Jaago Re

Jaago Re, a social awareness campaign sponsored by Tata Tea, was initiated in 2008 to encourage voter registration. Since then the campaign has expanded to other issues including their current focus - corruption. Visit their website to register, look for volunteering opportunities, and take a pledge against bribing.

Also check out this funny yet sad satire on corruption in India -

MakeSense - linking people for social business

Makesense.org is two guys traveling around Asia, talking to social entrepreneurs, and having fun along the way (HT ThinkChangeIndia).

Their objective is simple - to share the stories and challenges of social businesses in order to promote and link these businesses to the larger community, similar to what we want to achieve at We Flap.

The web app is still in development, but you can pre-register here. In the meantime, check out their fun blog and videos.

Skills development for women farmers in India

Did you know that 70 percent of agricultural activities in India are carried out by women?

With mass migration of farming families to cities, drought, inconsistent monsoons, shrinking agricultural land banks, next generation food supply chains and processes, new farming techniques, etc., it should be obvious that engaging women farmers and equipping them with skills to cope with a changing agricultural landscape is an imperative.

In practice, that isn’t quite the case, according to an international research project conducted in by the London-based City and Guilds Centre for Skills Development. The report from the project finds that it is the men folk who receive better and most of the training. Women, on the other hand, continue to remain at the bottom of the training pyramid, confined to toiling in the fields. The report highlights the need for appropriate training for women to ensure that their productivity is not lowered.

The state of training women farmers in India is quite disconcerting. Research shows that giving women farmers the same inputs and education as men could increase yields by; despite this women continue to receive only a small proportion of the appropriate training compared to men.

Here is a very good documentary on the state of small scale farmers in India (29 mins)

Pirate fishing

Some trawlers dispose about 90% of their catch as bycatch which means that millions of fish, marine mammals, turtles and birds are caught every year and simply discarded back into the sea because they are not profitable.

I heard this disturbing fact at a presentation by Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) on pirate fishing. Pirate fishing, predominant in developing country waters, has serious environmental and social consequences.

Here is an informative 2 min video by EJF -

Illegal 'pirate' fishing from Environmental Justice Foundation on Vimeo.

Fans of what kids could do

Over the last 6 months, We Flap has been working with kids to develop a new program we are calling "Enrichment clusters". Soon, we will start to document our work in more detail and expand this program across various schools.

We learnt quickly that kids can be surprisingly thoughtful when they break complex issues down into the simplest of terms. Frequently, they generate creative ideas by just thinking of things in ways in which most of us cannot - simple because our adult brains have been conditioned not to think in those terms.

In the spirit of our work in fostering "childish thought", we thought it would be apt to share with you an example of why we are such fans of kids -

Giving this holiday season

Struggling with how to pick a charity this holiday season? Here is some help -

Mint presents data on charitable giving in the US and provides advice on how to give.

Tim Ogden from Philanthropy in Action discusses why Mint's advice is dead wrong , and presents his own take on the best and worst ways to pick a charity.

Online giving - keeping it honest

A recent New York Times article highlights an important challenge that online giving and lending sites face. How do you make your model appealing but maintain transparency and efficiency?

Kiva.org, the most popular online lending site, allows users to lend small amounts of money to microentrepreneurs in developing countries - at least that is how Kiva presented it. In reality, the funds that users donate go into a pool of money for microfinance institutions. Typically, these institutions lend money to the individual entrepreneurs before the loans are made on Kiva. A person-to-person model is appealing, but not efficient. If individual borrowers had to wait to get their money from a group of lenders, it's likely that many of them would end up waiting for weeks. So, it's understandable (and acceptable) that Kiva operates the way it does.

Kiva modified how they explain their model on their website due to the latest scrutiny. Whether this affects their popularity remains to be seen.

The gift of giving?

How many of you agree that wonderful things happen to you later on in life after experiencing incredible giving experiences at a tender age?

Do I agree? Yes, I do. Let us take for instance my writing this blog and feeling at ease with what I choose to write about. Thinking back there has been one incredible experience that i would like to share with you. It was spending quality time with my grandfather who was developing a disease called Parkinson's. My grandfather was a grand old man with a deep voice and a sharp temper. He had done most of his schooling in England and returned to India to be a District Judge and start a family of his own. Little did I know that he would be more British than Indian as he smoked a pipe, wore classy shirts and trousers and insisted on good manners and discipline, always!

Just the thought of grandpa made me nervous and scared but I always had a soft corner for him as he rewarded me with chocolates for good behavior. Now, to relate my incredible experience with grandpa. Well, little did I know that he loved my hand writing and my writing style until he insisted that I spend my weekends helping him write letters to his good old friends as he had developed a debilitating disease called Parkinson's and his fingers always trembled. My poor darling grandpa I thought and willingly offered to help him whenever he needed help.

Little did I realize at that time that I was learning every step of the way. I did what I was told as I had just offered to be his hands and not HIM! He loved me for just being ME. As I listened I learned, as I wrote I learned and as I interacted with him I learned. The experience was INCREDIBLE! It had a lasting effect on me as it improved my grammar, writing style, confidence and personality. And what I find most fascinating is that everytime I write, it brings back fond memories of quality time with my grandfather.

Surely, many of you have an incredible experience to share. Do publish your posts for all to see. Thank you!

What do we have to give?

I just think that we all have so much to give and so little time. What do we have to give? Well, there is a certain magic in the positive qualities that we all possess that we can share for free. Some of us are affectionate, loving, nurturing, kind, talented, brilliant, patient, sincere, trustworthy, faithful to name a few. What if we went around finding time to use our qualities to comfort and support someone else. How would this make them feel? How would this make us feel? I cannot explain my satisfaction with this experience. You will have to try it to understand......

The most satisfaction I have gotten in my life is giving of my free will. I do not possess a whole lot of money to give away but I find immense pleasure in giving of myself and my talents out of my free will. What comes naturally to me adds a special meaning to my life and helps someone else. We all need a sense of belonging and unconditional love and also have that special ability to make others feel that sense of belonging and unconditional love as well. And when we are already experiencing that sense of belonging and know how it makes us feel we understand the desperate emotional needs of someone else. Don't we?

What do I consider a sense of belonging? A sense of belonging is gotten when we respect the closeness of family and friends in connection to ourselves. How does it make us feel when we say "My son", My daughter", My mother", My good friend"? What happens when we don't have a daughter, a son, a mother or a good friend? I suggest that you can get out into the world and be that son, daughter, mother or good friend to someone else. Just give it a try and let me know how that makes you feel?

We Flap Butterflies ROCK!

So much has gone on these past few years, when the thought of "We Flap" and the ideas behind it began to blossom. Priyanka (Mandira's sister) had reached out to her dear friends in the neighborhood to help as volunteer coordinators for We Flap Outreach. They were a super energetic team of teenagers (Beverly, Joanne, Julien) who got together to do their homework projects around my dining table, raid my pantry for cool snacks and just chat up.

Mandira would reserve special days to do "We Flap" work and plan their snacks and rewards for a job well done. Priyanka was responsible for their presence and getting the task done. All that I did was to set the goals for the day and suggest how best to manage their time to accomplish the specific task. I could be reached at any time they needed help as well. It turned out to be so "FUN"! As "We Flap" volunteers, our team of best friends really enjoyed their space and were so much at ease working aggressively while being themselves...... just joking, helping and making fun of each other. And for the reward, they mostly wanted the banana split ice cream at "Amy's". With their super appetites this felt like a huge treat after a day of hard work. We even made trips to "Kerbey Lane Cafe" for brunch. Well, if you ever travel to Austin, you've got to check out these two places. They totally ROCK!

Now, for the funnest experience they ever had....our volunteers were assistant facilitators for the "We Flap" Enrichment Slot at an elementary school here in Austin where I was facilitating the E-Slot. Full of ideas on how they would manage their time at the E-slot and take leadership roles they started interacting with the 4th and 5th graders at ease. Kids were super excited to be split into groups and have our volunteers guide them and help them understand what "We Flap" was all about and introduce them into the incredible world of "Giving".

Our enrichment slot sessions were a huge success and the school has allowed us to continue by facilitating both the enrichment cluster and the enrichment slot during the school year. To top it all, there was also an amazing response from our students who attended the sessions last year wanting to take on leadership roles and be assistant facilitators this year. Also, we needed to come up with a creative name and as "We Flappers" we could not think of nothing better than being "Future Change Makers".