finding rickshaw.

Saath blew my expectations away in terms of sophistication, maturity, and reach.  They breed ingenious ideas and are at the forefront of market based development.

1) Community Ownership.  Almost all of Saath’s programs require a monetary contribution from the community.  As Divyang, the MFI program manager explained, “Let’s say you are eating free food that tastes awful.  You can’t complain because you didn’t pay for it”.  Paying for services promotes community ownership and accountability from service providers.  An invaluable result of this is that the community leadership has blurred with Saath’s program staff.  The community has a say in every programming decision and in most cases is the direct implementing agent.  This has achieved much more than empowerment – it has led to the community managing its own development.

2) Recognition Model.  I first heard it in training and then observed it through Rajendra Joshi, the founder of Saath: “You can achieve anything as long as you don’t care about who gets the credit.”  Saath has embodied this from the top-down.  They are happy to give credit to partners – private sector or government or community.  As a result, these partners are more likely to support Saath in the future.

3) People Professionally.

Saath Staff. I am amazed by the talent and humility of Saath’s management.  With architecture, financial, social, zoology backgrounds, each brings an abundance of skill to their work.  Mixing this with their passion for the organization’s mission makes Saath an incredible organization.

Community-Based Organizations.   Similarly, Saath’s CBOs are just as impressive.  You can’t spend five minutes with Yaqoobbhai, Madhuben, or Devuben without touching their feet out of respect or asking for their guidance.

4)  People Casually.  It was a pleasure walking into the office every morning.  From Hemali’s hellos to Shomnaben’s delicious tea, the office environment was a perfect balance of friendly, venture, productive and fun.  Everyone was very willing to help explain anything and everything. Most importantly, though, I learned about humility and respect.  While I’ll always be impressed with the work and reach of Saath, I’m more appreciative of how no one takes themselves too seriously and everyone is treated equally.  I am grateful to have worked and learned from people with such great commitment, diligence and intellect.  And I’ll always remember how much fun coming to work at Saath was.