I work at a non-profit organisation called Marwar Seva Sanstha (MSS) under my boss, Vijay. Right now, MSS provides women and girls with basic vocational skills such as henna painting and bag making, but Vijay and MSS board member Mr Diwendi have plans to expand MSS’s activities.
According to Smita, I was placed in that organisation to act as a sort of business development consultant. I don’t presume to know much about development and non-profits, but I have worked with many different non-profits, including my parents’. Things are still fluid; I’m still finding my place within the dynamics of the organisation, still figuring out what exactly I can do to help out.
Over the past week and a half, I’ve seen a lot of what MSS does, tapped into Vijay’s and MSS board member Mr Diwendi’s heads, and visited the families of the girls who attend MSS. The reason I haven’t posted about MSS yet is because I’m still processing a lot of things.
I’ve gained a good sense of the steps they should take to move forward, though, and what I can do to help them out. And I’ll slowly start posting once I’ve figured out what exactly I can do.
2 comments:
Wow Jac, you have your work cut out for you... It's excellent you're getting this opportunity though.
I find one problem is that a lot of NGO-supported artisanal work development doesn't actually have very solid demand, in the sense that the demand comes from people who want to help the producers (compassionate money, if you like), rather than people who genuinely want the product for the sake of the product.
Such a tough issue... How to put these precious women to meaningful work that is genuinely in demand, sustainable and sufficient for their livelihood...
Hey Clare,
That's exactly one of the issues I'm trying to figure out. There are so many women's empowerment organisations in India that train women in basic handicraft skills but no one's thinking about what happens after they're trained and whether there is a demand for these low-skilled workers.
The government and many development workers are really supportive of their efforts and help publicise them as something good, but I'm not so sure. Even the most "successful" (ie most popular, best publicised as successful) women's empowerment organisation in Jodhpur has problems finding a market for their goods and is still relying on grants and other sorts of funds to keep their programmes running. Whether their efforts are benefitting the women financially consistently (ie regular income) and on a large scale is not clear.
At the same time, what else can these women do, given that often they don't have an education and have a household to take care of? These efforts to give them just a little bit more money may just be enough to send their children to school and ensure that the next generation won't have to struggle so much.
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