Hi all,
So it's been a bit since I last posted, but progress has been going steadily. Most excitingly, we have developed a formal webpage to tell our organization's story and to raise funds. Please do visit it and give feedback:
https://sites.google.com/site/loksahbhagisanstha/home
The site is still under development, but is an important step for us as an organization. To couple with the new website, our sister American organization, Friends of Lok Sahbhagi Sanstha, now has an organizational bank account so that we can directly and transparently take donations. This account will be audited regularly and relevant financial information will be posted to the website annually. This makes me feel good because I think it will make people much more comfortable in giving to the organization. I'm very happy about this development. A big thanks to Richard Johnson from our board for driving some of the recent work in establishing this sister organization.
Other things have also happened since I last posted. An audit of LSS's account for the Indian financial year of April 2010 to March 2011 (our first year of operation) has been carried out, with details to be posted on the webpage soon. Additionally, brochures for our organization are going to be printed shortly for dissemination within India, and we have decided on expanding the number of microfinance groups in the last few months of the year, since that work is going very well and we want to expand our reach. We are marching on with our progress, so that's great.
A few interesting things of note from the last month as well:
1. There's been a small hiatus in microfinance group meetings because it is time for the millet harvest. Millet is a staple in India, important for both human and animal consumption.
2. I am super excited for the announcement of a $35 table being made in India for the rural poor:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/05/indias-35-tablet-is-here-for-real-called-aakash-costs-60/
We have already talked about this within LSS and will be looking to use these tablets for our work. Stay tuned for developments with this. This could be game-changing and very exciting!
3. Rohitash and Gopal have been collecting data from the field area, which they will send to me for analysis. From this we hope to better understand the population we are working with and target our work to their needs.
4. We will be re-gearing our approach to the youth leadership and technology groups. Since the students are quite busy during the year, with both schoolwork and farmwork, we need to make better use of the computers dedicated to this program. We want them to still be available to the students when they have time to learn about them during the school year, but we are also moving to create Village Information Centers where the whole village can use the computers. The idea would be to use them for online applications, which are becoming ever more common in India, and other such uses where not have a computer seriously handicaps villagers. We will be strategizing about this new model over the next several months, with an aim to implement it starting next year. If you have any ideas for how to make this work better please let us know.
That's all for now. Have a great week!
So it's been a bit since I last posted, but progress has been going steadily. Most excitingly, we have developed a formal webpage to tell our organization's story and to raise funds. Please do visit it and give feedback:
https://sites.google.com/site/loksahbhagisanstha/home
The site is still under development, but is an important step for us as an organization. To couple with the new website, our sister American organization, Friends of Lok Sahbhagi Sanstha, now has an organizational bank account so that we can directly and transparently take donations. This account will be audited regularly and relevant financial information will be posted to the website annually. This makes me feel good because I think it will make people much more comfortable in giving to the organization. I'm very happy about this development. A big thanks to Richard Johnson from our board for driving some of the recent work in establishing this sister organization.
Other things have also happened since I last posted. An audit of LSS's account for the Indian financial year of April 2010 to March 2011 (our first year of operation) has been carried out, with details to be posted on the webpage soon. Additionally, brochures for our organization are going to be printed shortly for dissemination within India, and we have decided on expanding the number of microfinance groups in the last few months of the year, since that work is going very well and we want to expand our reach. We are marching on with our progress, so that's great.
A few interesting things of note from the last month as well:
1. There's been a small hiatus in microfinance group meetings because it is time for the millet harvest. Millet is a staple in India, important for both human and animal consumption.
2. I am super excited for the announcement of a $35 table being made in India for the rural poor:
We have already talked about this within LSS and will be looking to use these tablets for our work. Stay tuned for developments with this. This could be game-changing and very exciting!
3. Rohitash and Gopal have been collecting data from the field area, which they will send to me for analysis. From this we hope to better understand the population we are working with and target our work to their needs.
4. We will be re-gearing our approach to the youth leadership and technology groups. Since the students are quite busy during the year, with both schoolwork and farmwork, we need to make better use of the computers dedicated to this program. We want them to still be available to the students when they have time to learn about them during the school year, but we are also moving to create Village Information Centers where the whole village can use the computers. The idea would be to use them for online applications, which are becoming ever more common in India, and other such uses where not have a computer seriously handicaps villagers. We will be strategizing about this new model over the next several months, with an aim to implement it starting next year. If you have any ideas for how to make this work better please let us know.
That's all for now. Have a great week!
