A Few Final Notes

Dear friends,

Now that I have been in the US for 9 days I thought I would provide some final thoughts on my Global SE experience.  Like one of my Wooster professor uses in class, I have a few "take-home" points to share with you:

• As a generalization, Americans are much more individualistic than Indians.  While family is important for many Americans, it is a significantly larger part of Indian life.  I liked this aspect of Indian culture and I am hoping to replicate it in my own life because I think it will remind me to think of more than just myself.
• I definitely want to return to India.  This time, rather than living in the city, I hope to live in a rural setting.  I found rural India to be very beautiful and I liked the slower pace of life.
• More than feeling like I was collaborating with an NGO on a project, I think Global SE fostered lots of personal growth.  By pushing myself and putting myself in an unfamiliar setting I learned a lot about my own personality, what I value, and what I want to do in the future.
• There are many individuals out there who want to change the world but just don't know how to do it.  If these people could be leveraged, change could be systemic.

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my time in India.  There is a good chance this blog will come back to life soon as I continue my study abroad experiences (I'm headed to Central America in January) or if I learn some cool things at Wooster that I would like to share.  Until then, peace.

ET

Visit to Magadi on 9 July

The Saturday before I left India I had the opportunity to visit Magadi, a peri-urban town located about 45 kilometers outside of Bangalore.  Magadi is home to one of the Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security’s (RUAF) projects which I wrote about in a blog post a few weeks ago.  It was great to go see it in person and I learned a lot more about the program.

RUAF has projects around the world (Latin America, Asia, and Africa).  A few years ago they started the From Seed to Table project at a number of sites including in Magadi.  This program was created to strengthen the marketing capacity of farmers.  In Magadi, an association of farmers was started in order to better market their products and thus improve livelihoods.  There is also a special savings group specifically for women.  In addition to better marketing, the association members learn organic farming techniques and have achieved a unity among the agricultural community that did not exist before the association.   

These farmers grow a variety of vegetables but their star vegetable is the carrot.  It was chosen because it can get a high selling price in the Magadi and Bangalore markets where the farmers’ produce is sold.

Value Chain Map for Magadi's carrot.  (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Some of the farmers in Magadi.  Can you pick out the academic?

Project director, a few female farmers, Laura Valencia (my Wooster friend), and me.

We got to talk to about 15 total farmers (out of the current 157) who are members of the producer association.  All of these farmers are within a 2 kilometer radius of the project office where the group meets once a month.  In addition to trainings, the association gives the chance for farmers to discuss issues or ideas to improve their businesses.  A few of the recent/upcoming initiatives by the association are growing carrots year-round, starting up a nursery, and reintroducing traditional seed varieties into the fields.

In addition to talking with farmers and the association’s facilitator we briefly got to visit one of the fields.  Here we saw an example of a vermiculture system (I of course dug for worms) and we got to view some women weeding a field of radishes (I of course jumped right in on this activity until realizing that no one else was following me).

I was surprised at how successfully this project seemed to be going.  Even though I loved working at Green Corps in Cleveland last summer there were still many, many challenges that the organization was facing.  I did not see nearly as many challenges in Magadi.  Of course, the contexts of the two projects are entirely different.  But I still wonder if there’s something that Cleveland's Green Corps could learn from Magadi?  This question or something similar is something I will probably be exploring in my senior thesis.

Working on our Hiroshi Takeo faces even in semi-rural India.

Back in the USA

Dear friends,

I just wanted to inform you all that I have arrived safely back in the United States.  I am currently sitting in the Newark International Airport waiting for my flight to Detroit.  Once I'm in Detroit I will have a few more blog posts to put up about some of the things I did at the end of my stay in Bangalore (things got a bit too hectic to write the posts there).  I hope you've enjoyed reading and be on the lookout for a few last posts.

ET

New York Times Article "In Fight for Better India, Best to Look Within"

Since I have been in India I have heard a lot of talk about corruption.  Here is an article in the New York Times that takes an interesting approach to solving this problem of corruption.  Our GSE Team has been discussing what we think about this approach.  Feel free to add your own comments on the blog.

Looking Sharp with Two Days of Work Left

Sam and I have two days of work left at EnAble India.  We presented our project to our supervisors, Anju and Shanti, yesterday.  Tomorrow (Friday) we will hand in our report that proposes the creation of a knowledge-sharing network of Indian NGOs that work for employment of persons with disabilities.

Until then, we have lots of work to do!

Center for Social Initiative and Management, Bangalore

Click on the photo to enlarge.

More photos at SE Wooster's photostream.

Reflections on Global Social Entrepreneurship

Every week we spend three hours at a session hosted by the Center for Social Initiative and Management (CSIM).  This week our own program was featured in the session.  As preparation for this presentation, Professor Moledina had us answer the following four questions.  I answered them for the CSIM session and then revised my answers afterwards based upon insights I gained from our discussion.  Here’s how they turned out.

1. What do you think Global SE is?

• GSE is all about context.  Global = contextual.  This context could be cultural, geographical, socioeconomic, gender, values, etc.  When we come to volunteer at Dream a Dream and EnAble India we need to understand the contexts that these organizations are working in.  Once we understand the contexts we learn how to find solutions that are contextually appropriate. 
• GSE is also all about having a special mindset.  It’s a learning mindset rather than a “I’m going to give you an answer” mindset.  Asking questions.  Observing what’s around us and what’s been done before.  Could something that was successful somewhere else be modified to fit the special context we’re in?  Part of this learning mindset is understanding the ecosystem we are are in.
• Because GSE is all about understanding context and having a learning mindset, it becomes a highly collaborative experience.  In this collaborative experience we are avoiding hierarchy and avoiding arrogance. 
• In the larger scope, global social entrepreneurs envision systems-level change.  I like Bill Draken’s quote about changing the entire fishing industry rather than giving someone fish/teaching them how to fish (I used this in a previous post about Ashoka Fellows).  In order to achieve systems level change, global social entrepreneurs need to think outside of the box.
• The systems level change means that the models for change need to self-sustaining models.  They need to empower those who are experiencing the social problem and make sure that the solution is rooted in the entire community.  When one person or one NGO leaves the positive changes should not disappear.
• Wooster’s GSE program is about trying to actively create change rather than just talk about it.  So much of academics is talking, but sometimes you just can’t understand the full scope of a situation unless you’ve experienced it yourself.  Once we’ve participated in the experiential learning process, then we can start devising solutions.
• Finally, Wooster’s GSE program is about personal growth.  What do I learn about myself?  What do I enjoy working on?  Where do I fit in to help affect change?

2. Why did you enroll in it?

I chose to participate in GSE because I’m interested in social justice.  However, I don’t just want to talk about social justice.  I want to do social justice.  If you received a letter from me in the spring you might remember me mentioning this.  At Wooster we do lots of talking about social problems but not as much action.  I think that action is just as important, especially in an academic setting where you are learning skills and methods to take your forward in your life. 

I also chose to enroll in GSE because I thought it would put me out of my comfort zone.  I’m used to being a volunteer in American NGOs and doing labor that pretty much anybody could do.  In GSE I am completing a very intensive project in an entirely different context.  I wanted to make myself do something new like that. 

3. What was your project?

Sam and I worked at EnAble India which is an NGO that works to train and then find employment for disabled adults.  We are finishing up a report that proposes the creation of a knowledge-sharing network for ten Indian NGOs that work for employment of persons with disabilities (PWD).  By sharing knowledge (including best practices) the hope is that these NGOs can better achieve their own specific goals while also working for the common good.  In order to devise our report, Sam and I did lots of research on effective NGO networks.  We also interviewed a number of potential member NGOs to hear their thoughts on knowledge-sharing and see what knowledge they could provide to other NGOs.

4. How has this project affected how you think about working for social change?

I have learned a lot about how I fit into the social change spectrum while working on this project.  I’ve learned that I do not consider myself a social entrepreneur.  Social entrepreneurs work 24/7 and are usually very intense and extroverted people.  I am not like that.  Maybe I can be a different type of person that works for social change.  Or, maybe I should redefine my notion of “social entrepreneur.”  Nonetheless, I know that I am more of a “hands” worker rather than a “head” worker (which is ironic because I chose to attend a liberal arts college where we pretty much only do head work).  I want to be out in the field carrying out the programs rather than thinking up how to do them.  And I’m okay with being this type of person.  I continue to believe that I want a large part of my life to be working for social change.

Conclusions

There is no right answer to what GSE is.  This is just what I’ve gathered so far from our seminar, this internship, and from talks with people we’ve met along the way.  I have done a lot of personal reflection during this experience and I will continue to reflect even after I get on a plane in one week.  I don’t think that my notion of GSE will just stay as what I’ve written above.  It’s still an incomplete picture.  Like most things in my head, it will change.