I Try to Bring a Small Change’
For 25-year-old Sonal Kapoor, empowerment is synonymous with education and that’s just what Protsahan, a not-for-profit organisation spearheaded by her, is facilitating .
What I Love About My Work
The challenges. This is my passion; I don’t consider this work
What I Hate About it
The obstacles one faces while doing genuine work. For every 100 people who respect your work, there are some who end up judging you
My Daily Memo
When I am not working as a consultant, I am busy with Protsahan, either at the school or on my laptop, brainstorming with my team members from around the globe till the wee hours of the night Protsahan is only a year old, but it’s been one amazing run. It seems like yesterday when we started this social-impact organisation (that’s what we like to call it). The idea was conceptualised while shooting for a corporate film for HelpAge India in Vikas Nagar in Delhi back in the summer of 2010. I was working as a communications manager with HelpAge then. A chance visit to the nearby slums brought me face to face with reality. I met a woman who had six kids, all girls, and was expecting a seventh. On being asked about her ever-expanding family, she replied she would rather not have a seventh baby, than give birth to yet another girl. The answer shocked me out of my wits. It got me thinking on how we can bring about some measure of change, however small. But the thought baffled me. Without a funding agency, without political patronage, corporate backing or any meaningful contacts, how could I change anything? But I decided I had to start somewhere; I took the leap of faith.
Falling into Place
Most girls in the area had no exposure to education. I decided to open a school for them. A place was rented in Vikas Nagar. Since I had a regular job and couldn’t afford to be around each day, I needed to hire a teacher. Fortuitously, I met Sadhana the same day at the ashram where we were shooting and she agreed to take on the challenge. Today, she is one of the pillars on which Protsahan stands. We did a feasibility study — going around the slums, from house to house, convincing families to send their daughters to school — and were confronted with some basic issues. Like, why would a mother send her 12-year-old daughter to school when she can earn anywhere between 500 and 1,500 a month by working. So we decided to work with the community, rather than standing up against them. We decided to tap the creativity of the kids to give them vocational education. Today, we help them with a basic 8-10 month ‘connect’ course which is filled with colours, art, creativity and basic functional literacy, and put them back in class IV or V in a government school. We are thinking of open-school certification for some. We also teach the mothers crafts to ensure their livelihood.
Funding and Volunteers
I don’t know how it’s falling into place, but it is. Initially I thought I would support the school with my salary. I was fearful that due to a shortage of funds, we may have to shut shop. This is why I never expanded. But as word got around, the number of students grew from the initial 19 to almost 80. We had to divide the class into batches. I quit my job to get involved with Protsahan full time, but soon realised I had to work somewhere, if only to support the school. Today, I work as a consultant for a project for three days a week. The rest of my time is for Protsahan. I have never gone to any organisation seeking funds. But we do get on and off support from corporate houses. If there is a sudden big expense, I meet it out of my pocket. We have held three fundraisers in the city — comedy shows put up by artistes. We have set up stalls at corporate offices of Wipro, Panasonic, Airtel, Mudra, and the like, where we have sold products made by Protsahan children. As for volunteers, there’s no dearth of them. We are almost 100% volunteer driven. We have always been very active on Facebook, and as we grew, people who noticed us on the social network offered to lend a hand. For instance, there’s this kid from Assam, who called up saying she wants to come down and teach Bharatnatyam to these kids. Somehow, we seem to attract a lot of attention and people have come forward to help us at every juncture. The core team today consists of 15 committed people from diverse professions around the world.
Up Next...
The word is spreading. I represented India as a youth delegate at the recently concluded World Bank-IMF annual meeting (held in Washington, DC). I have also been invited for a Tedx Talk at Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi on October 21. Tedx is an event where people come together to share ideas they are passionate about. Hopefully, these will provide the much-needed boost to the dream that is Protsahan.
(As told to Anidra Hom Chaudhuri 1O1011)
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