UnLtd India and Acumen Fund – Day 6 (Tuesday August 8th)
Today our social entrepreneurship finally met with UnLtd India and Acumen Fund. It was very exciting to meet both organizations because they are the poster children of social entrepreneurship. UnLtd India functions as an incubator and acts as a jump start for individuals that have an idea, want to bring the idea from concept to an actual realization, and with the eventual end goal for social impact. UnLtd India assist these social entrepreneurs in accelerating the process of the project, the development of management and leadership skills, and the preparation to further scale-up these social entrepreneur projects once success has been generated through social impact or profit. UnLtd India has four main programs to help social entrepreneurs throughout the process which include incubation support, bootcamp, Bombay Hub, and Social Mashup. UnLtd India has found success through the successful ventures of several projects that have come to fruition such as mail courier service run by the hearing impaired. Although since many of the project have been around for about four years, it’s hard to point out how large the success has been. Overall, UnLtd India process is only the beginning of future things to come and the concept of social entrepreneurship is still new and much research needs to be done.
It was eventually realized how research, collecting and measuring data, and how the public health field is essential in social entrepreneurship when the Acumen Fund presented. Acumen Fund provides loans to social entrepreneurship projects with the goal that it will yield financial results and social impact. Acumen Fund has 36 projects all over the world ranging in five portfolios which are water, health, housing, energy, and agriculture. When Acumen Fund spoke about their Life Hospitals, hospitals that provide maternal care for low-income women, and explained that they have no data to measure the social entrepreneurship success of the program, we were left in shocked. What I have noticed with various social entrepreneurship ventures is that they have a business framework, but at times fail to connect the importance of understanding the population and their issues and this is where I see the important role of public health and research, particularly when dealing with health programs.
Overall, because social entrepreneurship is still a new concept, research is vital, and it will take years of trial and error to understand the best methods for social entrepreneurship projects to succeed and to continue in creating the necessary social impact.
Monday, August 08, 2011
Day 5: UnLtd India and Acumen Fund in the HUB
Today we had the opportunity to see the other side of social entrepreneurship when we met with two organizations that invest in social entrepreneurs. Our meeting was at the UnLtd India offices where we met with both UnLtd staff as well as Acumen Fund. The UnLtd offices also act as the Bombay HUB. The HUB is a “laboratory and co-working space for social change” and allows for meetings like ours (with two different social investment organizations) to take place in one neutral location. This idea of sharing space really fosters partnerships throughout the city of Mumbai and provides a home base for those wanting to change the world.
Pooja Warier, co-founder and Director, introduced us to the concept behind UnLtd India as an incubator for social entrepreneurships. Their mission is to create a support system for people to make a social impact – and they’ve really built their organization to do so. One of the main challenges mentioned in starting a social organization is being able to implement the idea for three years. Once you make it through those first three years you’re more able to prove your effectiveness as an organization and find funding. Therefore, UnLtd India gives start-up organizations assistance during those extremely crucial first three years. They provide various stages of financial support as well as non-financial support in the form of mentoring and guidance for sustaining a successful social organization.
We heard different stories of social entrepreneurs that came to UnLtd India with an idea and have been able to create successful organizations. The story that stuck with me the most was that of the “The Bee Lady”. Having researched the issues farmers face in India, The Bee Lady implemented a hybrid business model in which she gave farmers bee-boxes, trained them how to use the bee-box, and then set up an organizations to buy the farmers’ honey and remarket the product to the public. As I think about my own business model for this class, her story really helped provide an interesting template for a successful social business. UnLtd India is doing really exciting work – giving those with the ideas an opportunity to make a difference through long-term financial and non-financial support during the most difficult years for a start-up organization.
Members from the Acumen Fund team came next to meet with us about their organization. Acumen recognized the need for a different type of capital for social organizations and understanding how social organizations differ as well. It was interesting to hear their selection process for funding and how they evaluate their investees over years. They’re looking for ideas that tackle basic concepts for social change and then innovation around those ideas. I was most interested in hearing of their investments within their healthcare portfolio and that healthcare access and products are the two most needed aspects of healthcare. They gave an example of a maternity hospital that provides services for vaginal delivery, c-sections, and hysterectomies at a low price for the impoverished community. I liked the point of doing a few things very well in order to maintain a successful organization.
It was exhilarating to hear this side of social entrepreneurship. It really opens up the business side of the field and broadens the scope of the opportunities within social entrepreneurship.
The Health of a Child
The idea is brilliant: “Five railway coaches converted into a surgical hospital to travel to remote districts transforming lives and prolonging lifelines against avoidable disability.” Welcome to Impact India Foundation’s Lifeline Express- where health care is provided at no cost to disabled Indians.
On Friday, we met with Mrs. Naleem Kshirsagar, the General Manager, and leader of Special Projects for IMPACT. All together we took a trip out to the rural villages [Thane District of Maharashtra] to learn more about IMPACT and their initiatives. Just 3 hours outside of the busy city of Mumbai and the scenery around us drastically changed; outside we were welcomed by greenery and fields of land and young school children waving to us with smiles on their face. Our first stop was to an ashramshala [a tribal residential school]. We walked into a room filled with girls, between the ages of 7 to 14. They sat patiently and you could immediately tell these girls were polite, well mannered, and had an eagerness to learn. The girls selected as health monitors began by handing each of us a rose; a kind gesture to welcome us to their school. Next we helped the school’s doctor to hand out Vitamin A and Folic Acid supplements. When the girls were questioned about the benefits of taking these vitamins they knew every answer. At the end they were given the chance to ask us questions and their main question was “How can we be big and healthy like us?” This just goes to show that these girls want to be healthy; they want to be fit and strong, yet because of the lack of resources it is a harder task for them. Young girls need not only be well nourished but also empowered. We tried to do our part by telling the girls how beautiful they are, that they should not use fading creams, and that we wish we could have hair like them. To which they responded with laughter, smiles, and the recommendation of using coconut oil for our hair.
Our next stop was to another school. Here we met the nurse, schoolgirls, and newly pregnant mothers. The mothers were there to learn about antenatal care. Some of them brought their babies with them. I really hope that these women listen to the nurse’s advice because the first few days of your newborn’s life can be the most important. Afterwards the nurse told us about the problem with anemic girls. Because many of them don’t eat red meat along with other factors they have below the normal quantity of hemoglobin in their blood. Both of these encounters proved how important it is to have educational health initiatives all around the world. If more people knew how to better their health we would have healthier people worldwide, especially in countries like India where there are a lack of these types of campaigns.
On the trip, we also got to see one of IMPACT’s express clinic vehicles, where children were getting their vision tested. Our last stop was to a community health clinic where we met with two Doctors. Here we learned about the challenges they face such as not enough staff or other clinics, patients that don’t come back for check ups or are eager to leave after a pregnancy. This clinic was so small yet with the help of the doctors, nurses and at-times student interns they are able to help the people of the community. We got to see a lot- from a man’s snakebite, to a woman that just gave birth just mere hours ago yet was ready and dying to leave the clinic. Intercultural communication is important here because there is a reason behind their discomfort at hospitals or seeking out medical advice, and it takes someone to understand why and how the doctors can change that way of thinking,
On our way back to the hotel we got to continue our discussion with Mrs. Kshirsagar. We asked her where she saw the Lifeline Express in 5 years. She said “my hope is for there to be a lot more awareness in South India, for there to better hospitals and as a result the lifeline will be redundant.” What I found most interesting about IMPACT was that “It acts as a catalyst to bring together the Government, the corporate sector and existing NGOs in mass health programs of national priority.” This group effort I believe is the key to success. Through the site visits with IMPACT I saw their vision, Action Today To Prevent Disability Tomorrow, come alive before me.
Day 3: Dharavi
In Dharavi, a sprawling city within a city, I kept on thinking about rural India. The poverty and lack of opportunity in rural communities drives migrants to Mumbai and other cities, sending urban populations skyrocketing. The result is slums like Govandi and Dharavi and the makeshift shelters that line the streets and alleyways. I'm interested in learning more about solutions for rural India. What changes in rural communities would stem the hemorrhagic migration to cities like Mumbai? The longer I'm here the more questions I have!
Dharavi is an enormous slum - the 2nd largest in Asia and home to 1.5 million people- made famous by Danny Boyle's film Slumdog Millionaire. Accompanied by labor lawyer Vinod Shetty who runs the Dharavi Project, our group toured Dharavi's industrial section. Yes, you read that right. Industrial. The humming, small-scale recycling industry in Dharavi generates over a billion dollars a year. Passing through winding streets and alleys, I felt as though we were walking through an enormous open air factory. Each cramped room housed a different process - people sorting plastic, deconstructing shoes, and reassembling cardboard boxes (Charlotte Hager’s blog which has some great shots):
The place is a living lesson in microeconomics. Many people start off in lower end jobs – perhaps resizing cardboard boxes or disassembling electronics. Some move up, eventually owning their own operations, employing others and perhaps even moving out of Dharavi. At first glance it seems like an ingenious, bottom-up model for income generation and business development. And in many ways it is. But the industry here, along with the housing, is unregulated. Without land tenure for residents, companies can dump their waste without fear of regulation or consequences. Many companies also buy recycled materials from Dharavi under the table. I was reminded of Hernando de Soto Polar's work on land tenure and the importance of titling. Without formal government recognition, it becomes easy to ignore or abuse people who are officially invisible.
This place and these people are the backbone of the city’s economy, creating value while ensuring that Mumbaikers aren’t totally overtaken by their own trash. Yet, its very existence is a menace to a Mumbai trying to position itself as a global modern city. The land Dharavi is built on is prime land and real estate developers are eager to put up more high rises. Government has begun to slowly chip away at Dharavi’s foundation. Citing the need to create a buffer between the slum and water pipes to Mumbai, around 500 residences built around the pipes were recently razed to the ground. Ironically, razing these hybrid factory-residences also caused massive spillage of a variety of chemicals – the fumes of which you can now smell from where the photo below was taken.
The government’s plan for relocating Dharavi residents has been met with resistance. One problem, noted by Mr. Shetty, was that the plan would place people in multi-rise apartment buildings (which struck me as really interesting since we’re moving away from the development of such “projects” in the US). Multi-story apartment buildings would disrupt and perhaps destroy the network of businesses people have created while interrupting operations. Thus far, the government’s plan has been unacceptable to the people it ostensibly seeks to help. At the same time, can the government continue to allow people to live in the conditions they do? As has become the norm on our travels here, there are no easy answers.
Day 2: Aastha Paarivar
On Tuesday, we met with Kranti Mahila Sanstha, a community-based organization working under Aastha Paarivar (AP). Aaastha Paarivar is an umbrella organization run for and by sex workers that works "to address their common issues and needs such as health, human rights, crisis intervention, legal literacy, literacy and support their children."
Our class was asked to provide a brief training on menstruation, menopause and breast cancer. As the only International Development Studies student in class, this was really new territory for me. I was so impressed by the knowledge of the other women in our group and the straightforward way they delivered the information on our topics. I was struck too that our time felt like more of a conversation than a training. We were a group of women, worlds apart in many ways, talking and sometimes laughing about the topics that affect us all. I led a part of the discussion on breast cancer that included symptoms and how to conduct monthly self-checks. We got some excellent questions - How can you tell you have something that's on the inside by checking your outside? Why does it matter if my mother or sister has had breast cancer?
The conversation progressed beyond our planned topics and led to a demonstration on how to use a female condom. Here are Lindsey, Angela and Brooke leading the discussion with Angela posing as a cervix as public health students do:
Once we were done, our hosts wanted to present the training they provide to other women in the trade. Here are some pictures of one of the women making a presentation on how HIV/AIDS spreads. I was struck by the simplicity and effectiveness of the materials, designed to explain the topic with pictures for women who aren't able to read. We were shown how with just one HIV+ person in the chain, all could become infected. The one thing I was concerned about, was that the initial HIV+ person was also the only transgendered person. I wondered if it could perhaps give the false impression that only transgendered people have HIV, which would really diminish the effectiveness and accuracy of the training! 
What you may not be able to see on the "love garden" board above is the logo of FHI, a US-based organization. The Aastha project, out of which Aastha Paarivar was created, started in 2009 with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With already 14 member organizations, the organization seems to be operating quite successfully (though it is still quite early in its existence and after some very brief research, I couldn't find much data on impact). I've worked at a US-based development NGO for the past 5 years and spend a lot of time thinking (sometimes angsting) about the efficacy of aid delivery. With recent books like Dead Aid and White Man's Burden, it's become trendy to dismiss the work of western governments and foundations as ineffective at best and harmful at worst. When we get home I plan to learn more about how Gates funding was used and how the project was designed - perhaps there are some lessons to be learned about the effective use of US funding.
I learned a lot that surprised me - like the fact that the women commute up to 90 minutes each way to work every day or that some had married their clients. Some said that they'd like to do something else, but that they wouldn't be able to support their families as they do now. One woman noted that her daughter had just finished her bachelor's degree and another was working at a bank. Many noted that their children were unaware of their profession.
After the presentations, we asked if they had any questions for us and naturally, they wanted to know why most of us weren't married. We assured them that many of our mothers wanted to know why too!
Funding Social Entrepreneurs in India
On our last day in Mumbai, we met with two leading funding organizations that support social entrepreneurs and innovative enterprises in India. Following are some of the highlights of and reflections on what the organizations shared with the GWU team:
UnLtd, India functions as an incubator for NGOs. UnLtd, India Co-founder Pooja Warier described the critical gap in the market filled by her organization, which supports entrepreneurs who are in the one to four year stage of their project but oftentimes lack the necessary financial, business, and emotional support required to continue their enterprise. Ms. Warier made the interesting observation that apart from the national and international stars (at the level of Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank) and leaders (who manage enterprises at the state, local and community levels), UnLtd, India remains interested in those who may have been less successful in their entrepreneurial experience. The idea being that even people who have had one entrepreneurial experience are changed by that encounter and will go on through life and other interactions with an altered perspective. That is a very inspiring attitude in that it gives people the chance to experiment and try something different outside their expected or regular realm of living.
The other salient aspect of the UnLtd, India’s approach is the fact that the organization provides non-financial support to entrepreneurs in the form of networking, brokering of relationships, workshops and trainings on team building, legal issues, business plan development, and peer learning opportunities.These types of support are critical for the success of any enterprise, they help reinforce commitment to a project and inspire budding entrepreneurs to continue despite cultural and familial pressures.
Lastly, Pooja Warier noted the need for other funding organizations like UnLtd, India to be developed to reach as many social entrepreneurs as possible.
UnLtd, India’s definition of a social entrepreneur is one who has an idea to create social change by addressing the root cause of the problem and then carrying it through the implementation stage. Some of the criteria used to judge whether a project should be funded include the following elements: (1) having a personal connection to the cause or visionl (2) being resourceful in promoting the idea; (3) the potential for the idea to create an impact or the demand for the idea; (4) whether the person and the idea are a good match for each other (does the entrepreneur understand the ramifications of what they’re proposing and have they done their homework on background information; (5) what is the value added brought by the person to UnLtd, India and vice versa (can the entrepreneur contribute to the start-up community through mentoring or funding over time).
Some success stories funded by UnLtd, India include: (1) a non-profit that uses sports like soccer to disseminate health ideas around HIV-AIDS for children; (2) a for-profit corporate courier service that provides employment todeaf individuals; (3) a non-profit/for profit hybrid that provides bee boxes to farmers to increase productivity, yield and incomes.
Acumen Fund is focused on supporting innovative business models rather than on job creation per se. Furthermore, the Fund is unique in that it provides what is known as “patient capital” over a 6-13 year time period which is different from traditional venture capital providing models that provide funding for 3-5 years before expecting to see some returns on the investment. Acumen Fund plays an active role on the boards of organizations it funds, helps refine business plans, helps the organization understand segmentation of the market it aims to create, and helps create a market proposition that no other commercial venture is going to cover.
Currently the Acumen Fund focuses on several sectors with environmental impacts including the water, renewable energy, and agriculture sectors. Other areas of focus include healthcare, housing, and education. Currently, healthcare is the largest sector being funded by Acumen but renewable energy projects are expected to take the lead shortly.
Acumen Fund’s definition of a social entrepreneur and some of the so-called gating factors used to decide whether a project should be funded include the following elements: (1) does the proposed project mission include social impact at its core. Will 70-80% of the customers for the entrepreneurial venture come from a core target base the Acumen Fund wishes to focus on? (2) Does the proposed business model take financial sustainability (not necessarily profitability) into account? (3) Does the proposed business model incorporate scalability? Can the proof of concept on a unit level be scaled up for larger social impact? (4) What is the composition of the management team? What is their track record and commitment to execution?
The meeting with Acumen Fund yielded some interesting insights about the inherent challenges in funding social enterprises. With ten years of experience in the funding of social entrepreneurship around the world and especially in India, which represents the largest portfolio for the fund, the Acumen India team noted: (1) the difficulty in measuring impacts of the programs they fund. (2) Additionally, most social enterprises struggle with issues of customer adoption, convenience, affordability, quality and availability of services in designing their products and services. (3) How Indian Government laws and regulations, like the Right to Education Act (REA) limits private investment directly in the country’s education system. (4) Lastly, Acumen noted that the need for an idea does not necessarily equal the demand for that idea, which seems somewhat counterintuitive.
Examples of projects funded by Acumen Fund include: (1) an eye care hospital in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh; (2) Chikitsa Healthcare, a low-cost ambulance service across India which has now been incorporated into the Government 1298 (or 9-1-1 emergency response) system as a public-private partnership; (3) Lifespring Hospitals, a low-cost maternal healthcare chain of hospitals that provides services at 30-60% of the cost of private hospitals at about $4/day; (4) The Water Project Health Initiative to which the Gates Foundation has committed funds for developing metrics and evaluation tools.
All in all, learning about the different funding tools and challenges was an eye-opening experience that forced us to think about the practical issues surrounding social entrepreneurship! It also showed how an idea may be developed from the conception stage through to full-on implementation and the kinds of issues that must be taken into consideration to ensure a successful or productive outcome or impact.
UnLtd, India functions as an incubator for NGOs. UnLtd, India Co-founder Pooja Warier described the critical gap in the market filled by her organization, which supports entrepreneurs who are in the one to four year stage of their project but oftentimes lack the necessary financial, business, and emotional support required to continue their enterprise. Ms. Warier made the interesting observation that apart from the national and international stars (at the level of Mohammad Yunus of Grameen Bank) and leaders (who manage enterprises at the state, local and community levels), UnLtd, India remains interested in those who may have been less successful in their entrepreneurial experience. The idea being that even people who have had one entrepreneurial experience are changed by that encounter and will go on through life and other interactions with an altered perspective. That is a very inspiring attitude in that it gives people the chance to experiment and try something different outside their expected or regular realm of living.
The other salient aspect of the UnLtd, India’s approach is the fact that the organization provides non-financial support to entrepreneurs in the form of networking, brokering of relationships, workshops and trainings on team building, legal issues, business plan development, and peer learning opportunities.These types of support are critical for the success of any enterprise, they help reinforce commitment to a project and inspire budding entrepreneurs to continue despite cultural and familial pressures.
Lastly, Pooja Warier noted the need for other funding organizations like UnLtd, India to be developed to reach as many social entrepreneurs as possible.
UnLtd, India’s definition of a social entrepreneur is one who has an idea to create social change by addressing the root cause of the problem and then carrying it through the implementation stage. Some of the criteria used to judge whether a project should be funded include the following elements: (1) having a personal connection to the cause or visionl (2) being resourceful in promoting the idea; (3) the potential for the idea to create an impact or the demand for the idea; (4) whether the person and the idea are a good match for each other (does the entrepreneur understand the ramifications of what they’re proposing and have they done their homework on background information; (5) what is the value added brought by the person to UnLtd, India and vice versa (can the entrepreneur contribute to the start-up community through mentoring or funding over time).
Some success stories funded by UnLtd, India include: (1) a non-profit that uses sports like soccer to disseminate health ideas around HIV-AIDS for children; (2) a for-profit corporate courier service that provides employment todeaf individuals; (3) a non-profit/for profit hybrid that provides bee boxes to farmers to increase productivity, yield and incomes.
Acumen Fund is focused on supporting innovative business models rather than on job creation per se. Furthermore, the Fund is unique in that it provides what is known as “patient capital” over a 6-13 year time period which is different from traditional venture capital providing models that provide funding for 3-5 years before expecting to see some returns on the investment. Acumen Fund plays an active role on the boards of organizations it funds, helps refine business plans, helps the organization understand segmentation of the market it aims to create, and helps create a market proposition that no other commercial venture is going to cover.
Currently the Acumen Fund focuses on several sectors with environmental impacts including the water, renewable energy, and agriculture sectors. Other areas of focus include healthcare, housing, and education. Currently, healthcare is the largest sector being funded by Acumen but renewable energy projects are expected to take the lead shortly.
Acumen Fund’s definition of a social entrepreneur and some of the so-called gating factors used to decide whether a project should be funded include the following elements: (1) does the proposed project mission include social impact at its core. Will 70-80% of the customers for the entrepreneurial venture come from a core target base the Acumen Fund wishes to focus on? (2) Does the proposed business model take financial sustainability (not necessarily profitability) into account? (3) Does the proposed business model incorporate scalability? Can the proof of concept on a unit level be scaled up for larger social impact? (4) What is the composition of the management team? What is their track record and commitment to execution?
The meeting with Acumen Fund yielded some interesting insights about the inherent challenges in funding social enterprises. With ten years of experience in the funding of social entrepreneurship around the world and especially in India, which represents the largest portfolio for the fund, the Acumen India team noted: (1) the difficulty in measuring impacts of the programs they fund. (2) Additionally, most social enterprises struggle with issues of customer adoption, convenience, affordability, quality and availability of services in designing their products and services. (3) How Indian Government laws and regulations, like the Right to Education Act (REA) limits private investment directly in the country’s education system. (4) Lastly, Acumen noted that the need for an idea does not necessarily equal the demand for that idea, which seems somewhat counterintuitive.
Examples of projects funded by Acumen Fund include: (1) an eye care hospital in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh; (2) Chikitsa Healthcare, a low-cost ambulance service across India which has now been incorporated into the Government 1298 (or 9-1-1 emergency response) system as a public-private partnership; (3) Lifespring Hospitals, a low-cost maternal healthcare chain of hospitals that provides services at 30-60% of the cost of private hospitals at about $4/day; (4) The Water Project Health Initiative to which the Gates Foundation has committed funds for developing metrics and evaluation tools.
All in all, learning about the different funding tools and challenges was an eye-opening experience that forced us to think about the practical issues surrounding social entrepreneurship! It also showed how an idea may be developed from the conception stage through to full-on implementation and the kinds of issues that must be taken into consideration to ensure a successful or productive outcome or impact.
Dharavi
Late last week, our group visited Dharavi, which is one of the largest slums in Asia and called home by over 1.5 million people. This particular slum was made famous by the movie Slumdog Millionaire; however, what was depicted by the movie only shows a sliver of what this vibrant community exists as.
We were led through Dharavi by Vinod Shetty at Acorn India. Mr. Shetty eloquently and comprehensively explained all of the ins and outs of Dharavi, specifically with relation to the functioning industrial community that exists within the slum. It truly is a city within a city, and is currently under scrutiny and threat from the Indian government.
Dharavi lies almost directly in the middle of Mumbai – a very valuable and desirable location for development. Only a few weeks earlier, blocks and blocks of Dharavi were bulldozed announced by the government in a display that not only ruined homes and businesses, but also flexed the government’s muscles with regards to their influence on the pending development of Dharavi. Suffice to say that moving forward with this redevelopment would undoubtedly leave hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people displaced and put an end to a thriving industrial community that currently exists.
Under the guide of Mr. Shetty we were able to see firsthand how the residents of Dharavi have taken very little and turned it into quite a lot. These people recycle everything that can be re-used and then make their living from these products. Recycled car parts, dishwashers, glass pieces and just about any other large recyclable can be seen on the outskirts of the slum. Walking a few meters inside, we were exposed to veritable factories that are turning out recycled cardboard boxes, plastic drums, paper products and other necessary goods that are then sold to other businesses. It is in this way that the people of Dharavi have truly made something great, out of nothing.
In this same vein, Acorn India is doing the same for many of the children of Dharavi. Unlike the images seen in the movie Slumdog Millionaire, I did not witness children running wild in Dharavi. When we visited Acorn’s offices, half of which were destroyed in the government razing, we were introduced to Abdullah and Hussein. These two young brothers were part of the Dharavi Rocks! Program which aims to provide empowerment and self-worth through music and theatre education. The boys were gracious and welcoming, and responded excitedly when asked for an impromptu concert. This experience really gave meaning and proven value to the outreach program Acorn India is conducting. It made me think that some of the issues faced by these boys maybe aren’t so different than some faced by children in the United States. True, the geography and resources are vastly tilted in the direction of the United States; however, encouraging confidence through musical education is something that many children all over the world can relate to.
After our day together, Mr. Shetty asked us to follow up with him with regards to what we thought were the most important public health issues that Acorn India was either doing well in, or could use a bit more work towards. One of the most serious threats to human health I witnessed are the occupational hazards inflicted upon workers. On numerous occasions I saw men covered head to toe in dust and/or paint, workers were spending days in humid rooms with no ventilation sorting through mounds of dusty paper products. My picture of this can be seen in Charlotte Hager’s earlier blog. In Dharavi, sparks fly through the air with workers wearing no eye, ear or face protection; workplaces exist in the same breath as goats, insects, rodents and trash. Our Environmental and Occupation Health Professor would certainly be more than alarmed at the conditions that the men and women of Dharavi experience.
With countless NGO’s working in Dharavi, it is shocking to me that none of them appear to be addressing this issue – at least not on a level that we witnessed during our time there. The focus is, undoubtedly, more attuned to reproductive health, STD/STI screening, HIV/AIDS awareness and testing and perhaps nutritional concerns. From a public health student’s perspective, it almost seems that the EOH side of health is overlooked – not only in a slum in India, but perhaps also in America. Might it be that at home we don’t equate the workplace precautions we take for granted as protecting our health? Perhaps no parallel importance is put on knowing your HIV status, as well as making sure your lungs are safe from respiratory dangers in the workplace.
When I write to him, I will let Mr. Shetty know that the area in which I believe there can be the most improvement for the workers living in Dharavi is in with regards to their occupational safety. Perhaps this will pique an interest for Acorn India to potentially partner with a construction agency or health agency to bring in eye protection, ear plugs or personal air ventilators. If one industry could donate 1,000 hard hats to workers, it could make all the difference.
I hope that this blog, and the other sentiments and pictures shared here, will expand beyond our community of family, friends and colleagues so that the “real” Dharavi can be understood by those who might think that it, and all of India, is only as seen in the movies.
We were led through Dharavi by Vinod Shetty at Acorn India. Mr. Shetty eloquently and comprehensively explained all of the ins and outs of Dharavi, specifically with relation to the functioning industrial community that exists within the slum. It truly is a city within a city, and is currently under scrutiny and threat from the Indian government.
Dharavi lies almost directly in the middle of Mumbai – a very valuable and desirable location for development. Only a few weeks earlier, blocks and blocks of Dharavi were bulldozed announced by the government in a display that not only ruined homes and businesses, but also flexed the government’s muscles with regards to their influence on the pending development of Dharavi. Suffice to say that moving forward with this redevelopment would undoubtedly leave hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people displaced and put an end to a thriving industrial community that currently exists.
Under the guide of Mr. Shetty we were able to see firsthand how the residents of Dharavi have taken very little and turned it into quite a lot. These people recycle everything that can be re-used and then make their living from these products. Recycled car parts, dishwashers, glass pieces and just about any other large recyclable can be seen on the outskirts of the slum. Walking a few meters inside, we were exposed to veritable factories that are turning out recycled cardboard boxes, plastic drums, paper products and other necessary goods that are then sold to other businesses. It is in this way that the people of Dharavi have truly made something great, out of nothing.
In this same vein, Acorn India is doing the same for many of the children of Dharavi. Unlike the images seen in the movie Slumdog Millionaire, I did not witness children running wild in Dharavi. When we visited Acorn’s offices, half of which were destroyed in the government razing, we were introduced to Abdullah and Hussein. These two young brothers were part of the Dharavi Rocks! Program which aims to provide empowerment and self-worth through music and theatre education. The boys were gracious and welcoming, and responded excitedly when asked for an impromptu concert. This experience really gave meaning and proven value to the outreach program Acorn India is conducting. It made me think that some of the issues faced by these boys maybe aren’t so different than some faced by children in the United States. True, the geography and resources are vastly tilted in the direction of the United States; however, encouraging confidence through musical education is something that many children all over the world can relate to.
After our day together, Mr. Shetty asked us to follow up with him with regards to what we thought were the most important public health issues that Acorn India was either doing well in, or could use a bit more work towards. One of the most serious threats to human health I witnessed are the occupational hazards inflicted upon workers. On numerous occasions I saw men covered head to toe in dust and/or paint, workers were spending days in humid rooms with no ventilation sorting through mounds of dusty paper products. My picture of this can be seen in Charlotte Hager’s earlier blog. In Dharavi, sparks fly through the air with workers wearing no eye, ear or face protection; workplaces exist in the same breath as goats, insects, rodents and trash. Our Environmental and Occupation Health Professor would certainly be more than alarmed at the conditions that the men and women of Dharavi experience.
With countless NGO’s working in Dharavi, it is shocking to me that none of them appear to be addressing this issue – at least not on a level that we witnessed during our time there. The focus is, undoubtedly, more attuned to reproductive health, STD/STI screening, HIV/AIDS awareness and testing and perhaps nutritional concerns. From a public health student’s perspective, it almost seems that the EOH side of health is overlooked – not only in a slum in India, but perhaps also in America. Might it be that at home we don’t equate the workplace precautions we take for granted as protecting our health? Perhaps no parallel importance is put on knowing your HIV status, as well as making sure your lungs are safe from respiratory dangers in the workplace.
When I write to him, I will let Mr. Shetty know that the area in which I believe there can be the most improvement for the workers living in Dharavi is in with regards to their occupational safety. Perhaps this will pique an interest for Acorn India to potentially partner with a construction agency or health agency to bring in eye protection, ear plugs or personal air ventilators. If one industry could donate 1,000 hard hats to workers, it could make all the difference.
I hope that this blog, and the other sentiments and pictures shared here, will expand beyond our community of family, friends and colleagues so that the “real” Dharavi can be understood by those who might think that it, and all of India, is only as seen in the movies.
your trash lines their streets
08.04.11
Our journey this day sent us to Dharavi - the largest slum in Asia. Consisting of 1.5 million inhabitants, mostly male migrants forced to leave home in search of money to help them and their families survive. I'm still not sure my thoughts from this mind-boggling day.
I am going to try to sort through my thoughts in a different way than normal - beyond words. I feel like images are more powerful than any description I can provide. Given I am still not sure my thoughts on Dharavi, perhaps it is best to stay impartial.
Acorn Foundation India and their Dharavi Rocks project are phenomenal - without a doubt. But the reality of life in Dharavi presents many questions for me: what are human rights, government rights, land rights, occupational health hazards, public health nightmares, child labor restrictions, sex worker rights, drug usage realities, expected crime rates - and of course - environmental concerns of waste management? Not to mention the piercing question still ringing in my mind: has India become desensitized to poverty? Are the inhabitants of Dharavi endowed the right of land and a space to work in in order to survive, or are they merely squatters on government property intruding and refusing to cooperate? I don't know.
For right now, I will leave you with powerful photos shared by my colleagues Brooke Stein and Jenn Queen. In an attempt to show respect to the community (aka not treat them like a tourist attraction) some of us students left our cameras on the bus so there'd be minimal stop.click.flash moments. Thank you ladies for letting me reflect upon my impressions of Dharavi from behind your lenses.
Investing in India
After a heavy week of meeting with NGOs and the communities in which they work, today was a welcome change of pace. Ascending to the third floor of a not-particularly inviting building on a busy street, we arrived at Unlimited India's quiet, serenely lit office in nearby Bandra, but not before a short hold-up on the stairs because, due to office policy, everyone must remove their shoes before entering. The UnLtd India staff works barefoot, pouring over CNN.com or what must have been project proposals on their individual laptops, drinking tea and chatting to one another. We were offered coffee and tea and led up the red, cast iron spiral staircase to an open loft space, in which half of us sat on pillows on the floor.
Pooja Warier, co-founder and director of UnLtd, provided a short intro to the organization – UnLtd India is an NGO incubator and, by focusing on start-ups, UnLtd assists new NGOs financially as well as developmentally. After a rigorous application process, selected organizations are provided short-term (0-4 years) seed funding, opportunities for idea development, networking, project implementation, scaling of their project (moving it beyond a single community, if they do so choose), general advisory support and assistance through governmental bureaucratic processes (similar to gaining 501c3 status in the US). Fact: 3.1 million NGOs currently exist in India, however most newly established NGOs fail within their first year. UnLtd seeks to support people with a really good idea, and help to ensure they do not fall victim to the same fate.
This support comes in a variety of ways, whether it be in one-on-one meetings between a grantee and an UnLtd associate, who provide grantees a “magic mirror” to help them see possible futures depending on the steps they take in the development process, or simply spending time at the HUB, the space in which we had our meeting, which is meant to be an open, readily available space for grantees or, as Pooja said, “anyone with an idea,” to meet, or at more formally structured workshops, networking events or presentations.
Pooja and her team, Karen and Rosham, took us through the processes of how individuals go about applying to UnLtd funding and support, and the timeline thereafter. They gave wonderful examples of projects they fund, from an after school soccer program to decrease drop-out rates, to training of farmers in bee keeping and provision of bee boxes, to increase their farm's income, UnLtd truly has no limits on the kind of ideas they support and encourage.
We stayed put of the next two hours, and met with Acumen Fund, which supports enterprise through beginning stages, particularly those working on socially beneficial projects across India. Their philosophy and model is not unlike UnLtd India; investing in local NGOs and projects, promoting the consistent creation jobs and high-quality opportunities for social betterment. The projects they support are absolutely incredible, ranging in target populations and focus, from the low-cost women's health hospitals to clean water accessibility to local ambulance services. Like UnLtd, a major focus for the initiatives they support is scalability – expanding beyond a single community to the general population which could be positively impacted by such a project.
It was so interesting (and exceedingly anticlimactic) to hear that Acumen, an international NGO, with millions of dollars and a host of rockstar projects in the works, has very little in the way of impact evaluations to measure the efficacy of their investments. They admitted it as a major challenge, which is pretty disconcerting, as impact evaluation is such a major part of public health and development programming. This reminded me of a conversation we had as a group in Mumbai – Dr. Parrish brought up a conversation during which social entrepreneurship was questioned as the future of NGOs, or if it was just a passing fad. Of course, sustainability of projects and initiatives is key to their survival, and it makes sense that those which can self-sustain have the best chance of not only surviving, but making the most impact. However, if it can't be proved whether or not they are making an impact, how can a potential investor tell whether or not an investment in a certain project will be worth it? Am I, as a public health student, missing something when I ask whether or not it is difficult to gather at least benchmark data – such as the number of participants in a program or the number of materials distributed at the same point each year – to evaluate a project? Are they still doing good work, even if they don't have numbers to back up their work? All of these questions are essential to deciding whether social entrepreneurship is the way of the future, or will soon be a thing of the past.... and I am very interested in the impact all of the organizations and projects we have seen will make within their communities in the future.
Pooja Warier, co-founder and director of UnLtd, provided a short intro to the organization – UnLtd India is an NGO incubator and, by focusing on start-ups, UnLtd assists new NGOs financially as well as developmentally. After a rigorous application process, selected organizations are provided short-term (0-4 years) seed funding, opportunities for idea development, networking, project implementation, scaling of their project (moving it beyond a single community, if they do so choose), general advisory support and assistance through governmental bureaucratic processes (similar to gaining 501c3 status in the US). Fact: 3.1 million NGOs currently exist in India, however most newly established NGOs fail within their first year. UnLtd seeks to support people with a really good idea, and help to ensure they do not fall victim to the same fate.
This support comes in a variety of ways, whether it be in one-on-one meetings between a grantee and an UnLtd associate, who provide grantees a “magic mirror” to help them see possible futures depending on the steps they take in the development process, or simply spending time at the HUB, the space in which we had our meeting, which is meant to be an open, readily available space for grantees or, as Pooja said, “anyone with an idea,” to meet, or at more formally structured workshops, networking events or presentations.
Pooja and her team, Karen and Rosham, took us through the processes of how individuals go about applying to UnLtd funding and support, and the timeline thereafter. They gave wonderful examples of projects they fund, from an after school soccer program to decrease drop-out rates, to training of farmers in bee keeping and provision of bee boxes, to increase their farm's income, UnLtd truly has no limits on the kind of ideas they support and encourage.
We stayed put of the next two hours, and met with Acumen Fund, which supports enterprise through beginning stages, particularly those working on socially beneficial projects across India. Their philosophy and model is not unlike UnLtd India; investing in local NGOs and projects, promoting the consistent creation jobs and high-quality opportunities for social betterment. The projects they support are absolutely incredible, ranging in target populations and focus, from the low-cost women's health hospitals to clean water accessibility to local ambulance services. Like UnLtd, a major focus for the initiatives they support is scalability – expanding beyond a single community to the general population which could be positively impacted by such a project.
It was so interesting (and exceedingly anticlimactic) to hear that Acumen, an international NGO, with millions of dollars and a host of rockstar projects in the works, has very little in the way of impact evaluations to measure the efficacy of their investments. They admitted it as a major challenge, which is pretty disconcerting, as impact evaluation is such a major part of public health and development programming. This reminded me of a conversation we had as a group in Mumbai – Dr. Parrish brought up a conversation during which social entrepreneurship was questioned as the future of NGOs, or if it was just a passing fad. Of course, sustainability of projects and initiatives is key to their survival, and it makes sense that those which can self-sustain have the best chance of not only surviving, but making the most impact. However, if it can't be proved whether or not they are making an impact, how can a potential investor tell whether or not an investment in a certain project will be worth it? Am I, as a public health student, missing something when I ask whether or not it is difficult to gather at least benchmark data – such as the number of participants in a program or the number of materials distributed at the same point each year – to evaluate a project? Are they still doing good work, even if they don't have numbers to back up their work? All of these questions are essential to deciding whether social entrepreneurship is the way of the future, or will soon be a thing of the past.... and I am very interested in the impact all of the organizations and projects we have seen will make within their communities in the future.
Abdul and Hussein.
Day 3 – Dharavi –
Today we were welcomed by Abdul and Hussain, two boys who live in Dharavi who happily shook our hands and welcomed our large group to their home. They are beneficiaries of The Dharavi Project. They played on recycled drums and sang to us in the Acorn office inside of Dharavi. It was so beautiful and so full of emotion.
Dharavi is the slum district that was highlighted in the award-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire. Except the real Dharavi wasn’t what we saw in the movies. Dharavi, a slum that spreads over Bandra, Sion, Kurla, and Kalina, is home to approximately 1.5 million people.
En route to Dharavi, we stopped in Bandra and picked up Vinod Shetty, Director of Acorn Foundation, a charitable organization that is the umbrella for the Dharavi Project. The Dharavi Project "is a multimedia project that utilizes artists and social-impact programs to change the living conditions" of the 'rag-pickers' who pick up waste in and around the landfills of Mumbai. Abdul and Hussein have had the opportunity to work with bands who are affiliated with the Dharavi Project.
Dharavi, one of the largest slums in Asia, was mind-blowing. The slum that houses these so called “rag-pickers” help Mumbai’s economy thrive. These 'rag-pickers' hunt all throughout Mumbai picking up any tiny little piece they can find to bring back to Dharavi that can potentially be recycled. These pieces are then organized or separated into larger categories and then re-cycled and sent back to into town.
In one instance, we saw a family put together cardboard boxes and in another put together car fenders to send to the car shops. The area was PACKED with recycled car seats, games, cardboard, drums, cans, bottles, material, globes, car fenders, and everything and anything else you can imagine that can be recycled. Places that were 300 sq feet, big enough to house five people and house your factory of either dying material, or making cardboard boxes, or fixing car fenders. You live, eat, sleep, and work all within 300 square feet (or less).
And occupational safety -- Who needs that when you just use your bare hands and feet? Men working with car pieces were not wearing gloves. Women using dye for clothes were not wearing masks. Children were running bare foot in the mud.
In the midst of all this recycling and mill work was everyday life - Barber shops, vegetable and fruit stands, temples, mosques, and people "guppshupping" (small talk). Yet, I cried. I was so full emotion that day to see so many people and so many children work so hard for a nearly $2 a day.
For the last two days I haven't stopped thinking about Abdul and Hussein and how their childhood is stripped by assiduously working all day in unhygienic and unsafe conditions. What seems mundane and normal in my life when I was 9 years old is something they will probably never know or see. It seems so incredibly unfair to me. It makes me somewhat at peace to know that NGOs and projects such as the Dharavi Project exist - that empower these individuals to better life through art, music, theatre and language. But then I take a step back and think, will life always be like this for them and for their children? We definitely do know that the Slumdog Millionaire will probably not be the reality for the remaining 1.5 million individuals.
Nitasha
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