Help Today Hope Tomorrow - India
Objectives of the Project
The objective of the project is to establish sustainable vocational training workshops, for disadvantaged youths, with the eventual aim of socially integrating the youths.
Brief Outline of the activities of the projects
The project in India is very similar to the project for street children in Uganda. We visited India during 2000 and immediately established a workshop catering primarily for carpentry.
In compliance with our policy of avoiding duplication of scarce resources we established in conjunction with another charity called AARAMBH, a workshop. This workshop was equipped with modern machines in order to produce wooden educational toys.
The activities of the project are very similar to those of the Ugandan project and include the following:
The day commences with prayers If the children regardless if they live on the street do not attend at 9 am they are turned away. Some of the group (50 street children at a time) will go to numeracy and literacy classes, some to life skill classes and some to the vocational workshops. 2 hot nutritional meals are provided every day, cooked in rotation by the children A social worker is on hand to offer counselling services. Upon completing the course, they are entered into an exam, if successful they will be awarded with a certificate and tool box Unemployment/self employment is encouraged. Benefits of the Project
UNICEF has placed a substantial order for education toys in order to supply certain educational establishments in the Bhopal region.
In summary I feel the project has tremendous potential and feel the benefits to the parties are as follows: -
The Children
9. Receive a vocational skill
10. Have the opportunity of passing an exam in carpentry
11. Receive an academic education
12. Leave with a fully equipped tool box
13. Learn life skills such as knowledge regarding aids, reproduction etc.
14. Have the means of gaining self-employment or employment
15. Have the opportunity of greater social integration.
16. Reduce their dependency on drugs.
The Local Charity
6. Cross fertilization of knowledge, we learn from each other
7. The children are retained for longer periods allowing their support team such as social workers to assist them
8. They receive an additional income
9. They have an improved opportunity of gaining such work with larger organizations such as Governments etc.
10. There is ample potential to sell to third parties
The end user
4. They give the Street children a chance to receive the above benefits
5. They receive durable, competitively priced items.
6. They are aware it is a unique project run for the first time in India.
Bhagavat
5. Our capital outlay has been reduced tremendously
6. The project stands an exceptional chance of becoming sustainable
7. We are assisting the truly disadvantaged children, fulfilling both heads of charity that of the general relief of poverty and the furtherance of education.
8. Bhagavat is funding 4 employments, these being, carpenter instructor, tailoring instructor, social worker, and life skill numeracy and literacy teacher.
The Government
3. Better tourist trade due to less crime
4. Less burden on the tax payer as these children are able to fend for themselves
My role in the particular Project
My involvement with the project is very much at a strategic level, as well as the short term I ensure that the 
project complies with our overall International Strategy. It is very important to the charity that the ethos of establishing vocational training workshops for disadvantaged groups is applied. Despite the fact that each country is different we very much rely on the fact that lessons learnt in one country can benefit the project in another. Consequently a very important role of mine is to learn from other projects in different countries and to apply this knowledge to other countries. Often this entails pre-empting problems that already have been encounted in other projects and ensuring solutions are available.
The ‘Modus-operandi’ of the charity is to work in conjunction with other organizations in order to avoid theduplication of scarce resources. Part of my duties includes, research in to suitable partners for such projects. An example of this is working very closely with AARAMBH, which specialises in working with Street Children in Bhopal and Indore. Our aim will be to replicate the blue print already established in Bhopal.
The projects undertaken by the charity, in order to achieve sustainability and maximize the return to the project; adopt business ethics and policies. Such policies include synergy, economies of scale, opportunity costing etc. Again my role entails ensuring that the charity maximizes its scarce resources, furthermore I am for this project in charge of all expenditure and oversee on a regular basis the budget.
Particularly with India I have a more operational role, and during my visits I found my knowledge of the language, customs and traditions invaluable.
To summarize my role in this particular project includes the following:
Ensure at all times that the ethos of the charity is adhered too. Comply with the legislation of that Country Undertake research regarding the project, in particular locating suitable partner organizations. To ensure adequate funding is available,incompliance with budgets and to investigate reasons for deviances from the budget. To pre-empt potentially problematic areas and ensure that there is a viable solution. To ensure that the projects adhere to our overall International strategic planning. To assist on a more practical level with my knowledge of customs, traditions and the language.
