INterns in the plastic waste management ecosystem of India
Summary
INterns in the plastic Waste Management Ecosystem in India with Conserve India. The team of three employees from the global software business company SAP is on a four-week Social Sabbatical trip to Delhi, India, to work with the NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) Conserve. Conserve empowers marginalized communities, especially women’s groups of waste pickers and artisans, through capacity building.
Start into the Social Sabbatical
Here we are, one week into our SAP Social Sabbatical in Delhi, India.
If you want to learn about the SAP Social Sabbatical, look here. There is also an impressive study on the impact it achieved in the past 10 years.
Given all this, we feel very honored that we were selected to join this remarkable program — being away from our everyday jobs for 4 weeks, joining an amazingly talented, like-minded group of colleagues — 12 from 8 countries.
By the way, our cohort’s name is INterns — eager to learn, contribute and grow through our assignments, while having fun.
It was super cool to finally meet the whole group in person. And we used our first day together and explored Delhi by foot, while avoiding buying any non-needed carpets. This was already an amazing bonding experience.
Here are some Delhi group impressions:
On Monday we were extremely excited to meet our NGO stakeholders in person. In the weeks before the onsite trip, we had some remote preparation calls.
Work with the NGO Conserve India
Our team of three with Evie, Denis and Isabel is assigned to work with the NGO Conserve India.
Conserve India is an NGO that started back in 1997. Conserve India empowers marginalized communities, especially women’s groups of waste pickers and artisans, through capacity building. The organization educates and empowers communities on using waste as a resource to create high-value products. In doing so, it believes in bringing even higher value to both communities and the planet. The NGO also runs a Social Business LIFAFFA, a fashion brand that stands for contemporary values and new-age fashion, while combining social justice and environmental regeneration in its products.
Conserve has an incredibly challenging assignment for us. How could they incubate the network of Plastiskul in India?
In our first week, we got to know the very inspiring people of Conserve that provided us with a very warm welcome and great insights into their work. Hearing about their accomplishments and experiences, learning how they have fighting social issues as the north star for their careers, as well as their passion is what inspired the most.
Exchange with Key Stakeholders
We also got to know potential key players and partners.
We visited the GIZ (German Agency for international cooperation) to get firsthand insights related to waste policies & ecosystem in India.
To experience the groundwork, we had a field visit to a Plastic Material Recovery Facility (MRF). In the MRF waste pickers bring their collected plastic and waste segregation happens manually. In this facility the plastic is then delivered to a Recycler for further processing.
We were able to go to a Conserve community site, to see where the magic of up-cycling from plastic waste to fashionable products happens.
And we got the opportunity to visit the beneficiary in a slum and learn more about the life of a waste picker, its living conditions and needs — a very touching moment.
Seeing the conditions under which the community lives and hearing that one of the waste pickers loves playing badminton, but after the badminton stick is broken, he can no longer play, as he cannot afford a new one — leaves us speechless.
For us, this first week was inspiring, gave us great opportunities to experience the life in Delhi and around it and for sure increased the expectation we have of us, providing valuable results for Conserve in the next three weeks to come.
If you want to read on my overall experience reflection, take a look at this blog.
#SAP, #SocialSabbatical, #India, #Delhi, #plastiskul
