Microcredit group and website updates

I'm back at it again quickly after my previous long hiatus. This will be a short post, however.

I just wanted to have a post updating you about the current size of our micro-credit program, since it's recently expanded. Here is a table summarizing all of the groups we are currently operating and the amount of loans that have been taken out in each group:

There is a lot of information in this table, so I'll point out a few features. We have the total number of loans given, which for some of our older groups you can see is quite large. We also have the total amount loaned in the last column (in Rupees), which is also significant for our older groups. For reference, it takes a few thousand rupees to buy each of fertilizer, specialized seeds, and goats. So, this table really tells you that our program is working very well, with many people taking loans, most likely for the aforementioned agricultural purposes. Also, you can see that the majority of our groups are for women. As is well-documented in this blog and on our website, we believe that these groups are crucial for women as a vehicle of social change, empowering them as economic actors and decision-makers in their households. So, we are happy with the progress shown in the above table. Note that we do allow the groups for men as well because that can provide concrete economic benefit as well. Our main focus is on women, however. I'm very happy with this table! We will continue to work to expand and develop this work, improving our services in whatever ways we can. We also plan on passing control of these groups over to the women within a few years, once they are comfortable with the administration. All in due time.

In case you forgot, here's some of the women who have taken loans from us, along with the product of their loans:

A women in Kukrella who has taken a loan to buy a goat. The milk will be used in the family or sold.

A women in Barwara who has taken a loan to buy fertilizer for her millet, or bajra, crops. They grew nicely. The millet harvest was harvested in October. Villagers use millet to make bread and as a feed for livestock. It is a crucial crop in rural Rajasthan. Notice in her left hand the pink booklet. It is the booklet where they record their monthly contributions to the group's central fund as well as details about loans they take and pay back. 

A women in Barwara, also in her millet field. Notice the pink booklet here as well. 

While we are on numbers, I would just like to mention that we will again be operating summer computer education groups in 5 villages, with 1 village also serving as a pilot for our village information center model. If last year is an indication, then the groups will have at least 20-25 students in the classes. We look forward to seeing all of our students progress this summer.

For those interested in India, right now is the time of the harvest of mustard, wheat, and chickpeas (or surso, gehu, and chana in hindi) in Rajasthan. These are all critical crops in the area for eating, for giving to livestock, for selling, etc. I always mention things like this because this is one reason why our staff is so good at what they do: they are farmers like the people they work with, so they understand all the relevant issues. Some photos:

 A mustard field behind a meeting of a male microfinance group. Beautiful, I think.

Chickpeas are eaten whole in India, as well as used for flour and to make pre-made foods like mungori. They are also very tasty when roasted.

Wheat is commonly used to make chappatis, which are like tortillas and are used to scoop up the main dish that is being eaten.


Finally, I would like to mention that I updated the website, so that I think it contains much more information and has a better layout than previously. We will continue to put more information on here with time. Please give feedback on this, we really need it! We want to attract people to our work using the site, so it's very helpful to get feedback to make it better.

Thanks so much for your attention again. Have a great day and keep India in your heart!

Youth Technology Education Round II, and another visitor

All,
    It's been far too long since I've written anything here. What can I say, my research has kept me extremely busy over the last several months so that all I could do with respect to my work in India was maintain contact with the field workers and plan our coming work. I'll be posting more in the coming months.

A female in Mohan Gujar ki Dhani practices the computer during winter break

   Alright, so the big news is that we're going to be entering our second year of youth technology education. We've learned a lot in the last year about what will it takes to make such a program work in terms of meeting places and locations, with the cooperation and input of the villagers in the villages in which we work. It seems that we've got even more buy-in this year, as the students and their parents are already starting to see the benefits of having computer skills. Indeed, over their winter break they were using the computers and re-hashing the skills they learned last summer, while also learning about Google and the information you can get from the internet. This is heady stuff for people who had never touched a computer prior to our program.

     The most important period is coming up now, because the students' summer break is coming up (April 15th-July15th). We will again be bringing in a computer teacher to teach the students specific skills on the computer. We have a timeline laid our for our work: in April we will review the skills learned last year, in May we will learn word and practice typing to get good speed on this, in June we will introduce Excel and the internet, and in July we will review everything and give an exam over what was taught over the summer. We think this subset of skills contains the most important things for these students to learn in order to be able to function on the computers, be ready to learn more, and to have useful skills for an employer or for going to college. We are very excited to see how the students progress in the coming months. More details to come as they develop!

Me at one of the computer centers last year. On my right is the computer teacher and field worker Gopal Singh. We will be bringing in a computer teacher again this summer.

       Also, for this summer we will also be introducing our village information center in Kukrella, which we view as a natural way to integrate the whole village into our computer program. As I said in an earlier blog post, the purpose of this center will be to provide a center for various types of literature on agriculture, government policy, etc.; to provide newspapers for people to read; and to allow for better usage of the computers we currently have for the YLTGs when the students are in school. The idea for this latter point is that the computers will be available for the wider village to use for job applications, school applications, looking up information, or whatever use for which they need it (that will surely develop with time!). Larger towns in the area have such centers, but thus far the villages where we work do not have them and that puts the villagers at a disadvantage in terms of jobs and educational prospects, as well as information needed for their livelihood. We will be working to expand access to information through technology and traditional means. This combines one of our core missions of spreading technological literacy in village areas with the key goal of equalizing access to information and resources for villagers. We will continue to refine this idea and I will keep you updated as this progresses!

Our previous visitor James at a microcredit group meeting in Berki. A friend of his will be visiting LSS in April

     I am happy to announce also that we will be having another visitor to LSS, and she is a friend of James Arnott, a previous visitor. He liked his visit so much that this friend decided she wanted to come see it as well during her trip to India and Nepal. I encourage anyone else who wants to come visit to please do. I think you will find our work fascinating and inspiring. That more people are wanting to see it is a testament, I think, to the sound fundamentals we have been working on building over the last couple years. We will continue to work hard to improve our programs. We will be very happy to have our new visitor. I will give her name as soon as I confirm that she's ok with that. 

    A few odds and ends to tie up here. We now have three field workers. In addition to Gopal Singh and Rohitash Kumar Meena, who have been the steady hands in the field for the last couple years, we also have Shyam Singh, a very experienced field worker as well. We are lucky to have Shyam on with us as we expand our computer program and our microcredit program.

Rohitash and I talking about the future of LSS. Once we have our FCRA registration and can directly receive foreign funds, we think things will be looking very bright.


     Also, we will be applying for our registration to receive foreign funds directly soon since we are approaching three years as an organization. This is the period mandated before you can receive funds directly under India's Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). This will be nice because no longer will a portion of the funds go to the organization that currently provides oversight on our work (NSS). NSS has done an excellent job, but since we have yearly external audits this is not really necessary. Anyways, once we get this registration, it will be much easier to fundraise since we have very little overhead in our programs so all our overhead is currently in our interface with NSS. So we are very excited for this registration.

    Finally, I will have another post soon with some updates on our microcredit work (hint: we are expanding it :) ).

    Hope you all are well. Have a great day and consider coming to India to see LSS!