To know that we reach out to this kid in a Government Hospital outside Chennai in Chengalpattu is totally worth all the effort we put in. Participate in SIFI’s Vision Ventilator today.

Date : Saturday, 4th February, 2012
Time : 4:00 P.M.
Venue : Mylapore Kapaleeswarar Temple.
Parking : At Mylapore Temple premises or Mylapore Railway Station.

For more details. Call us @ 8939820407/9962583422.

Set amidst a Republic day parade on Marina Beach & the slums of Triplicane, we were able to reach out to newer volunteers & donors. One of the participants, Mr.Santosh, came all the way from Bangalore to participate in the walk as he thought ‘he really wanted to do this’.  Participants for the walk included students, working professionals & professional photographers. Mobile, point & shoot and high-end were the different kind of cameras seen at the walk. This diversity is unlikely to be seen in other photo-walks around the city. “Thanks to SIFI, this is the first time I attended a Republic day parade & walked through a slum-lane in my own city” said Anu, one of the participants.

The display of India’s military might & a walk with the children in the urban slums subtly jelled with SIFI’s goals. The proceeds raised from the walk where through registration & would go towards our project ‘Vision Ventilator’, which funds a ventilator for the Chengalpet Government Hospital. We started our journey in 2011 & currently fund small NGO’s in Healthcare and Education like EKAM.

To attend their next photo-walk, you can log on to: www.sifindia.com or Like them on Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/social.investment.foundation.of.india

On event day:
• Participants interact with photographers from across the city and click photos during the walk
• Participants are encouraged to bring photos based on the theme ‘a journey called life’. An open discussion on such photos will be undertaken to offer comments and suggestions.
• Talk by Sriram Sabhapathy on social photography. He is an avid photographer whose photos may be viewed at http://www.sriramphotography.com/

After the event:
Each participant may send 2 photos (with caption) shot during the walk. The top 12 photos, adjudged by a professional photographer will go into making a calendar for 2012. All due photo credits will be mentioned.

The event is divided into 2 sessions :
Session 1 : 26th January 2012 around Triplicane
Session 2 : 5th February 2012 around Mount Road/Parrys

A fee of Rs 100/- will be collected from all participants and will go towards the cause of Vision Ventilator. Participants are encouraged to donate over and above the fee on the event day.

Interested persons are requested to register at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGZqcGdMaVZtTElUeEs4dl8xTUVveGc6MQ

During the course of these months, the team has been confronted by many questions – why not approach corporate organizations or companies for money who may contribute as a part of their CSR initiative? Is SIFI going to direct the collected funds only to NGOs or also to individuals who are in need of funds? How does SIFI ensure the credibility of NGOs and ensure that the money goes towards the best cause that yields maximum positive social impact? However, one of the biggest questions that have been debated by the team – social media : to do or not to do?

In the initial stages, the progress was slow as the team used personal contacts to get funds in. But soon almost everyone on our close network was aware of SIFI and a few contributed to the cause. Given the question of growth and sustainability, it became imperative to reach out to a larger market. That’s when the debate of venturing into social media arose for the first time. The team was divided on opinion.

As the youngest in the 7 member team, I was eager to use social media such as Facebook to publicise our cause. I believed that, with this, things start rolling and results are achieved faster. After many rounds of thought provoking and challenging questions thrown at me, we negotiated and decided to use it for the short term. And thus, our Facebook page for Vision Ventilator was born.

As a tweak from the original features of a Facebook Page, this page will exist only until 31^stMarch 2012 – the deadline for SIFI to raise INR 2,50,000 to donate a ventilator to the Chengelpet Government Hospital. Being admin of the page is both challenging and overwhelming. I learn a lot by searching for content for regular updates on the page – about world affairs, people’s attitudes, resource management etc. It is satisfying to note that in 10 days nearly 65 people have liked the page, with just as many talking about it. However, it gets tougher from here on as it must stand the test of time. It must fulfill the purpose of spreading awareness of SIFI and its activities and enable raising funds.

The ideological shift in allowing flexibility to create and manage SIFI’s social media relations has paved way for all of us to be more open to change. Ideas that were previously not taken too seriously like printing tee shirts, banners in events etc are resurfacing. A measured outcome is the impending photo-walk as a fundraising event for Vision Ventilator.

Personally, I find it enjoyable to be the face of SIFI – posting and updating details of our activities and connecting with a bunch of people who relate with and support our cause. It gives me a purpose to wake up everyday and a reason to look forward to being proactive and passionate about everything I do.

Swetha Viswanathan

Let us begin with some facts here, by 2030, 60% of the World’s population is projected to be in Urban areas. In India, estimates suggest we would have over 40% of the population in urban areas. Find below a snap-shot taken from a McKinsey report on Urban settlement.

Cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore & Pune will be economically bigger than countries like Malaysia, Portugal, Columbia etc. Read McK report here.

{Interesting fact: India will have 68 cities with a population of more than a million by 2030, 63 cities have been recommended in the “multi-brand” FDI retail Bill. Contrary to the government’s claim of ‘JUST’ 63 cities }

The anchors were Pratham (Education), Janaagraha (Governance), IIHS(settlements), PHFI (Health), Arghyam (Water), IFMR (Finance), Dronah (Culture), IUSF/SPA (Planning)

As the sessions happened in-parallel, i was able to attend Deep-Dives (as it was called) of Pratham & IFMR.

DAY 1 : Thursday Nov 17th, 2011 – Field Visit

Pratham kicked off with field-visit to one of the urban settlements in Mysore. We conducted a survey in Kurubarahalli, Siddhartha Layout. Door-to-Door through the help of mobile phones. It was great to interact with the kids when you don’t speak their native language.

Door to Door in Kurubarahalli layout

Learnings

• The smallest block in Urban India is no longer a ‘Ward’.

• ‘Low-cost Private schools’ are no better

• Urban areas with income diversity are tough to work with

DAY 2 : Friday Nov 18th, 2011 – Pratham on Education

In a session moderated by Mr.Subir Shukla (blog), we discussed on ‘what the learning outcomes are’ in the context of RTE. 3R’s are the all to learning? In school days I never valued ‘Moral education’ classes because there was no focus on outcomes.Apart from measuring ‘Letter, Para, Division’, what other things should we measure?

The final session for the day was ‘Sharing Data: Strategies and platform for Data Access’.  I was pleased to meet one of my seniors from NIT Calicut working on Accountability Initiative.

Have you ever wondered what CESS is? Read their Gov Budget spending on SSA here.

It is really interesting to see government data being projected in a ‘BETTER’ form as compared to the DISE data which is horrendous.

Learnings

•  Data is never ready. Present the data you have

• Keep it simple.

• Story should go along with the data. Easy to understand.

BUT, there is plenty of data to show that the situation is bad. So, a lot of implementers do not fancy ‘Data’ folks especially in development.

DAY 3 : Saturday Nov 19th, 2011 – IFMR on Finance

IFMR sessions were REALLY interesting. In one of the sessions by Mr.Harvey Koh,who specializes on Impact measurement, I learnt how the Monitor Group is working on disbursing loans to people with salaries of Rs.10,000-15,000.

The final session which I attended, was by Mr.Vikram Kapur an IAS officer from Tamil Nadu, India. He spoke about financing local/municipal government through a Municipal bond market. He presented a concept of moving away from grant by Central to State or State to Local government to ‘Public Funds’.

Ensures

•  Completion of the project on tim

• Governments need not wait for ‘Grants’ for every project.

Look through this entire presentation here The default rate has been ‘NIL’ in his experience. NIL!!

What are you trying to say?

Rural development planning in India is extremely strong compared to Urban development. In my visits, I have found staying in villages more comfortable. Though the quality of education & health should improve, I find governance largely better in villages than it is in cities.

The lowest percentage of voting from any ward in the last Tamil Nadu State Assembly Elections was from T.Nagar, Chennai at 63%. Chennai polled at a measly 66% compared to Karur at over 85%.  Most of us treat cities like villages and adopt a wrong model for development. NGO’s & government alike.

SIFI is an organization based out of Chennai.  It is important for us to understand the approach NGO’s take in their respective area of work. Increasingly, we would try short-listing NGO’s that specialize in Urban Development especially working with Citizens & communities as Tamil Nadu & India become more urbanized than ever.

I hate to call SIFI a volunteer driven NGO at this point of time. But at the same time, we are not a full time NGO either. So how is that we work? get work done? and what is that we do as a team??

SIFI is a six member team presently (yes! click here) of which five of us reside very much in Chennai, India. Though primarily our work is around getting in new donors and in turn ching ching ($), there are lot many activities that happen in the back end – such as…

• identifying list of potential NGOs
• field visits of these NGOs + reporting
• liaising with our beneficiary NGOs – keeping track of their progress and our money spent on them
• reaching back to donors on how their money has been spent
• preparing and sending out newsletters
• brainstorming on marketing ideas
• calling up and reaching out to potential donors
• many admin works – printing receipts for money received, mailing to donors etc.
• meeting new team members (in-progress)

Considering the massive amount of work involved, and the fact that we are not full time, we decided that the best way to get all work done is to have WORK-MEETINGS (Venky coined this term!) –  sit at one place on a sunday (once a week / fortnight), get work done + lunch + gossips: – yes, sounds very much like a corporate office set up, but just that we have a lot of fun when we work, we don’t have strict work-space and we work only for 3 hrs a week! and obviously, we get our work done!

We tried this model on Sunday… Not sure if it is sustainable but sure it works and (worked), and now I sign off with the dream and hope that we are able to do this full time tomorrow with an established (but darn cool) office! yay! 

- Sriram Sabhapathy; December 09, 2011

Chinnamma was (and is) an extremely sharp and smart kid – with good skills in Mathematics. Ask her what is the balance when you have spent 2 rupees out of 10 rupees, she points out to you and laughs saying ‘idu kuda teriyada ungalukku??’ (Don’t you know even this?) J Not only could she answer the question but she could also make good fun of you, sensibly. But only later did I learn that Chinnamma was ‘disgraphic’ – she cannot write her own name on a piece of paper. We definitely have heard of dyslexia (thanks to Tare Zameen Par!) but how many of us have heard about disgraphia?

Chinnamma has been studying in class II for probably 3 consecutive years now. Chinnama does not care about all these, and all she wants to do is to enjoy and have a good life – be smiling as always as in this photograph. Mrs. Vardhini has very encouragingly agreed to coach Chinnamma in the coming academic year and make her appear in Class V examinations independently, given that schools have lost hope on Chinnamma.

Thinking about the larger picture, few thought-provoking aspects:

1. Every problem has a solution and until you figure that one out, it is ok, don’t freak out and freak the rest of the World out. Thinking of the larger picture, your problem was probably nothing!
2. ‘Thank god’ Chinnamma. There are still ‘real people’ like Mrs. Vardhini on earth to help you, unconditionally.
3. Kudos to the spirit of Chinnamma – the ever smiling and I don’t care attitude is something I and a lot of people today in cities need to learn. Just imagine what would you have done, had you flunked in a single paper in your school examinations?? (leave flunking a year or worse 2 years).
4. Everything serious need not be showcased in an emotional manner – I refer to my interaction with Mrs. Vardhini and her introduction of Chinnamma. It was just said as a matter of fact, with no desperate attempt to evoke any kind of emotion or sympathy/empathy in me.

- Sriram Sabhapathy; Visited on November 12, 2011

Here is what Madurai Messenger – Times of Madurai, had to say about Littles Trust.

You can be all of this by investing with SIFI’s first fund raising campaign - VisionVentilator. Through this campaign, SIFI seeks to raise INR 2.5 Lakhs to purchase and donate a ventilator to the Government hospital in Chengelpet district (Tamil Nadu).

What is a ventilator?

A ventilator is a medical instrument that supports the life of a patient, typically infants by providing sufficient oxygen for proper functioning of lungs. Generally used on seriously ill patients, it reduces the risk of death to a great extent.

Why donate money for a ventilator?

Most government hospitals lack necessary funds to buy a ventilator and resort to renting old, dilapidated ones. The daily rent charges vary from Rs 750/- to Rs 1,500/-. Due to its high cost, many patients are denied their right to imperative healthcare and right to life. These ventilators are used in the Neo-natal ICUs, and without them, the mothers have to use manual bagging machines, which means that if they are not very careful, the pressure exerted may be a little more or less that may prove to be fatal to the newborn.

We believe that funding a ventilator will save many lives and will make sustainable impact. Come, join us to breathe lives into people! Please contact us for any further details. You can transfer funds electronically, mail a cheque or donate in cash.

I have never known how it feels to go to bed hungry. I have always gone to the best doctors at the slightest trace of common cold. Having been showered with quality education, well-informed friends & well-off parents, I was better equipped to harness the available resources. I am sure it is applicable for most of us reading this blog.

I have always attended Independence Day celebrations since I was a kid. I love the tricolour going up and saluting it. But, I willfully accept that our country needs to get better, at least now. Our country still has large sections of people who are left out of the system. In Tamizh, it is described beautifully by the word ‘Odukkapattavargal’.

In the last year, I have visited Adi-Dravida-Welfare villages which lie largely untouched, villages, where communities are still played against each other. I regularly witness Dalit communities being sidelined not by politicians or the government but by common people, hospitals over-crowded with patients, who have illnesses which need better treatment, children not having a good atmosphere neither to revise their lessons nor to play football with their friends. I remember how emotional I became during a presentation in Bangalore, where I was told about Maha-Dalits in Bihar. They live on dead bodies &  Dalits shy away from them.

Although, SIFI’s inspiration is largely sentimental, we understand that being efficient & doing ‘good’ need to go hand-in-hand. Our vision is to create impact that is long-lasting & self-sustaining.

I believe temporary-change is worse than no-change. Usually, in villages, children drop-out in 10^th standard. By getting them to 11^th or 12^th, where she/he drops-out again, is a worse-of scenario. An extra year has just resulted in opportunity cost for her rather than creating any significant change in her life. In corporate lingo, ‘strive to take things to its logical conclusion’ or ‘complete the cycle’. Long-lasting impact means, to be there until measurable & permanent changes are created.

Self-sustaining systems ensure long-lasting results. With a regular initial investment from SIFI, if these organizations can slowly bring down their dependency on external funding, they would be called self-sustaining. If you are accountable to your own growth & performance, it leads to better results.

Thus, we strongly believe in quantifying results & focusing on metrics. Organizations tracking their output tend to perform better than others who do not, given similar cash-flows & sector of operation. Not only will we help to pick an organization over another, but SIFI also aims to shape Indian social philanthropy scene where funding is not data-driven.

To summarize, SIFI has a passion to create social impact. All else is done for that.

It has been a very serious read so far, so let me provide you a final summary. We carry the essence of a Shankar movie, which is very good at heart, but we are also a Francis Ford Coppola movie with attention to minute detailing, giving the desired effect on people.