Diversity, the common Denominator and our Assignment
I know I am well overdue on writing my next blog post. Since I arrived in India one experience just keeps chasing the next. Have you ever had the feeling that you are about to “run out of memory” like the memory card in your camera, when the camera tells you, that you can’t take any more pictures? My brain is trying to catch up on processing and categorizing all the incredible impressions, but it is hard to find some real downtime.
So let’s start sequentially, on what happened since my last post. Last Sunday we had our first official get-together and workshop with all the SAP participants, our mentor (participant in a previous sabbatical) and Pyxera representatives (the organization that helps SAP with running the global sabbatical program and provides local coaches / facilitators).
Doesn’t this sound like the perfect script for a new reality TV show:
- 12 participants from completely diverse backgrounds, from the late 20s to 50, born in 11 countries and currently working and living in 8 different countries.
- Give them a challenging assignment in a field they have no or only limited experience working in (non-profit, social enterprise)
- Ask them to complete the assignment in 4 weeks
- Put them into a foreign environment
Well, this is not a new TV show, but our SAP Global Sabbatical in Hyderabad. As we got to know each other, a common denominator quickly emerged. All participants mentioned 2 or even 3 of the following reasons for applying and participating in the Global Sabbatical program:
- The desire to do good, make this world a better place and pay it forward
- Having an innate curiosity and drive to explore
- The aspiration to improve the status quo and to live up to our potential
Within less than a day and despite our diverse background I felt like I gained 11 new friends.
On Monday we all got to meet our counterparts from the 4 NGOs and social enterprises that were selected for the sub-projects at our hotel. Each one of these 4 NGOs and social enterprises had to go through a selection process similar to the SAP participants. My colleague Marta already provided a brief overview of the 4 organizations in her blog post, so I will only focus on the one my sub-team of 3 (1 colleague from China, one originally from Russia now working in Germany and myself), is assigned to: CHORD (Childwelfare & Holistic Organization for Rural Development) http://www.chordindia.org/
CHORD’s objectives are to
1. Eliminate child labor
2. Offer education to the less fortunate
3. Provide skill training to produce self-reliant and skilled livelihood earners
4. Empower women
5. Develop and transform communities by eradicating poverty
6. Sensitize the community on issues of child rights and gender equality
Our assignment and objective during the Sabbatical is to study the success of one of CHORD’s initiatives, the Growth Gene project (GGP) and come up with a business strategy for a replicable, scalable and sustainable social enterprise model. The GGP was a 3 year joint venture between CHORD and Microsoft, aimed at sustainable development for the communities of the largest slum in Hyderabad, Yellamabanda, and has successfully created a social enterprise — Spriha Collections (http://www.sprihacollections.com/) — a garment making unit that employs fifty women from the slums. The challenge now is to sustain, scale and replicate the model.
Our focus in week 1 was to get up-to-speed on the various great services CHORD provides to the community (schools for the children, free skill training for adults etc.) as well as Spriha Collections and the infrastructure.
We started our “tour” with a visit of Disha CHORD High School, one of CHORD’s 2 formal schools with nearly 200 students, grades 6 to 10. We received a warm welcome and the highlight of the day for me were the Q&A sessions with the students.
I am closing my blog entry today with 2 of the questions we received that I considered the most interesting:
1. Are girls and boys equal in China?
2. What was your dream job as a child and have you realized that dream?
Question 1 was answered by my colleague from China and question 2 by all 3 of us.
What would be your answer to question 2?
