September’s the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Ignorance is bliss. Often I wonder, if it was easier to not see, not feel. Hathras shook the Nation, once again. It takes the most violent of the rapes for us to feel something, to think of acting. Most other forms of violence wouldn’t even make a headline. Action from the masses still remains a distant dream. Covid has hit us in many ways, but the way it has supported violence, trafficking — it is hard to put in words.

What kind of persistent efforts can we put in to address some of these issues collectively. What stops the affluent of us to not commit say even 2% of their earnings or 5% of their time to improve the very society we are a part of. Anyway, just beyond these thoughts is an urge to act, and do what we can. Here’s an update from our work in August:

The Good

1. Pallabi Ghosh, co-founder at Anti-slavery Collective shared her work on anti-trafficking with our team. We are identifying ways to work with children who were trafficked and have been rescued.
2. We are finally starting our 200 girls campus in Pune on November 20th. We have some candidates for the final location, but look forward to any suggestions or contact that anyone may have on this.
3. Admissions are going well, with a lot of interest from the girls to join the program.
4. We could develop the first version (v0.1) of Meraki — an app aligned with NEP2020 to teach programming using smartphones to the students. We would start working on the distribution of the application soon.
5. We have partnered with Piramal Foundation to train 150+ girls in Software Programming in a hybrid model.
6. Swati joined us as Head of Outreach & Partnerships and Saquib as a full-stack developer.

The Bad

1. About 70–80% of the students are easy to be placed. With the remaining 20% it is a struggle. However, core of our promise is a guaranteed job to each and every student who successfully finishes our program. To be able to do this, while also keeping employers happy is a challenge.
2. We are struggling with adequate learning outcomes for our online program “Code Stars”. There are extreme differences — there are many who drop out, and many who learn quite well.

Need Your Help!

1. If you know someone in Pune — who can help us to partner with or lease a college, school, or an entire building for our 200 girls, do connect. Total area expectations: 16000–20000sqft.
2. We need volunteers who understand technology — either in a capacity to mentor, code or build curriculum.
3. Refer your friends who may be interested in donating on a monthly basis. To do some of the bolder experiments — we need your help on this. 2% of monthly income is the suggested donation.

Take rest, rejuvenate yourself and take care of your health. These times are a reminder to how precious our health is.