A Great Week of Work.

I had a very productive week at work, spending most of it in the field at the Umeed centers (Umeed is Saath’s vocational training program). My primary project this year is to create new service offerings for Umeed. Specifically, I will work with Umeed staff to create a “Livelihood Center” where Umeed graduates and prospective students (i.e., slum youth) can access computers/internet current information and mentorship and employers can post job positions. The Livelihood Center will also serve to gather graduate data (current employer, salary, etc.) to begin measuring the impact of the program. Once this is up and running, we will begin developing a highly specialized training program for currently employed slum youth to help them access mid-level, premium positions. The key to this program is to make it fully sustainable (not rely on gov’t or foundation subsidies) through microlending…will explain in more detail as this project progresses.

On Monday and Tuesday, I met with alumni, faculty and current students. I even spoke to a few classes and had a Q&A in Gujarati. My broken Gujarati prompted enormous laughter, but with the help of of the faculty, I was able to get some of my questions across. On Thursday, I met with Dinesh Bhai, a faculty member at Behrumpura, and we went on a “roadshow” with students and graudates in a nearby slum. Not quite the same as a Wall-Street roadshow, this version was a door-to-door marketing campaign to promote the Umeed training. I believe a large percentage of the students learn about Umeed through the roadshows (we are working on an initiative to track where students hear about the program).

We met a local teacher named Hitendra Bhai, who created a school 10 years ago that provides after-school tutoring for 8-12 year olds in math and science. Hitendra Bhai agreed to let us use an open space in his small school to present an Umeed awareness video to attract local youth to the program. Hitendra Bhai’s tutors children of all backgrounds – Hindu, Muslim, Dalit (the given name for those assigned to lower castes) and really impressed not only me, but also the Umeed staff.

After the roadshow, I joined three of the youth, Amit, Piyush and Vashna, for lunch. We spoke in each other’s language – I doubt we really communicated anything (see: my dad and Felix’s epic conversation) of substance, but it was great to spend time with the local youth.