October 18
Back to my roots!
I am back on the road and back in India, visiting projects over a 6 week period throughout the country. My friend Kathrin joins me as an observer, she is in on a 7 month around the world trip and expressed a desire to see the work in India – so I booked her onto my itinerary – we make 12 flights in 6 weeks as we criss cross the country together.

First stop is Delhi and after meeting my old friends Sara and Fredrik (and their 3 adorable children, we attend our fist official function – a cocktail and dinner party with Project Concern International, whose President and COO are also in town. It is good to meet the management team, we have had numerous skype calls and email exchanges since we first met in January but it is always better to meet people in person.

Site visit – empowering young women
The next day we visit their head office in New Seema Puri, a district of Delhi where poverty is a cycle that they are hoping to alliviate. They run women’s (girls) projects here, teaching seamstress and beauty skills, health awareness, painting and computer skills plus civic leadership. The girls range from 15 to 25 years old and these skills help them to gain good paying jobs in the local area as well as giving them greater confidence. Our main finding was that there is a conscious effort to educate the parents in the benefits of their daughters having the skills, as most girls would drop out of the training program when they were of marriageable age, as their parents believed that once married, they would not need the skills. By educating the parents as to the greater long term benefits of the trainings, greater acceptance was achieved.

After a tour of the facilities and a meeting with the management office, we spoke to the girls who all seemed to be motivated as well as taken my Kathrin – all wanted a photo taken with my ’white’ guest! My mother would be pleased to know that the girls had a Singer sewing machine to train with; she learned to sew on such a machine herself!

Site visit – empowering young boys
We moved onto the second project, a shelter for abandoned boys in Mawat, an hour drive from the city. Here, homeless boys are taken in, given an education, a home and fed. The project aims to give the boys a safe place to stay while training them in skills, which will give them better chances to get jobs.

After touring the facility was at with the boys and asked them what is the best thing that they like about living in the shelter. The response was: the fact they are all together gives them a sense of unity, the skills that they are taught benefits them and the friendships that they make with one and other.

Both projects are a clear example of impact investing, the projects are making an impact on the lives of the children, are offering them a way out of the poverty cycle and increasing their self confidence. As always, it was good to see it personally and to meet the many people who run the projects locally as well as the children who benefit so greatly from the work.

• india
• Delhi