My Grandfather #MyRoleModel

This post is dedicated to the most handsome person in the world - Mr.Marutirao Gangaram Bhille

#MyGrandpa #MyRoleModel

More than 3 years ago, I interviewed my grandpa and I told him that I will write about him on my blog. We spoke all day and he narrated some wonderful stories from his rich experience in life. He, in fact, took out all the newspaper cuttings and all other documents that spoke about his work, achievements, contributions, etc. His excitement appeared so cute to me and I was not willing to believe that he was opening up so much details before me. A very humble, simple and soft spoken person, he began to share his life story with me just after me telling him one word "I'll interview you today". Those moments still echo in my life. Today, I am writing about #MyRoleModel as a part of the activity by Gillette India in association with BlogAdda.com. This had been in my drafts for such a long time. I want to share my grandpa's story on a big platform as he has a strong message to deliver to every common man. He has been my greatest inspiration and the biggest reason for me taking up a career in the social development sector. And yeah, my grandpa kept asking me what is a blog and what I am doing. Though I explained, the idea wasn't very clear to him. I guess, this will be a great way to tell him what it is.

Everyone has a role model, from who we try to learn, who we try to emulate, who we love. The word itself carries a lot of weight and has the power of influencing an individual to take up responsibility with will and not by force. Why do we need role models? For me, role models are required so that one has someone to look up to learn and follow the path walked by and experienced. While we learn how to successful from successful people, it also helps us to understand failure. Examples of leaders essential to keep up that momentum and willingness to do goodness in the society. Role model is very much essential when an individual is clueless of where one is heading in life. After all that matters in life is what legacy we leave behind and how many faces wear a smile on their face on hearing onto our name.

Well, for me my role model is my lovely grandfather. He is a man of values, discipline and more of a social animal I would say. I come from a middle-class family and a business background and more importantly from a joint family. I look up to my grandfather in all aspects of life. As I had the advantage of staying in a joint family I had the opportunity to learn from all the members of the family. My grandfather is the head of the family. He struggled hard and now set up a business which is so famous that every single day there is a queue from customers to buy the sweets. He believes in hard work and consistency. I usually go to him and ask him the experiences of various aspects of life. In this journey I have not only got inspired but it kind of built confidence in me to do whatever bit I can to the society.

I remember he narrating to me showing this photo "People from neighboring cities used to come to watch me play 'Kabaddi' because they loved to watch me because of my performance.

My grandfather is the head of the family and the way he has bought his children is just amazing. We are 12 members staying at home, a joint family and he has built a commendable value system for us. He considers even the smallest needs when takes decisions and more importantly, he ensures that his decisions are for the benefit of all the family members and no one feels dissatisfied or unhappy. Each member has his/her own set of rights and responsibilities. Each member is treated equally in terms of everything. Each member has the space to live their life in the way they like it. Not a single day have I seen my grandfather interfering or arguing with any of the members. Such a gentle and patient person!!

Everyone in the society speaks about our family as an example mainly because of my grandfather. He is the face of our family. He is the bond who connects everyone. He is the one because of whom everyone feels motivated and comfortable to stay together. When the world is trending towards a nuclear family, I feel proud that there are still individuals like my grandfather who have ensured family binds together and lives happily. He respects every member of the family and that is something I love the most about him. A world where the people are getting self-centered and all the energies are focused on how to amass wealth for oneself, my grandfather always keeps telling all the members in the family, "We earn together which definitely means we have to share together. Never complaint on who has contributed more or less, at the end, it is your own family that is going to be the beneficiary."

The first car, after which he built a fleet of vehicles.

Family is important because its not the money that comes to your rescue when you need something in life but remember it's only the family members with whom who shared the laughter, happiness, sorrow, success, failure and every emotions one can define come to your rescue. There is love and happiness within you do not go in search of it just start spreading it and you see the ray of hope at every corner of life" At every stage of life from my childhood I have looked up to my grandfather. I kept observing his actions and the way he responded to each of the situation. At the end always whatever my grandfather would stand up for was fair and just for all. That's how I started learning and inculcating the values from him and I never felt the need to hunt for any role model beyond my house. Why do we look up to a role model? so that we are inspired or motivated to follow the footstep but I would say I was very lucky enough to say that it didn't require any extra effort of hunting on google for the names on "inspiring personalities", "role model" etc., I lived and could practice the lessons in my daily life as I lived with the role model. Even after ages when my grandfather has turned 80 years we see the same momentum at home which makes me feel more proud and happy that the values around which my grandfather has built the family is still valid and I can say it will continue to be with lifetime warranty.

We are a business family. We own a small little sweet shop in Hubli with no name board even now i.e, after 70 years of it's establishment but still the best shop in the city which operates only 4 hours a day and yes each day customers wait in the queue to buy the products. To get the business at this level along with handling a joint family of more than a dozen one can imagine the leading and managing capability of an individual. And such is the potential of my grandfather who started so small from selling it on the street to a level where customers stand in queue to but the products that too in the era where there are n number of competitors and new entrants every day. He is the best entrepreneur I have ever seen. More importantly my grandfather treated each employee equal. In fact he was more in favour of them when others used to argue telling why did you pay him that Rs.10/- extra if this continues it will become a habit. And my grandfather used to always calmly reply "A person seek for help when he is in need, and he is working with us he will not become helpless that I can guarantee. I'm just lending a helping hand when he is in need. And that Rs.10/- I don't need it right now if that can help someone and mean a lot to him then give him, he will definitely return, if doesn't then at least he will return back to the job" Such noble gestures of my grandfather has really a lot of meaning and value. And that's how I learnt "to share" and help others when they're in need.

What one would get in return may not be the same but definitely much more because you gain trust and respect which will take an individual a long way in life. I remember chatting with my grandfather about the fleet of cars he owned as a taxi business that why did he chose to do multiple business when one was sufficient. He replied "Sometimes being selfish is also very important. Being selfish creates that confidence in you and pushes you to that extra level to take risk and challenges and make you realise of your potential" To explore or push oneself beyond one's capacity is when one can realise one's potential". Years of handwork and commitment in the professional life, I would say I could not visualise indeed see the practical implications of all the entrepreneurial qualities that these premier Institute define.

This is something which has actually touched me more than anything. And I must say that I'm very lucky enough to have lived with this inspiring person all time. The biggest investment that my grandfather has made till date is not the personal nor the professional but definitely in social life. Any person irrespective of the caste, creed or the strata who has knocked on our doors trust me I haven't seen anyone going back disappointed. My grandfather always had something to offer to each one may be monetary or non monetary. And I must my family is known for more for the good deed and the support my grandfather has given to all those in need and because of the business being famous. Neighbours, relatives and everyone who knows us recognise us as a family who believes in giving back to society. I keep listening to the conversations of the people they say though they make sufficient money they lend a helping hand more than what they earn and that's the best part of it. In nearby villages my grandfather is looked up as a man of worship as he has helped many of them and never said no. And all this he has done it with good heart and never he had that pride and never bombarded on the same. When the society recognises you as a family who does good deeds then trust me you have achieved it all, I mean the meaning of life. My grandfather is a very simple man, you will always find him in a white pajama and white shirt with a pigeon with its wing open on the pocket as a logo which he gets it tailor made. He has around 80 pigeons as he is fond of them and even now we have them. I remember when I got my first salary I bought trendy gifts to each of my family members but I had no clue what to buy for him so I directly went and asked him and all that he asked for was a cap. When I questioned him why, he replied"I think I'm growing old and I cannot bear the sun anymore when I look to the pigeons to come down to their nest" A man so simple without having any crave for any materialistic thing just randomly answered with the simplest thing. And I bought him one and he wears that even at parties. I love him for that.

Wow!!! Awesome to see some of the online possessions of my grandfather, here you go:

I'm definitely going to show this to him when I go back home the next time. Probably I won't be surprised he not knowing anything about internet.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/11/stories/2006091104850400.htm

Role Model is not about how much one has the potential to do by oneself. It's all about how a role model can transfer those values in a natural process say by practice and by adhering to those values at all times. The role model should be a person who not only influence one's good work which benefited oneself but the society as a whole. The reason being, good things are to spread naturally on it's own and not to be kept for oneself. Seeing my grandfather for 25 years of life, I started realizing the meaning of life and soon started analyzing each of his actions and behavior and how did that have an impact on him and others life. In this journey my life transformed. From being a selfish and self centered person I started looking things from others point of view. I started responding to situations and life in a manner that my grandfather does eventually that helped me build my focus on being more of a social animal. I began to be considerate of others feelings, respect others opinion, lend a helping hand not only to humans but all the living beings. And now this man has led me to quit my corporate career and take up a career which gives you a sense of inner satisfaction and that's how I started volunteering for many causes and chose a career path in the field of social development which sort of gives you the opportunity to build a ray of hope and happiness to many in life.

Post by Priyanka Bhille.

Post by Priyanka Bhille.

All that I can say is that I had the opportunity to live with my role model which paved for constant motivation that helped me to evolve as a human being considering every being equally important.

A Quick Look at what I intend to do at Milaap

Originally Written for IDEX at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/work-plan-work-in-progress-soon-to-build-with-idex

Milaap has stepped into lending and supporting the Education Sector for the first time. The domains that Milaap has been working on are water, sanitation, health & others. The business model of lending is completely different from the other domains. The entire process of raising and allocating funds, sourcing applications, tying up with educational institutions, candidate verification, collections, repayment schedules, etc. have to be designed from scratch. At present, the market reach is very minimal. The business has just started and the working model is under discussion. My role is to design a system that ensures a smooth flow of the process. It is a pilot project and I am responsible for implementing standard operating procedures and practices to run the business. The following briefly cover my deliverable at Milaap partially over the next 6 months.

Building Milaaps risk management frameworks for wide range of loan products (education loans, green loans, SMEs etc)

The actions which I will take would be to research on the acceptable practices in the industry & verify whether it's feasible to apply for the product which we are building on. As the pilot project is live, I'm already working out & looking out for options which can help reduce the risk & also have suggested on couple of actions on the legal aspect which could help us  overcome the loss which otherwise would be incurred. This will be done on continuous basis throughout 6 months.

Building appraisal and rating systems that aid in field partner selection

As Milaap  has just begun to reach out to the training institutes. The Co founder is working on it as he wants to know the ground reality & I will be trained on the same after 2 months from now.

Managing portfolio risk as well developing and executing policies and practices to limit Milaap lenders; exposure to loss

This is an on going process. Trying to learn & find out more by interacting with the target audience, institutes & all other stakeholders involved. This helps to know on the psychology of the various stakeholders & thereby trying to set up a control point which can defeat the purpose of lag in the process.

Build frameworks and tool to understand the social performance of our field partners and measure the impact of these loans on the poverty level of their clients

This will done once we start expanding. When discussed with the Co founder he wants this work to begin from when we a handful of field partners. Suggested to begin after 4 months from now.

Manage Field Partner relationships and communications. Including traveling to train field partners' staff on Milaap's processes

An on going process as the business is in the introductory stage wherein there is a requirement of a continuos communication.        

Studying the Impact of Women Empowerment Initiatives in Tribal Villages

Originally Written for IDEX at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/women-empowerment-at-tribal-village-impact-evaluation

I guess life's about to take an interesting turn as I plan to take up an Impact Evaluation Study as a part of my IDEX Fellow program. The opportunity has come from Youth for Seva (YFS), which is primarily a platform to provide opportunities for youth who want to take active part in community development. Through this platform, YFS aims to empower youth to become positive change makers who will enable organizations and institutions to work without a vested interest. The goal of YFS is to support schools, NGOs, government hospitals and other organizations in the social sector through volunteers who can help them mitigate some of their shortcomings and challenges. Volunteering is made easy and customized to the individual’s interests and time constraints.

So, my role is to visit all these places where YFS has taken initiatives to empower women and the society and prepare a Social Impact Evaluation Report on these projects. Basically the project would involve analyzing on the impact that the organisation has made on the lives of the women's coming from the rural background. These women's are trained in Bangalore and then placed on the various projects at tribal villages in Karnataka. The projects are running successfully over a period of time. But then there has been no report which speaks about the work going on and the impact it has made. Thus, I will have to travel to these tribal villages, prepare a report which will portray and give the whole idea about the project. Further define the actions which can help better the impact of the project in terms of employ-ability, build life skills and there by look out for the platforms wherein the organisation can provide them with more opportunities to help them build their lives.I would define these objectives to be achieved in 3 different stages as follows:

Data Collection and Research
At the first stage I would be interested to know about the organisation in detail. The structure, business model, different projects they are involved in and every other detail which would give a whole idea of what is the purpose of it's establishment. Further, would be meeting people who could give me a background about the project which I'll be associated and work in the coming days. Also, I would be conducting research about the tribal villages which I'll be visiting so as to be familiar with the culture and norms which will be help me conduct an interview with ease which in turn will enable to me to get all the questions answered to support the impact report. I will also be working on the questionnaire which will help me ensure all the aspects will be covered in preparation of the report.

Field Visit:

Once done with collection of the data and well versed with the organisation and people, I would be required to visit the tribal village and thereby conduct an interview with the ladies there and get all the required information which in detail explains about the entire process which went into making the impact.

Report Submission

After the visit would be working on the tools and procedures which can help me in preparation of the impact report which will give a clear picture about where the project is heading and what will be needed to take a step ahead to enable in impacting more lives.

I'm sure this is going to be a highly challenging and a definitely interesting project.

Exploring the Unexplored... Unlearning the Learning... Building with IDEX...

Originally Written for IDEX at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/explored-the-unexplored-unlearning-the-learnings-building-one-sel

In midst of a brand new social journey with IDEX, I have been experiencing lot of emotions, situations and challenges, which made me pause for a while and reflect on what has been added to my life, personally and professionally. I joined IDEX with a purpose to apply whatever skills I possess, make use of my strengths, thereby also challenging myself to build a better world around in whatever way I can. Further I wanted to try, experiment, learn, unlearn and relearn my beliefs and assumptions. The biggest learning for me has been of creating an opportunity in-spite of less space to accommodate oneself. The strong opinion that invoked me is to create your own space irrespective of whatever challenges one face. As I could believe by this practice that challenges are temporary and this is the time one needs to put in extra effort to figure out what one wants out of the situation. Being calm and thinking about the solutions with various options has helped me to deliver the best of my capabilities in the job till date. Social Enterprise was completely a new sphere of work for me as I had worked earlier in the MNC's. One major difference I could see in this space is that efforts of the organizations are built to get the basic facilities or accommodate the people at BOP with the facilities that can enhance their living experiences with having fulfilled the basic needs. This becomes very essential as a economy as a whole because in India it is said that until and unless the poverty & unemployment is not eradicated a country cannot progress & around 33% of the population is below poverty line according to the UN report 2013. The companies working out of social sphere are focused on making the experiences better for the one's who already have enough to live life with all comforts. They are attracting and creating a market which enriches the experience of the population who are already self sufficient with everything that is required to lead a normal life. Agree that economic development of the country is very essential but then this development need to drive along all the people irrespective of the financial strata only then we can see the real difference and growth in the economy.

When we say industries, we refer to the group of companies who build the products and services which caters to the needs of the industry. These companies usually tend to be organised as they need to ensure output in a timely manner. To manage the process they have core departments specialized in Human Resource, Marketing, Finance, IT, Maintenance, Facility, Security and many more. Each department has its own set of goals apart form the Mission/Vision of the company at the Strategic level. Marketing department caught my attention because this is one branch which drives the entire business as it involves in promoting the products, sell it and thereby earn revenue for the company. It aims in numbers, meaning it aims to increase material wealth. Further if we observe the companies operating in a particular industry try to compete with each other in providing better or an additional service in comparison to its competitors.On the other hand if you observe marketing team in a social sphere they are trying to build human network than building an asset. Trying to earn wealth not to amass wealth for it's company or employees but for the people around who are in real need. Wondered how the same marketing department have complete two dimension of goal. It was amazing to learn in this social space.

Have learnt to deal with the unexpected situations, overcome them by handling it with effective communications. Allot time to research on the work assigned which helps to deepen the knowledge & has helped to implement the solutions effectively. Understanding the various processes & skills that goes into building a team or a project. Developing marketing and fund raising skills which I never explored. The research attributes to a major extent in my work and playing a great role to ensure for the right action at the right time. Awaiting for more learning and exploring the microcredit industry and social enterprise as a whole in the second half in the journey of IDEX.

Make A Wish Foundation - India's Social Genie

Originally written for IDEX at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/make-a-wish-foundation-india-social-genie

With Mr Vijay Ladha. Hon. Program Director,
Bangalore Division, MAWF India

Someone has rightly said, "Life is a struggle between birth and death". Some are definite to know about their struggle well before and for the more fortunate ones, the struggles comes as a surprise. Every individual makes efforts in this journey to achieve their dreams, fulfill their wishes and satisfy their desires. Life is never fair with everyone and that's how it is. Some, are destined to get all they desire without any effort and some, even after all struggle, end up with no returns. While I was talking to Mr Vijay Ladha, Program Director of Make A Wish Bangalore, I was thanking the Almighty for blessing me with all that I need to live a contented life. At the same time, I was pained listen to so many stories of people struggling between life and death. Especially the stories of these little young children who are supposed to laugh all along and live merrily, but the cruel world puts them into adulthood very early. While there are kids laboring to earn a meal, there are many suffering from life threatening illness. Each sunrise is an achievement for these kids.

While on one hand, there are kids planning their future to be a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, etc., there are these kids who can not even dream of such aspirations. Undoubtedly, these kids too have wishes, as small as buying a doll to as big as being a great businessman. Most of these kids, when questioned, revealed very similar wishes that we all have, i.e., to be happy and successful, work in the profession of their choice, have a good family, own things like a doll, a pair of shoes, a bicycle, a toy car, etc. However, destiny plays different games with these kids and they end up focusing all their efforts to make sure they survive, to say the least.

I was extremely delighted to learn about Make A Wish Foundation (MAWF), an organization that toils to fulfill the wishes of these innocent kids to whom, in my view, life has been extremely unfair. After all, what justifies the kind of life these innocent hearts are exposed to, by their birth.

There are numerous social enterprises focusing on providing facilities to make living better. The unique aspect of MAWF is that they are working on providing a platform for the kids to help them satisfy mentally and emotionally. One of the most important determinant of human happiness is their dreams. We all want to be something and when we become what we want, we call it success. Psychologists study about negative emotions and say that negative emotions are necessary for a human to flourish but positive emotions are by nature subtle and fleeting; the secret is not to deny their transience but to find ways to increase their quantity. MAWF believes in giving reasons to children to be positive and thus, help them think and move ahead with a positive frame of mind.

If we are enjoying music, it is not exactly the music that makes us happy. It is the expression of our love for the music that creates our joy.  If we are happy in our job or career, it is not the job that makes us happy but the expression of our love for what we do that creates the experience of happiness. If we are enjoying a beautiful day, it is not the day that is flooding us with emotions. It is our love for the experience of the day that we are flooded with. MAWF is building it efforts day by day to enrich such experiences in the lives of these kids.

MAWF started in the United States and now, it is growing in India. It began way back in 1990s when a couple from Mumbai went to the US to get their son treated on a life threatening illness and they came across MAWF. Seeing the struggle that children were undergoing and how MAWF was trying to support them, the couple decided that this concept should get implemented in India too. They began MAWF in Mumbai and further expanded to 9 cities including Bangalore.

How it works

• MAWF trains volunteers to interact with kids.
• MAWF gets kids' profiles from hospitals.
• Volunteers spend time with the kids and learn about their wishes (without the kid's knowledge)
• MAWF starts working on fulfilling the wish by collating resources, monetary or otherwise
• Wishes are generally from one of these categories
1. To own things
2. To visit a place
3. To meet someone, especially celebrities
4. To become something, especially a career dream
• Donors, Contributors and Volunteers are appraised of the requirements.
• The network works together to make the child's dream come true.

Conclusion

MAWF is working on such a critical field. This is an amazing work and no less than a genie making their wishes come true. This is such a wonderful initiative to create hope and happiness for children facing life threatening illnesses and providing these kids an experience they will remember forever. If life is a race against time, MAWF is helping these kids who find it impossible to fight against time. I hope MAWF continues to contribute more and more value in making lives colorful.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Here are a couple of stories sourced from Make A Wish Foundation's Bangalore Blog

The Bangalore Division was started in February 2008 and as of March 2013 we have fulfilled more than 1500 cherished wishes of children with life threatening illnesses.

Make-a-Wish has fulfilled more than 30,000 wishes nationally since its inception in India. Everyday the Make-a-Wish Foundation adds many wish sponsors. With their support and encouragement, the Make-a-Wish team works towards fulfilling wishes of hundreds of young children and brings smiles to their faces.

Wish to be a Policeman

With a tube running from his nose, frail six-year-old Anwar Razaak was carried into Sanjaynagar police station at 11.30 am on Thursday. His eyes lit up seeing men in khaki and there was a sudden surge in energy. Then came the small-size khaki uniform along with a toy gun. Soon, he was all dressed up to play the cop, sporting uniform, cap and gun. Anwar’s big wish had come true.

Anwar has dreamt of becoming a policeman ever since he saw police beat up people in his village, Naragund in Gadag district. But the road ahead may not be smooth for this young boy as he is suffering from brain cancer and is being treated in Baptist Hospital. It was the Make a Wish Foundation that brought Anwar's fantasy to life. He was taken to Sanjaynagar police station to make him feel like a policeman for a day.

I wish to read Bengali Poetries

Our volunteers came across with a 13 years old cheery and lively girl suffering from Rheumatic Heart Disease referred from Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital. She lives with her parents and 4 elder brothers in one tiny village of West Bengal.

Make A Wish Volunteers met this kid in the inpatient ward, they gave her a small soft toy to play and started talking with her about her interests and hobbies. She told them that she is having in-depth interest in drawing and learn more Bengali Kavitas. Most of her leisure time, she will spend with her blossom friend Meherun. Both of them will having keen interest in drawing, writing kavitas, learning different types of Rangolis and Mehendi designs. She expressed her aspiration to become a doctor and treat the kids without taking any money. And she is keen on doing social service for the orphans and provide them food, accommodation and educational service with free of cost.In addition to this, she is having habit of reading Bengali Kavitas which her class teacher as taught. She told 4 kavitas to our volunteers though shewas under the pain of dialysis. As our volunteers told “ Her kavitas inspired her to sang those many kavitas in the ward”, all other kids in the ward listen to her kavitas with lots of hope and joyfulness.  Then our volunteers start talking to her about her wishes, she said her only wish to have Bengali poetry books of books of Rabindranath Tagore, Bankhim Chandra Chatarjee and Aurobindo Gosh in Bengali.

They fulfilled her wish in the hospital when she came for her follow up treatment; there are no words for her to express her happiness. She thanked all our volunteers who made effort to got those books and make her wish come true.

A Chat - Featured on the Milaap Blog

Originally published at http://www.milaap.org/blog/meet-our-new-idex-fellow-priyanka-bhille

Meet our new IDEX Fellow: Priyanka Bhille!

After our previous IDEX Fellows, Thomas and Mary completed their internship successfully with us, it was time to get a new fellow who was equally enthusiastic and passionate about making a difference. Priyanka is our new IDEX fellow who is working on various important projects like loan management, deployment and closely associated with our vocational training/school project field partners. We had a small chat with her to know more about herself and this is what she had to say:

Q) Tell us about yourself and your prior experience before joining Milaap

Working as a socially responsible person reaching people to enhance and enrich their lives has been on the top of my to-do lists ever since my childhood. I have always been passionate of education. It has transformed my life in several ways. I am also passionate of working to promote the other basic needs of life, namely access to affordable healthcare, good environment, integrity and harmony, and general well being in life. In the little time that I have spent on these areas, I have taken little steps to support these dreams.

During my college days, I was actively involved in the volunteering activities including community engagement programs, social awareness programs, cleanliness drives, role plays on social causes, etc. For all the initiatives and efforts in these directions, I was awarded as the best “NSS Volunteer”. I joined the corporate world with a clear objective of working for a couple of years, get to know more about how the world functions, get to know people and processes, get to understand education’s impact in practice, and then move on to work at social enterprises. The decision to move on from the new found happiness in investment banking to pursuing a dream that was dreamt long back was tough. 

However, as I continued to participate in several CSR activities during my working life, the motivation remained. I spent almost all my weekends at NGOs, especially helping children learn, recording classes for them, making their small wishes come true and other similar activities. I kick started my social entrepreneurship journey with the Jagriti Yatra 2012, the train journey of 15 days that takes select youth across the nation to inspire them to build enterprises that make a difference.After the Yatra, I volunteered at Youth for Seva (YFS) and then, joined them as an Intern to work on a NGO Connect Project.

Q)What was your motivation for joining Milaap?

My social entrepreneurship journey began with the Jagriti Yatra 2012. I wanted to know the ground realities of the social sector as well as get a brief understanding of lives of people across the nation. Jagriti Yatra gave me move than brief understanding as I interacted with numerous change makers who had so much to tell. Microfinance is one such field that has caught my attention. It has the power to create an impact on families instantly by helping them create a revenue stream. With this passion I happened to be a part of Milaap who is impacting millions of life by helping them fulfill their dreams and to live a life with dignity.

Q)And how did you hear about our organization?

Very recently, my application for the IDEX Fellowship in Social Enterprise was accepted. I wanted to work in the field of Micro finance and accordingly, IDEX placed me with Milaap, India’s first online micro-lending platform. With Milaap, I’m working on several areas including deployment, loan management, new delivery channels, etc. with a focus on upbringing people to attain a better living through education, sanitation, small business financing, etc. There are several plans underway and I’m certain to make the best of them in the coming days.

Q)What is your expectation from Milaap?

I want to be a part of an organization that will work towards making life a better experience. I want to see a world with happy minds and humble hearts. Milaap is one such serious opportunity for me as I look forward on a journey to create positive impact, an exposure with a platform like Milaap will cut down my gestation period significantly and help me focus on doing things more effectively and efficiently leading to better results. A launch pad like this will do a great deal in taking life forward in the longer run as well as help me run longer.

Introducing Milaap - Loan a Little, Change a Lot. Get Involved

Originally written for IDEX and published at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/introducing-my-placement-enterprise-milaap-loan-a-little-change-a?context=category-My+SocEnt+Placement+Profile

Micro-finance is one domain that has caught my attention off late and this
has a great potential for social entrepreneurs. It has the power to create an impact on families instantly by helping them create a revenue stream. With this passion I happened to be placed at Milaap. Let me briefly run you all through the journey of Milaap.

Let's Empower India

Thanks to ten awesome folks around the world, Annapurna has been able to expand her Self Help Group and increase revenues by 15%. Help Milaap provide sustainable sources of income to ambitious entrepreneurs like her!

Introduction

I'm sure most of us have heard the carpenter, cobbler, driver, gardener, maid & others usually who are at the bottom of the pyramid talk about how difficult it is for them to get loans to support their children's education, getting the groceries every month, getting a toilet built or even to have access to a clean drinking water. May be most of us wouldn't even think of planning to cover such expenses but yes it would matter for most of the others i.e, over 700 million people living at less than 2 dollar wages in the world. Banks having higher interest rates would let them eliminate from this supply chain. This is where Milaap empowers the individuals who can lend to make social investments to better the lives of over 700 million people to get access to the basic facilities while lending on a vary low rate of interest which the people at the BOP can afford.

The Inception

Milaap is an online fund raising platform that encourages people around the world to fund & impact lives who are in need of basic facilities in India. It is the only online platform in the field of microfinance domain which enables people globally to lend to the one's in need through online platform. This has led Milaap to be the first & only platform for NRI's to lend in India. These loans are aimed to facilitate the borrower in getting access to the basic facilities like sanitation, clean water & renewable energy. Vocational training or skill development is a new domain wherein Milaap is trying to lend a helping hand for the Youth which creates a path way to build career. Milaap is based in Bengaluru, India with its headquarters in Singapore started in 2010.

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Two investment bankers, Shiva and Vikram cycled across Singapore and raised funds for 50 families in need of clean water. Inspire your friends and family to do more.

The Kick Start

So, how did the Milaap journey begin. Anoj Viswanathan was inspired by the impact of a $10 solarlantern sold on credit to the extremely poor in tribal Orissa. Founded in June 2010 by Sourabh Sharma, Anoj Viswanathan and Mayukh Choudhury. It took Milaap almost a year to gain approval from the Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) to enable lenders outside India to lend to India through their website.

Idea Generation

Microfinance Institutions(MFI's) that lends micro credits to the entrepreneurs usually tend to have high rate of interest rates as these institutions in turn borrow loans from banks at a high rate of interest which places the borrower to bear the higher rate of interest. The borrowers are usually taking the loans form the MFI's as they need in small scale wherein it becomes difficult to get it approved. Further the borrowers wouldn't be willing to pay a high rate of interest as they are taking a loan to pay off the liabilities which makes up their operation cost. With this scenario it would become very difficult for an individual to approach bank or MFI's to get loan in order to cover the cost of basic facilities like water, sanitation, drinking water & vocational training. Thus, Milaap comes up with an idea of sourcing funds from individuals globally who are willing to lend & thereby able to provide loans at a lower rate of interest. This has been possible because the of eliminating the MFI's borrow from banks.

Crux Of The Business Idea

Milaap in their online lending platform display the profile of the borrower who seek to help to get the basic needs like clean drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, electricity, education etc., individuals who have access to internet & can choose the borrower whom they want to lend & thereby fund a part of the loan. The Lender can also track as to how the money lended is used. The best part of such a donation is the lender receives back the money given at the end of the loan term. Now, you might wonder how the people at the BOP get connected to Milaap as they lack internet access. Well, Milaap has collaborated with other organisations(field partners) who are working with the people who are looking out for finance. Thus, the field partners collect the loan from the borrowers creating a transparent place to lend & borrow. By investing in such projects Milaap is looking at solutions at the fundamental level considering the crucial parameters that impact the purpose of the borrowing.The profit model involves a mix of profit & non profit models to enable a sustainable model. Basically aiming at sustainable scaling business model.

The Road Ahead

Milaap on a continuous basis is expanding its business having its impact on millions of people. These impacts are not only solving the financial problems but also aims to focus on increasing the productivity of an individual, income generation & reducing the current expense. Certain initiatives by Milaap like raising funds through campaigns involves youth in majority. This helps indirectly in bringing about an awareness among the youth to think of the social issues around & do their bit to make this place a better world to live in.

You Can Help Make a Difference, visit http://www.milaap.org/