India Update
No one said this was an easy road, but one worth taking.
We came to India with the intention of meeting our potential partner here on the ground, understanding the lay of the land, to work with the women in the slum, and to understand where we need to go from here.
We have achieved all of this. And it is an achievement — I say that for my benefit! We’ve come so far in under a year and we have to celebrate that. However, the potential partner we came to meet is clearly not the partner we should be working with for a whole host of reasons, but with the main one being that goals and beliefs are not 100% compatible.
As soon as we realised this and took a step away, the planets began to align. We were introduced to three other organisations working with women and working on improving education in the slums — both in Dharavi and further. We’ve travelled to remote areas of India to see what the potential is further afield and the work being done already. We’ve met inspiring organisations and people; it’s fair to say we were dealt some luck on the networking front!
It became apparent that we could work with a range of partners in the immediate present to learn, understand the ecosystem better, understand the internal politics, the culture and the people. It also means we can focus our efforts on creating curricula, study materials and finding a way to solve the biggest barrier we are currently facing — getting facetime with students. We are most effective in terms of resource and impact whilst partnering and we love the people we are working with.
We will slowly announce our first partners, as things become official on paper here in India. We can’t wait for you to meet them!
