Tell me your story…

17th April 2015

Since first of March this year when we began our ShikshsaDaan Yatra, we have been meeting several of our stakeholders – NGOs, validating institutions, corporates, potential beneficiaries and social ventures. To present our story and be presented their respective stories. An important part of our ShikshaDaan Yatra is also to separate the wheat from the chaff or milk from the water – identify those NGOs doing genuine work and partner with them so that our donors have genuine beneficiaries to fund. 

We have had several interesting stories that have led us not only to expand our perspectives but also to make fundamental changes in our model and unique proposition.

One of the strong mind sets that most of us have is the one against the NGO sector – lack of transparency and accountability, selling poverty to make oneself rich, we don’t know where the money is going etc. built up through what we see, read and hear through media and friends, our personal experiences and more. There is also enough and more statistical data on the internet to support this point of view. 

But  this one is an interesting case that stumped Bindu and me. There is this NGO doing work in the area of skill development programs for the under privileged classes, based in Una Distrct of Himachal Pradesh. We had sent the contact person a mail about ten days back and called him a few days back when we were in Una to meet, and also to see the work firsthand. He avoided meeting us not only at their given address but also at the hotel where we stayed, with very evasive replies. This further strengthened our views of the NGO sector and what is more he never called us until we had left Una for Hamirpur. This morning Bindu had a long conversation with him over the phone and was stunned to hear from him the reasons for not meeting us. According to this gentleman who runs this NGO he was not keen to meet as he was sure that we have come to take money from him. He shared his experience of having almost been cheated by a couple of NGOs who promised to get him funding from multiple ministries but for that he had to register first and pay ₹10000. He was about to pay but was cautioned by a smart employee to validate, before making the payment. When he verified he found out they were frauds. With this narrow escape fresh in his memory, he had tried his best to avoid meeting us !!

Bindu and I later discussed her conversation with this gentleman in detail including the near fraud experience. We never expected this kind of a story that appeared unusual but is true. 

It appears that everyone has got a story to tell and in every story there is something new for us to learn. What an experience!