach was a bit off today. When Vijay picked us up, the waiter told him in Hindi that I only ate bread! Either he was concerned for my well being or that I didn't eat much at his restaurant, not quite sure.
After lunch we started to work with the team to understand their process flow. But we got interupted because they had a local women's self help group downstairs for women's day and they wanted me to join (and Pawel too if he wanted). I said sure and we walked downstairs where I was greeted by the leader of the group, she came up and shook our hands. They had invited these women to come in from their village, where they help sponsor them to make dresses and clothes to sell. They are called self help groups but are sort of collectives, where they pool their money and resources to help each other. They showed them some videos on microfinance and women's issues and they did a lot of talking back and forth, all in hindi of course. It was really great though to just sit and watch. They were asking Vijay and the team for another sewing machine so that they could produce more goods. They were also asking if it was possible to try and get some sort of education to help them be able to manage finances better. They were all iliterate, and had never had any form of education. This is where women's day actually means something big to them. It is enabling them further to feel empowered, some of them have never been allowed to leave the house. Quite fascinating and an honor to be a part of. Here is a pic of the ladies dressed in their best clothes for the visit. Not the best quality, we were in a basement, but good enough.
Then it was back to the homestay to relax and decompress from the overwhelming day. A good day, but lots of stimulus overload. Back at it again tomorrow!
So work actually started yesterday, where we all met with our NGO partners at a local hotel, where we had introductions and an overview of each non-profit/project. We met Dr. Vijay and Dr. Vivek from the NGO we are working with and talked a little bit about what exactly it was they wanted us to do.
Pawel (from Poland) and I will be working with the Centre for Development Communication (CDC) (www.cdcindia.org) on their Annakshetra program. CDC started out as a program to help provide waste management for poorer areas (ie. no municipal garbage pickup like we are used to) and has evolved into focusing on waste management at multiple levels, including pickup, social security, welfare of the workers, etc and with a new focus on food waste. The Annakshetra program helps to redistribute food from catering facilities after huge, lavish Indian weddings to those in need that aren't part of any other sponsored program or receive help from govt, etc. It is in a pilot phase still and is a very manual process. They make a point of saying that they are not a charity organization that focuses on feeding the needy, but are looking to develop a program that scientifically helps to reduce food waste. Ultimately they would like to get out of the middle and hope that communities can execute their model. It's a fascinating program and idea.
Our job for the next 4 weeks is to help them map their end to end process and make recommendations on how they can make it more efficient, with the ultimate goal of making it repeatable in other cities. When I say it's a manual process, I mean they do everything by hand. They get the names of the hosts for the wedding (parents normally) and contact them and tell them about the program. They get them to sign a consent saying they will call them after the wedding is done to allow them to pick up the food. They keep all of the donor / recipient info in their program database, which is a three ring binder! Someone picks up the food, it is brought back to their facility and tested by a nutrionist (1 person) and then hopefully within 24-48 hours delivered to an orphanage or leprosy home or school for disabled kids and then a letter is sent to the donor letting them know where the food went and how much. I was really impressed with how much work they have done on the program and where they want to go. We will help bring another set of eyes to things from a process perspective and see if there is anything that we can help recommend or set them up with. Pawel is a software architect so this is perfect for him. If anyone is interested in learning more or has any ideas of how to help or knows of any group in the US that currently does this, please let me know.
They mentioned that they have been promised a new refrigerated van by a Rotary Club in the US, which just happens to be in Atlanta! Such a small world. I'll have to find out where and update them on our visit when I get home.
So, the day started with our taxi picking us up late (yes J, it was an old Tata) and he turned to us and in Hindi asked where we were going (I'm assuming that's what he asked). Since we didn't know, because CDC was sending the taxi I had to call Dr. Vijay. He gave him directions and we were off. Oh goodness, we were finally seeing India. Cars, bikes, buses, motorbikes, tricycles pulling things, camels, dogs, cows, woman carrying bags of things on their head and traffic, lots and lots of traffic. The cab driver decided he needed gas so he stopped with us in the car, first place was out I guess so we kept going and then stopped again. While we were waiting for him to pump (car was left on and he was on his phone) an older lady beggar stood outside our window. As the driver got back in the car, he stopped, reached into his shirt pocket and gave her a coin. Amidst all the chaos, he did his good deed for the day, probably not his first or last. I got choked up a bit to be honest.
We arrived at CDC, which is in an old house in a neighborhood in the south of Jaipur, I think. The building itself was very nice, lots of flowers, the inside was very clean and stark and smelled very hospital like, of disinfectant, which I guess it could be a lot worse. We were brought into a conference room where the entire CDC team was there to great us. They have about 20 employees in this office, mainly woman in their 20s. They went thru introductions, told us about the program and just seemed mesmerized that we were there. We worked with the Annakshetra team to put a project plan in place (of course I had to have a plan!) and then took a break for lunch.
Most people in India bring their lunch with them, so there really weren't a lot of places to go. Vijay and Sunil, one of the marketing guys drove us across the street to a little restaurant. We were the only ones there, it was quite dismal. Pawel had no problem eating though and I just wanted some roti (bread) because my stomach was a bit off today. When Vijay picked us up, the waiter told him in Hindi that I only ate bread! Either he was concerned for my well being or that I didn't eat much at his restaurant, not quite sure.
Then it was back to the homestay to relax and decompress from the overwhelming day. A good day, but lots of stimulus overload. Back at it again tomorrow!
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