How to look up, build and sustain a NGO?

most of the ngo databases provide contact information for various ngos.

http://www.ngosindia.com/
a database of ngos. u can do a statewise search for ngos

http://www.propoor.org/search.php
another database to search for ngos in india. they have 13719 in their database. u can do a search based on keyword and states.

http://www.indianngos.com/
u can search ngos based on issues and state districts

http://www.indiserve.org/NgoBrowse.php
u can search database based on ngo name, area of work, state and district

http://pcserver.nic.in/ngo/
breaks down ngo based on issues, states, districts at the same time providing a table of the breakdown of number of ngos based on issues, state and district with providing the ngos they consider valid. excellent resource.

http://www.cafindia.org/
an excellent resource that has increased flow or resources from high net worth individuals and corporation to ngos.

http://www.idealist.org/
a ngo dreamer's dream come true. they teach u how to start and sustain an ngo.

NGOcamp ! Anyone ?

It was during the last Skype meeting that we accidentally stumbled upon the idea of a networking event for NGOs in India. A quick google search for such events doesn't help much which essentially means that there is space for such an event, or not at all !

The idea is to organise a networking cum experience sharing event for NGOs in India. Scale and details have to be decided if we decide to go for it. A possible option is an Unconference styled event on the lines of blogCamp,barcamp etc.

My personal experience makes me believe that networking helps in many ways than one, peer learning being one of the most important takeaways. An interesting site that I came across is cnri.in . It's kind of an association for all NGOs working in rural India. I couldn't find a similiar one for Urban NGOs though.

Junta > Do come up with what you think on this !

Powerful learning !

I really don't know why I titled the post that way :) , but yes it has got something to do with effective learning , more specifically - ' Effective Teaching '.

Most of us remember some specific teachers more from our school days than the usual ones who used to help us cram up our lessons. The way they used to teach, the methodologies they employed, their conduct in class everything together made sure that the learnings they imparted always had a special place in our brains. Some of course , still rose to higher standards by just making us sit in awe and listen , imparting an inspiration to learn and perform !

I have always been a fan of good delivery methods in teaching (for that matter who isn't ?) I do make it a point to keep a tab on methods used by different teachers & professionals whom I bump into once in a while. I later try to use and test them in my own sessions to see the effectiveness. More recently, I have shifted to the Internet to observe and learn such techniques and have come to believe that the net is going to revolutionize learning in a way none of us could have imagined a couple of years back.

The idea is pretty simple . The net breaks couple of very important barriers (Often repeated, but yes, worth a read ) :
1. Geography.
This doesnt need explanation, the best of the best teachers can come to the student , transcending geographical boundaries.

2. University entry barriers .
While a teacher can be accomplished cos of his individual brilliance, an entire university working towards a common goal can be still more amazing. Some of the best demo videos, curriculum, course materials are increasingly becoming online for free. While you need to clear an exam and a rigorous exam process to get there and see it live, you could settle for a video without any of that effort. I agree that the kick of the live interaction is different, but then thousands of students can anyway never sit in a MIT classroom together, what they can however is logon to a video lecture together. And technologies are at it in increasing the interactive experience.

3. Amazing ideas .
When you see some of the people across the globe using innovative ways of learning and teaching , you tend to know how some simple things can help create powerful impact .A cool example that I learnt from Prof Randy Pausch of CMU is the idea of a 'head fake' - If the learner never knows the real learning that she is being imparted ( which is often boring) and is actually made to go through an experience that is pure fun for her, then the rate of learning & assimilation of ideas is far more superior. Prof Pausch used it in learning, but I can see that some other institutions too are using the same funda in enriching human lives as in the video below.




An interesting work of Prof Randy is in the Alice project where children are taught programming through a fun filled method.

And to conclude, the net's prowess might not end up with just teaching kids and children , it might as well help as in community initiatives like the Digital Green program of Microsoft Research

Being Child-Friendly

The vision for this initiative has become clear: pursue ideas that will help to raise the standard of living of the future of India, namely, the children of India. The most effective strategy to do so, as of today, from our discussions seems to point in the direction of working at the level of school education. Also, we all seem to agree that there are many factors inherent in the idea of uplifting the standard of living that can be added upon as our initiative finds a concrete direction, but, first we must find that concrete direction, aka, a single focus. Hopefully, we are not too far off from achieving that goal. Intermittently, there is another point that might be worth addressing and that is being child-friendly. It encapsulates understanding the effects of parents, community, environment, health and education on a child in order to be effective. As we narrow down, what we specifically pursue, we can orient this concept of being child-friendly towards that goal. But, for now, for the sake of understanding lets say we were trying to establish child-friendly schools, what would that mean. Well, good thing you asked. Here is a framework of UNICEF defining what it means to them to have child-friendly schools:

http://www.unicef.org/lifeskills/index_7260.html

And, if you actually read the UNICEF's framework, you will see it establishes points that can be generally used for other student related goals. I think this is a valid point to keep a perspective of. Wat say YOU?

The power of One !

Many times we have contrary views.
Sometimes we say one person can change the world.
Sometimes we feel that nothing less than a movement can bring about the change.

The truth may lie somewhere in between.
A movement to bring about change, but started by an individual.
Why am I saying this and why in this blog?

I read a brief account of Hekani Jakhalu, a youth activist. You can read the article at this link.

What amazes me is that she started from many yards behind the start line. Already standing on the wrong side of fixed notions, she strove to bring about a positive change in the lives of her fellow people. The fact that all through she was guided by the emotions for her home state but took a pragmatic (cerebral would be closer to my intended meaning) and thoroughly-researched path deserves commendation.

Wanted to post in this blog just to re-affirm our faith in the Power of One.
May be next time I can write about the power of five fingers together.

Some Hope...!

Badhri, Aish and I have been discussing aggressively on our next steps.. its weird but we have done that over the cups of coffee, .breakfast ;-) and also amidst heavy traffic while walking and talking..! We were just dabbling our hands into this and that when we finally concluded that Reddy Foundation discussion has to be taken forward, a visit to Anand Bharathi for a whole day event and extract some important information from an NGO Naandi.Org in terms of their functions so that we may get some direction for our next motive!

I initiated to fish out the contact numbers of Reddy Foundation, and somehow I felt like talking to them directly…and that’s how I got to speak with Mr. Devi Prasad, Chief of Corporate Communications of Reddy Foundation Group. Well, it turned out to be quite productive and informative too…The summary listed below for your reference:

Reddy Foundations, Hyderabad

Contact Nos: 040-65343424, 040-23304199, 040-23301868

• Reddy Foundation is focusing chiefly on Livelihood and education programmes for an age-group of 3-25 year olds..
• They have so far 13 primary schools upto 3^rd standard addressing quality education. They provide, meals, uniform and study materials to the children. Also support some govt. schools
• Their Education Resource Center lays down the course materials.
• They also cater to vocational courses between 18-35 age group. Theyhave 30 such courses, for 3 months duration. Target Audience being, school dropouts/ below poverty lines/youth). They have a placement cell too which grooms them and prepares them for job.
• They conduct road shows to create awareness as one of their mediums and then conduct an Interest Elementary Test to identify their skills and counsel them or guide them for an appropriate course.
• 3 Chief divisions for vocational courses are, ITS (IT Enabled Service), Customer Relations, and White Good Services.
• They intend to build “Neighborhood Schools” in the coming year, which would upgrade the education from 3^rd standard to 12^th Standard.
• They have also tied up with Agha Khan Foundation which aids training to teachers; provide innovative ideas to teachers to motivate children to attend regular schools.
• They have been successful in providing livelihoods to 1,35000 people across the nation.
• They also generate lot of rural development programmes.

Well Devi Prasad proposed us to meet up and discuss the possibility to partner with them and can work out a way to mutually benefit in the long run. He also discussed a possibility if we can drive one of their Livelihood Advanced Business School programmes in any area in Hyderabad. All this would be discussed at his end with the Director of Education of Reddy Foundation Group... Hence that introductory email was sent out. Lets see how positively he responds else, would follow up with him on Monday morning if he received the mail etc etc.

Key Issues - Women's Development, Children, Poverty

1. Water
2. Education
3. Health
4. Agriculture
5. Environment
6. Natural Resources
7. Micro Finance
8. Population
9. Disability
10. Housing
11. Emergency Relief
12. Human Rights
13. Displacement
14. Forest Land Rights and Tribals
15. Child Rights
16. Women Empowerment
17. Right To information
18. Right to food
19. Panchayati Raj
20. Peace
21. Animal Welfare
22. Labour Rights

Issues

1. Employment Generation: capacity Building, implementation, Monitoring, and asset building.
2. Sustainable Livelihoods – Institutional models and approaches to promote sustainable livelihoods for the poor and marginalized.
3. Entrepreneurship development – support through marketing and financial linkages, business and development services.
4. Skill development – Through vocational education and technical writing for unorganized sector and women.
5. Condition of work – improved work condition for unorganized workers and workplace policies for HIV
6. Social protection: provision of social security to unorganized sector workers.
7. Organizing workers in the unorganized sector.

Am sure…after looking at the above scattered points you all may wonder what’s this…but trust me that’s what I have been thinking as a first step to build a strategy towards our AIM…we essentially need to list out the issues that need attention or areas where we can invest our time and services which would eventually bring a change in the standard of living of society. After exploring a bit ...ideally there were lots of issues (listed above)… but according to me there were three primary subjects that intertwined and laid to various problems. POVERTY, WOMEN AND CHILDREN. If you look at it in a broader way, lack of women’s development lead to various problems like lack of awareness, lack of self development, poverty and eventually it impacts the society on the whole. For instance in a family which is below poverty line if the women of the household is educated (to an extent or instilled confidence), groomed she can contribute majorly towards the financial development of the household and can cater to the basic necessities of the family! This would further add on to better raised children who can further go to schools and get the primary education or develop a positive outlook towards an educated sect of the community. So the point is we can create awareness amongst the women or prefer to groom the children who serve to be the future of our nation.

Targeting the meet - 4

What: Targeting the meet - 4
When: Sunday, Feb 10, 9PM - 10 PM (IST)
Where: Skype
Agenda
1. Past meet round-up: Are we drifting? - by Badhri
2. Round-table: Past week(s) updates
3. Discussion: Answerability
5. Next week goals - team and individual
5. Wrap

Minutes of the Meeting - 8th Feb 2008

Participants: Aishwarya, Badhri, Shabnam

Date: 8th Feb 2008

Duration: 30 minutes

Topics discussed:

1. Direction of our activity related to RTI: The fact that children should form a focus of our efforts was reiterated by Badhri. So the understanding is we should search for a subject/area which is related, if not entirely focussed, on children.

2. One of Badhri's wandering thoughts: India has so many NGOs for so many years. Do they have a common platform or an umbrella organization under which they come together, share ideas, ensure that they cover all agendas and do not unnecessarily overlap in some other areas.

3. The idea of a guiding hand to help us channelize our efforts was brought up. A person with experience -pertinent experience - can surely help us channelize our efforts. He will also help us get a sense of direction. We should try and search for such a person.

4. Shabnam said she will prepare a chart of issues that are prevalent in the society and need to be tackled. I am really happy that the list has been published before this MoM :)

Need for answerability !

Badhri has been asking me to write this one for quite some time and finally I am down to writing this post. The very fact that it required constant reminding from him reflects the need for this post.

So here is the thing. We all are a part of this endeavour - "Targeting the Roots". We are also holding meetings regularly, but for one aberration last week. Apologies for that. I compare our thought process towards this venture with the thought process we undergo when we are at our work. Without going into the philosophies of our work dynamics, one thing that I believe is that we are more serious towards our "job" because there is this "clause of answer-ability". If I do not finish my work on time or if the quality of my work does not match expectations, I am answerable to my boss.
He is going to question me. He will embarrass the hell out of me. For many people, genuine motivation works too i.e. they love the job and therefore will go all out to achieve their goals.

The reason I brought this point out was we need to have one or both of the above motivations for our venture to progress i.e 1. All of us are answerable to one another 2. Something inside us should motivate us to think and do - make progress.

I should be discussing about TTR, the same way as I discuss work at home.
I should be browsing for more info the way I do for my career related stuff.
The thought of not progressing should trouble me the same way "Bench" troubles IT professionals.
I should be visiting our TTR blog as frequently as I do my own blog.
I should be writing on our TTR blog as frequently as I do for my blog. (For this again, there has to be a constant churning in our mind about TTR. Where else can we get our questions ideas doubts fire from?)

I am not sure how much of this can be enforced (answer-ability) and how much can be cultivated (motivation). But I have a strong feeling we need both of these in adequate measures to make a success out of this venture.

****Updated by Badhri****

I am totally on board with Aishwarya's point. So, why don't we implement it? Whatever project we take up, will also identify a "boss" to who we are answerable. What say?

For example, Aishwarya and I have taken it up for RTI and Adolescent Bridge Programs. We will have to identify

• our "Boss", a member of the team who is really not working on the project that we are working.
• our deadline, and our stated goal.
• our boss will keep bothering us with uncomfortable questions about our progess all the way till our deadline date.

How does that sound?