India is home to thousands of organizations working for the rights of women.  However, Shaheen Women's Resource and Welfare Center exists in a unique space, at the intersection of the empowerment of women and religious coexistence.  Shaheen empowers Muslim and Hindu women to fight domestic abuse, trafficking, and exploitation - and in doing so, bridges an inter-cultural gap blown open during the '92 riots which has not yet healed.
With a multi-faceted career in both China and the US, Alice Chou has experience bridging cultural gaps as well.  One of her many initiatives, the L2 Foundation, seeks to develop the leadership and legacy of Asian Americans by providing support and resources.  She and her family also established Junior Achievement China, teaching a culture of leadership, entrepreneurship, and creativity to over a million students since 2001. 

In the wake of Babri Masjid

Our driver took us into the busy Old City area in Hyderabad where the beautiful monument Charminar has been standing for some 400 years to tell of the history and the glory of this city.  Passing by the Charminar, it felt like crossing a sea of a million people--pedestrians weaving through traffic; shoppers haggling over their buys; hawkers, food vendors and shop-keepers going about their businesses amidst hundreds of cars, auto rickshaws and motorcycles in nonstop traffic, noise and dust filled air. This extremely congested area has a high concentration of Muslims and a mix of Hindus. It has been prone to tension and communal riots over the last several decades, the worst of which occurred in 1992 after the Babri Masjid (Mosque) was torn down during a political rally in Ayodhya.  Over two thousand people were killed across the country in the riots that followed, including in Hyderabad’s Old City.

Jameela, a Muslim woman and a poet, was deeply affected by the events of 1992, which destroyed any previous relationships between the Muslims and Hindus. She noticed that women from the two populations did not even make eye contact anymore.  And within her own community, Jameela was disturbed by incidents where Muslim women were publically denounced when they tried to claim their rights in the face of injustice.

There was a resoluteness in Jameela’s soft spoken voice as she shared her realization that being a poet was not enough. She wanted to devote her life to giving a space and voice to marginalized women through poetry and social action.

Shaheen– empowering all women

In 2002, Jameela, with a few of her Muslim women friends, started Shaheen (named after a high flying bird), a women’s center. They believed that Muslim and Hindu women could work together towards the goal of individual empowerment. Shaheen works primarily with women from both religions who have suffered domestic violence, forced marriages or sexual trafficking to help them gain dignity and become self-reliant.

We stopped in front of a house with a big sign written in front: Shaheen Women Resource and Welfare Association. As we walked into the charming small courtyard, we were greeted warmly by smiling faces of women who took us up a flight of stairs onto a spacious flat roof. We all sat on pillows on the floor under a large canopy enjoying the gentle breeze. Women of all ages began to gather and sat down around us. Surrounded by the beautiful faces of these women, in the quietness of the afternoon shade, the place felt like a sanctuary. 

Fighting for victims of exploitation

Indeed, Shaheen is a sanctuary for about 150 victimized and exploited women. These women are encouraged to come together and talk about their lives, which are often overshadowed by violence and oppression. The center also provides shelter, training and jobs to the women and raises awareness within the community on women’s issues. Field workers, most of whom are recovered victims of some kind of abuse, have made a thousand house visits where they uncovered incidents of domestic abuse in a third of these households.  They also discovered that girls as young as twelve from families in extreme poverty were sold into sex trade for as little as 1000-3000 rupees (equivalent to US$ 20-60). Other women were often lured into prostitution under the guise of offers for jobs at beauty parlors. They were then trafficked all over India and the Middle East. Trafficking and human slavery is a global industry estimated to gross an excess of US$ 32 billion annually. Shaheen has found that clients are men ranging from 45 to 90 years old who are exploiting women through prostitution under the religious hypocrisy of a one-night “marriage.”

In the past 8 years, Shaheen has been able to gain media and grassroot support, including the silent support of many men within the community. Shaheen workers continue to stand against a corrupt justice system and to work to remove the stigma and fear injected into trafficked women. They are searching for senior officials to serve as their advocates and hope to expand their service to the villages. As I sat and listened to the aspirations of these brave women in Shaheen’s care, I was deeply touched and inspired by their courage and resiliency.  I admired the determination, fearlessness and compassion of Jameela, her friends and the field workers of Shaheen who have given their lives to empowering marginalized women.

Questions/Thoughts from my visit to India's social enterprises:

•    Is there merit for a conventional for-profit model in effecting change or are we proposing that all enterprises should inherently possess a socially beneficial component because it’s a more superior model for change?

•    Social enterprises although addressing a social problem or empowering a marginalized sector, can sometimes come across as more of a transactional business relationship rather than a caring, giving one compared to the non-profit model? Could this diminish or downplay the ideal/value of philanthropy and compassion?

•    Most of the social enterprises we visited either work predominantly with women or had women in leadership. Is this an accurate representation of the social market sector? What is the message this sector is sending? Are men being left behind? How are they contributing to the problems women are facing? Is addressing the issues concerning men encouraged or discouraged?

•    Change takes time. It comes in minuscule steps and systemic change sometimes may not occur until generations later.  And, some social issues are not “attractive” such as helping mentally ill people whom society discarded as burden or unproductive, or working for woman’s right against a certain religious sect/ teaching. How can these factors be added or taken into consideration when organizations think about how to allocate funding?

  
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Vijay_Mahajan_EQ.mp3 (19419 KB)

Vijay Mahajan is one of India's most accomplished and respected leading social entrepreneurs.  In 1983, he founded PRADAN, one of the first organizations in India to mobilize self-help groups within rural populations.  Since then, he has dedicated his career to fostering livelihood creation for people living in rural poverty.  He's now chairman of BASIX, a group of seven companies that provide unserved rural communities with access not only to microcredit, but also a comprehensive set of services ranging from insurance and agricultural business development to technical training.
The Journeys for Change group had the opportunity to talk to Vijay in Hyderabad, getting his insight on everything from the unromantic realities of social enterprise to his belief that everything we do must be driven by passion in order to be effective. 
This is a segment of that conversation.

As an organization, Jeevika is a platform through which women living in rural poverty can utilize their collective power to strengthen their rights.  Since its inception, Jeevika's constituency has molded and shaped this platform to include access to microcredit, livelihood creation, and arts-based empowerment.  Lori Bonn, founder of Bonnventures , gives insight into Jeevika's evolution, ultimately concluding that not all initiatives need to scale to be effective.

Meeting Jeevika

Imagine the never ending sounds of honking, beeping and bell ringing of chaotic traffic, buses, taxis, rickshaws, bicycles hurling themselves around every corner and through the masses of people and dogs and sacred cows navigating their way across and down alley ways, this is Kolkata.  The air is thick with smog and the smell of a pulsating city, a duality of the old and new India.  The best time to walk the city is early morning to see fathers walking their children to school, women in saris with beautiful hues of pinks, greens, oranges and yellows, men getting shaves at open air barbershop corners, food stalls of vegetables, lassi “the favorite yogurt drink of India”, stands of peeled and cubed papayas, shop keepers setting up their wares while the poorest of the poor bathe in the city water cisterns.

On our second day, we climbed aboard our mini bus and headed about an hour south of Kolkata proper, arriving at the offices of Jeevika Development Society, a community based NGO committed to working towards increasing the rights of women in West Bengal, India.  Jeevika means “livelihood” in Sanskrit.  We were introduced to the Founder, Raja Menon and Donlon Ganguly, Associate Director of the organization and the staff of all women who proudly described their roles in the organization.   For over a decade, Jeevika has been working with communities of marginalized women throughout 37 villages and empowering the lives of over 5000 women living in the mostly rural agricultural population.

We sipped our tea and crackers, and listened to an impassioned Raja give his view about the shortcomings of microfinance alone and its lack of ability to lift women out of poverty.  He used the metaphor of a woman treading water and just keeping her head just above the water line, still alive, kicking but going nowhere.  Jeevika was founded as a grassroots women’s rights NGO, approaching microfinance through a gender and empowerment lens with the goal to establish a sustainable and women-run banking system that achieves both social and economic empowerment.  The Jeevika microfinance model is unique in that credit systems are used specifically as a platform to discuss all issues affecting the lives of the women in the rural villages.  Everything from domestic violence and rape to labor market discrimination and participation in the local rural self-governing circles called panchayats.  In 2008, with Jeevika’s help, Swayamsampurna, a federation of over 400 women’s self-help groups (WSHGs) was formed as a financial institution run by rural women to provide micro-loans for launching small businesses. 

Not a microfinance institution

It is clear that Jeevika is taking a stand to focus first on the rights of women and choosing the microfinance schemes as a secondary mission.  Jeevika is not a microfinance institution which makes it difficult for them to get funding for their projects, and yet they are pushing forward with their mission as an NGO promoting livelihood opportunities by collaborating with other organizations to provide trainings for their Income Generation Programs (IGPS) which have focused on embroidery, tailoring, and soft toys catering to fair trade organizations.  Also, they have embarked on computer and entrepreneurial skills training in the hopes of creating new computer-based businesses for the women in the villages.  Jeevika’s most recent initiative has been around an agricultural IGP called System of Rice Intensification (SRI) agriculture that utilizes environmental green practices and enables economic self-sufficiency and food security for the rural community.    

I have always been concerned with the teetering balance of microfinance institutions to lend money while relying on other NGOs to provide the financial literacy and business training to women entrepreneurs.  Jeevika has a framework with extensive possibilities requiring more strategic guidance on how to navigate the marriage of microfinance with empowerment trainings in gender equality rights and access to entrepreneurial skills, training, and credit at the same time.  They are trying to innovate the platform with an emphasis on the social rate of return outcome not the market rate of return of microfinance.

Visiting the front lines of microfinance

We were given the opportunity to visit one of the rural villages and participate in a local village micro-credit self-help group meeting with Swayamsampurna Board Members.  Our transportation was an adventuresome ride in an open air motorized rickshaw, giving us an up close view of the harrowing traffic on the main road, but an intimate view of life in the village as we rode down the cobbled narrow roads.  The vignettes of life revealed a community of religious diversity, living on a river of verdant green because the agricultural land does not have proper irrigation the result is still water in many places along the banks of the village.  We saw school children in uniforms and kids of school age playing in the streets or washing clothes or bathing in the river and ponds.  It was a relief to be out of the big city and to enjoy the rhythm of the village. 

Arriving at one of the houses, we were greeted by the Chairman of the Board of Directors.  Removing our shoes, we sat outside on the porch, joining the association of this local self-help group of approximately 15 women.  Graciously, they allowed us to watch as they discussed issues in the village while paying back their loans to the designated treasurer.  She kept a handwritten log and collected each individual’s stack of bills.  In the midst of this, we listened and learned while the women shared their stories of what they hope to achieve with their loans and the power of their unity as a group.  We asked questions regarding their husband’s feelings about their loans and businesses, bill paying in the family and how money was spent and whether they felt their lives were better since joining the self help organization.  Our questions helped to break the ice, particularly when we said we had the same issues with our husbands in talking about money and work.  Unanimously, they all agreed the most important reason for joining was to be with the other women and share their stories and lives with one another.  The ladies of the club felt their decision making power had increased within their family, community and most importantly over their own lives through the empowerment methods provided by Jeevika.  The same gender issues the women face in the rural village are the same for women globally, the fight for gender equity and a voice. 

Whether Jeevika has the means to scale the program based on their strategic mission is of some concern but the outcome we shared gives credence to the notion that not everything needs to scale to be effective.  The best part of this day’s journey was to experience and share in the global exchange of conversation and ideas in this rural village and the women who so graciously allowed us to join their circle.

Intellecap is a social-sector advisory firm serving corporates, non-profits, development agencies, and governments working in developing markets.  The company facilitates investments, provides consulting services, and builds knowledge and information focused on scalable and sustainable development initiatives, both in India and globally.

Journey participant Natalie Chou has spent much of her career exploring the intersection of the private, public, and social sectors. A young professional who has worked within finance in New York and is now starting her own enterprise in Beijing, Natalie has also been very involved in establishing the non-profit Junior Achievement China.  As she describes in this post, Intellecap's work and impact provides key insight into the realm of social enterprise.

At the intersection of sustainability, profitability and social responsibility

After all of the Calcutta site visits, Hyderabad was a chance to pull back to 30,000 ft (or 91,400 m).  I started thinking about the bigger questions I arrived with around social enterprises in particular, so I was looking forward to the visit with Intellecap, a social sector advisory firm.  Given my interest in strategy and business development on top of that, I was very curious about the Intellecap story and model.

Intellecap occupies what seems to me an uneasy but potentially incredible space between what is traditionally considered private sector and public, or social, sector: a hybrid business.  The company’s primary mission is to help social enterprises mainstream while being sustainable itself.  Like the Acumen Fund, Intellecap works with enterprises reaching the poor and underserved in areas of demand but no or substandard service while also achieving the trifecta of sustainability, profitability and social responsibility.

The Intellecap model

The model has clearly met success.  What started as a bootstrapping operation of 2 has grown to a practice of 60 professionals in 3 offices and project forays into Africa.  There are now three major divisions: Advisory Services (consulting and investment banking), Sector Building and Incubation.  “Inter-related solutions to address all strategic & functional needs” being the sandwich, Sector Building work in publications and research was described to us as the bread of the practice, consulting the butter and investment banking a pure chocolate spread.  Incubation sounded like a relatively new and opportunistic area, but nonetheless was an impressive and ambitious added goal.  A microfinance-in-a-box project called Intellecash is currently in the works.  Intellecap also provides some tech solution development to its clients.

Overall, I feel Intellecap did well articulating its role in the ever-expanding social enterprise ecosystem.  However, I wish we were able to delve more into the minutiae of its strategy and banking work as I have some reservations there.  As they say, the devil is often in the details.  That said, I hope Intellecap’s success is evidence of a movement towards companies adopting more blended approaches.

Moving forward

I left inspired by what I could transfer to my current context – China – but with many questions still on the social enterprise space, questions that may be equally reflective of the sector’s nascent but exciting and formative stage.  While it would be convenient to believe the market and its dynamics are a panacea to the world’s problems (or the opposite), we need more people who are willing to step into the gray and grapple with the push-pull of profit and principle.  The level of vigilant introspection but also rapid adaptation required to maintain balance in a social enterprise constantly impresses me.  I look forward to seeing more of this dialogue in action as we work, sometimes in faction and other times collaboration, towards a better world.

Victims of human trafficking often suffer severe physical and mental trauma.  Many are forced into prostitution, and as a coping mechanism, mentally separate themselves their bodies.  In 2004, Ashoka Fellow Sohini Chakraborty founded Kolkata Sanved (www.kolkatasanved.org), an organization that has pioneered the concept of dance-based therapy as a viable means of counseling, rehabilitation,and empowerment.  The organization now runs programs for patients living in mental institutions, homeless children, children suffering from HIV/AIDS, and other victims of violence and abuse.  In this post, Nicola Pollock, Journey participant and Director of Grant Making at Esmee Fairbairn Foundation (www.esmeefairbairn.org.uk), reflects on her visit to Kolkata Sanved and how the organization can move forward, sustainably achieving its mission.

Body movement as a tool for rehabilitation

I am not a dancer, so I approached this visit with mixed emotions.  On the one hand, I was keen to explore the power of dance-based therapy, of which I knew so little.  On the other, I was terrified that I’d be made to dance.

We met Sohini Chakraborty, the inspirational founder of Kolkata Sanved, along with some of her founding colleagues.  We were also introduced to several young women who have gone through the programme as participants and are now Kolkata Sanved trainers themselves.  In a nutshell, Sohini has combined her expertise as a dancer with her passion to work with victims of trafficking and sexual abuse.  In doing so, she created a new dance therapy movement in South Asia, using body movement as a tool for rehabilitation and empowerment. Many victims of violence and trafficking cut themselves off and become withdrawn; participating in dance can enable them to express themselves, to reclaim their bodies as their own.  We were privileged to experience this first hand – we watched and then participated in a dance workshop, getting a moving glimpse of the transformational process.

In this warm and positive environment, we heard some traumatic stories from the women and girls who had been through the programme, from living in red light areas to abduction, violence and unwanted pregnancies - many of them either have no families or have been abandoned by them, the ultimate betrayal. And talking to them I was surprised and shocked by the widespread and systematic nature of trafficking and how embedded it is.  But the women and girls we met were strong, a real life illustration of the power of the programme – while the trauma must still run deep, they have positive plans for their futures.  Two are soon to be married and the confidence of the younger ones was remarkable.

Impact and growth so far

I was especially impressed by how Kolkata Sanved demonstrates their values through their work – the belief that women can become stronger as a result of their experience and dance is reflected in the fact that all the trainers are women who have been through the programme. They are now employed and run classes for other women and outside agencies, providing both meaningful work and status. Thus the transformation and empowerment created by dance is internalised in and strengthens the organisation’s culture and activities in a meaningful way. While not everyone they work with will become a dancer, the therapeutic process enables all participants to grow in confidence and move on.  They were all amazingly welcoming and the warmth, smiles and hugs when we left will linger in my memory long after the detail of the visit has faded.

There was many positives here – not just the number of individuals they have reached, but in their ambition to go beyond simply running workshops, however powerful they may be. They have extended dance therapy to other disadvantaged groups such as people with mental health problems, work with 30 partner organisations in India, Bangladesh and Nepal and are in the process of codifying what they do through a curriculum which will lead to an accredited qualification for the trainers. They also work in two mainstream schools. They have just moved to pleasant new premises which are so much better than those of many NGOs have in Calcutta and can accommodate a growing team. All this makes sense and fits with their mission.

So, they have done well to develop their model, and early philanthropic funding also enabled them undertake some evaluation. They have a systematic approach to working with partners which bodes well for the wider replication of the programme. They also generate income from some activities.  Strong leadership and the integration of survivors in the organisation makes them extra special. They now seem to have come through the first phase of development and the time is ripe to consolidate their experience and embark on the next phase of their development, with a strategy and funding model which will enable them to fulfill their aspirations. 

At a strategic crossroads

These are exciting times for Kolkata Sanved, who are at a crossroads in their development – should they carry on organically or should they take stock and plan more strategically?

The power of our visit was in the experience of the programme and meeting with the women, and we did not have enough time to discuss their plans in detail – from snatches of conversation they were aware of the need to think carefully at this time, and have some ideas going forward. So some of my reflections below may well be already in hand – but I offer them as they are common to many NGOs, particularly in India where funding can be complicated and hard to come by.

The need for sustainability, income generation, and communication
 
Having developed the product, their key challenge is long term sustainability. They require funds, but this service will always need grants or cross-subsidy from other activities. Going forward, they need to think about a fundraising plan targeting a range of philanthropic sources - from foundation-type support to individual donors. Is it possible to build an individual donor base among women who are interested in dance and/or trafficking and other women’s issues (for example, building on their relationships in South Asia and links with the American Dance Association)? Would it be feasible to implement this both technically and in getting the numbers they would need? Can they work with partners to leverage this?

On income generation, they already earn funds from consultancy, from mainstream schools and through partners, and the work on the curriculum may have potential; they could drill down into how they can maximise each of these, identify other options and develop financial projections. There may also be scope for more international work, though doing this will require careful scoping and a critique of their niche in relation to other practice.

Last but not least, some serious work to understand and communicate their impact will be crucial in ‘telling their story’ and so increasing their chances of raising funds, as well as enhancing their profile and securing new partners. However, this work is not susceptible to easy metric measurement - which makes it even more important for them to develop their marketing, website and so on to help with the brand and message.

Kolkata Sanved is still relatively small and much rests on the shoulders of the founding team, and developing a strategic plan is a lot to take on while continuing to run a busy project. Some external help from could provide capacity, perspective, facilitate their own thinking and add expertise to the process, and make it happen – though it would have to be right person or organisation. A sympathetic funder may be willing to support this. 

Moving forward

So, the ingredients are here – inspirational leadership and vision, the programme and ambition - but they need to think through their long term options, articulate more clearly where the real potential for earning income lies and consider the balance between this and continuing to provide their direct services. This may involve some tough decisions. But they are justly proud of what they have achieved.  Their impact enables them to convince even more people of the truth of Sohini’s belief that everyone is a dancer, and that as dancers, we are all capable of self-transformation.

While in Hyderabad, Journeys for Change connected with VisionSpring.  This organization provides inexpensive eyeglasses to people who would not otherwise be able to afford any.  VisionSpring empowers local entrepreneurs to run one-day vision campaigns in villages throughout the state, providing free eye tests and selling eyeglasses for 175 Rupees a pair (the equivalent of three US dollars).  For many Vision Entrepreneurs, it's an opportunity to not only provide a critical service, but also to earn a livelihood. During this podcast, you'll hear three UK-based social entrepreneurs discuss their experience at a vision campaign in a local village.  Luke Walsh designs software for colorblind people, his colorblind simulator Huetility is now available for the iPhone. Amy Barbor and Rose McCausland run Living Lens, an organization that empowers marginalized groups through video.  The three explore VisionSpring's unique distribution model and discuss the potential advantages of expanding services beyond eyecare.

Download VisionSpring podcast (11.1Mb)

SKS Microfinance's mission is to eradicate poverty by providing a comprehensive range of financial services to the poor - including life and health insurance. Journeys for Change visited a microcredit meeting in a village near Hyderabad, run by SKS-trained community members. The microentrepreneurs had gathered to make their regular loan repayments.

Biplab Das is a Director of Credit Suisse at its head office in Zurich, where he focuses on development and worldwide distribution of sustainable investment products. He writes this post not only as an expert in the world of microfinance, but also as an expatriate experiencing his native country in a new light.

Mr. Mogulaiah’s Branch – a slice of SKS Microfinance

About half of the road from the busy hamlet of Sadashivpet to the village of Yellaram (population ca. 6,000) is paved. The rest, as you make a sharp right turn, reveals the true nature of the land: semi arid, bit reddish, and coarse sand all over.

Aside from few patches of vegetables grown intermittently, the main crop appears to be cotton – small, somewhat scrawny plants decked with their open buds: a light snowfall in late November? – a fleeting thought ran through head. But the sheer absence of any cloud in the blue yonder, bright sunshine over our shoulders, and the truly agreeable temperature at this time of the year, brought us back to the realities of southern India.

By the time our air-conditioned vehicles reach the village square, some 30 or so women, most in their working clothes, have already assembled under the giant neem-tree by the schoolhouse.  Sitting cross-legged on the bare earth, they have formed a human ring in a manner that enables eye contact between any of the gatherers. Few members of the opposite sex huddle by the tiny kiosk – a rural replica of the holes-in-the-wall in most of the cities in India.

The ring, though, is incomplete: broken up at one end by a few clean mats – a makeshift provision for the fifteen foreign intruders on a journey to experience Social Entrepreneurship in India, plus Mr. V. Ramesh – the SKS Field Officer, as well as our charming hostess from the head office in Hyderabad, and our seasoned Branch Manager, Mr. B. Mogulaiah, appearing just for the occasion.

The rituals of micro-entrepreneurs

The session starts with a chorus of the SKS pledge by all participants – the naturally sharp edges of Telegu words seemed to have worn out by repeated recital of the same “mantra” week after week. Suddenly, on a single cue from Mr. Ramesh, one by one they approach the mat to deposit their weekly payments, and no sooner than he finishes counting the much used, rather tired-looking banknotes, return back to their spot in the ring. 

These women, as we all know by now, are the so-called micro-entrepreneurs, on whom the whole world has pitched its hope of alleviating poverty in the Third World. A small loan – not exceeding Rs. 11,000 (ca. £15) at SKS, allows them to buy two more cows, stock up their small kiosks, or buy more seeds for creating more illusions in those cotton fields.

Once the repayment is completed and the money tallied, Mr.  Ramesh – clearly, our man of the hour – carries on with the disbursement of new loans, acceptance of new loan applications, and announcement of loans approved for disbursement next week.

The ease and glitch-free smoothness of the entire process is in stark contrast to the ever-prevalent chaos of any main-stream bank in India, or even in countries like Italy. The women – each individual, and their respective group leaders, appear to have done all the homework they needed to complete before joining this gathering.  The meeting ends with the chattering, once again, of the SKS pledge, and most women rush back to their daily chores.

Backend operations

Back in the Branch, we get tea and biscuits, and hear more about SKS, while all the Field Officers – Rajasekhar, Brahmanand, Nagaian, Kashiram, Chiranjeevi, Anjaiah – seven in all, including our Ramesh, return from the field: each of them responsible for 20 or so centers, which translate to four such meetings each morning, five days a week. The rest of their daylight hours is taken up by various chores – training new recruits, data entry, record management, cash management, and planning for growing the business. No fancy Main Street branch, yet, the office – a converted three-bedroom apartment, is clean, files stacked neatly on few shelves, ample number of desks and chairs, a sole computer taking up half the space of one such desk. One of the rooms, with a double-bed, is reserved for visiting SKS personnel – field auditors and such.

With only ten-odd field officers and their trainees, 4,362 clients overall, and an outstanding loan portfolio of Rs. 2.9 crores, Mr. Mogulaiah’s Branch in the district of Medak in Andra Pradesh, the cradle of microfinance in India, is indeed a very small slice of SKS Microfinance. 

Rose Interview Sanved Clip  
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Rose_Interview_Sanved_clip.mp3 (4127 KB)

Journey participants Rose McCausland and Amy Barbor are two UK-based social entrepreneurs.  Together they founded and run Living Lens, an organization that empowers groups to use video as a platform for creating change.

As part of this Journey, Rose visited Kolkata Sanved, an organization pioneering the field of dance-based therapy for victims of trafficking and prostitution.  During the visit, ideas around a potential partnership between Sanved and Living Lens began to take shape.  In this interview segment, Rose discusses the power of potential collaboration.  6 minutes.

To listen to the full interview, visit http://journeysforchange.podbean.com/2009/11/26/jfc-podcast-rose-mccausland-on-kolkata-sanved-full-interview/

Futurehope Podcast Final  
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FutureHope_Podcast_final.mp3 (4914 KB)

Biplab Das of Credit Suisse, Luke Walsh of Huetility, and Lori Bonn of BonnVentures reflect on a project visit to Future Hope, a boarding school in Kolkata that provides top-tier education to children living in poverty. Seven minutes.

• Biplab sketches the story behind social entrepreneur Tim Grandage creating Future Hope
• Luke talks about acting on impulses to help people by developing processes
• Lori discusses partnerships with the private sector and programming for both boys and girls

In Kolkata, Journeys for Change visited social entrepreneur and Ashoka Fellow Ratnaboli Ray. Ratnaboli is the founder of Anjali, an organization dedicated to comprehensively improving the lives of people suffering from mental illness. In this post, Amy Barbor, Journey participant and director of Living Lens, shares her powerful experience of visiting an Anjali program in a state-run mental institution. More photos from the Anjali site visit can be found on our flickr page.