Day 1: Color Me India

“So much of what is singular and memorable about India is the colors. No religion makes more use of color than Hinduism, with its blue-skinned gods and peony-lipped goddesses, and even the spring festival of Holi is focused on color. Here, color seems to be humanity’s way of asserting itself against a pitiless and unvaried backdrop. In India, the flashes of color seem defiant, the hues brighter, more extreme, better than anything nature could have imagined.” Hanya Yanagihara

I read this except from a travel magazine just a few days before my arrival to India, and now here I stand in this colorful country, struck with poverty yet hidden beauties at every corner. When I stepped off the plane I didn’t know what to expect. Independence and a feeling of pure excitement is all I felt. Before me stands an experience of a lifetime. We’ve been studying the meaning of social-entrepreneurship over the past few weeks, however it wasn’t until I saw the people outside on the streets of Mumbai that I understood the true need for a person or organizations with a passion and vision to solve social issues such as poverty and inequality. I look forward to our service project and the NGO sites we will get to see.

Before we left we were asked to look into funding missions and how social entrepreneurs find the funds to start their social venture. As a result I looked at GlobalGiving, Kiva, Global India, and Samhita. With a simple four-part process, Kiva makes lending to alleviate poverty simple. With a loan through Kiva you are essentially providing a loan to people without traditional banking choices. “100% of your loan is sent to microfinance institutions, (aka Field Partners) which administer the loans in the field.” With such a simple process it’s remarkable that Kiva is funded through optional donations and fundraising. Global India Fund: also has a simple giving process, however what I like about GIF is that it stresses the importance of keeping the ‘giver’ informed. Therefore, people that give are not giving blindly and get to receive feedback reports. This is a great way to maintain funding to groups. An informed investor is more likely to give in the future. Due-diligence is an important factor to make sure that the NGOs are credible and trustworthy.

All of these sites have the purpose of offering people the opportunity to support a social cause, at the end of the day you know that you are helping to set the foundation of an initiative that may change lives. Each website incorporates personal stories and detailed information of how and why to make a donation. Moreover I found it interesting how the three of these organizations use technology to their advantage, I had to wonder would something like this even be possible if it weren’t for technology.

I look forward to meeting people from some of these NGO’s that the GIF gives to. This is an experience of a lifetime and it’s only day one!

For further notes on my trip: please follow my personal blog www.colormeindia.tumblr.com

-Courtnay