As a team, we visited the Additya community in south Bangalore. In comparison to other communities, it’s considered relatively small but is still home to 150 residents. The hour-long journey from Pollinate headquarters gives us time to discuss our approach on site.

Despite all the prep work and piloting, I feel a mixture of nerves and excitement. How can I develop an emotional connection with the participant? How will I steer the conversation to yield relevant information if we deviate from the planned approach?

As always, our arrival into the community attracts a lot of attention and initially we take the opportunity to get some photos for our personal collections before scoping out the community to select our participants as planned.

It’s not long before we encounter a Pollinate customer who purchased a light six months ago; he has a family of four and his two children are attending school. I shake his hand and introduce myself in kannada, the local dialect. He smiles and invites us inside to meet his family.

Once seated on a rug laid out for us, I am surprised at how spacious his small, well-kept home feels. Pots and pans are arranged neatly on a small wooden shelf along with a small mirror and bowl containing a bar of soap. An assortment of blankets are folded and stacked behind us and a solar light hangs from the wooden frame above us. The home is lit adequately with a soft tone that further contributes to the calming ambience.

We talk through a translator and I explain that I am here to listen to his story and provide him with a platform to share it with the world. While I cannot immediately understand his response, the shy smile and gentle “Indian headshake” ignites an emotional connection within me and, I hope, him too.

His name is Sunil, 34 years old and originally from the rural Andhra Prakesh region east of Bangalore. Born to farming parents, he moved to the city with his wife and children in search of better working opportunities, a common story among slum residents. He and his wife both work six days a week in often dangerous construction jobs for a combined income of around 2500 rupees in order to provide food and education for their two young children.

When the conversation moves towards the solar light above us, Sunil has a lot to say. Firstly he explains how his old kerosene lamp would fill the home with smoke each night, and that since installing the solar light his children have stopped coughing. Being able to leave the light on all night also makes his family feel safer, particularly given cobra snakes and rats are regular threats in his community.

The story was completed with a demonstration from Sunil about how the light was used for preparing food and charging his mobile phone. We took Polaroid photos and shared them with his family for souvenirs. The smiles we exchanged spoke clearly across the language barriers as we expressed sincere gratitude to each other.

Back at Pollinate headquarters that evening, the group discusses the day’s highs and lows over dinner. I talk about the emotional connection I had made throughout the first story and the positive impacts the solar light had made. I see immediately that co-founder Emma is over-joyed, as she sees another example of how Pollinate Energy is inspiring not only to the local communities it visits, but for the Young Professionals helping it achieve its goals.

Until next time,

Chris

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The wait is over! Fully charged and ready to go, we arrive in Bangalore with 31-degree C heat at midnight! The drive to Pollinate HQ is comparable to how a fish swims in the sea, meandering through all types of traffic moving in all directions. I instantly notice the construction of roads, bridges and buildings and am reminded of the rebuild efforts back in Christchurch.

The excitement and enthusiasm within the group is contagious. The co-founders have done an amazing job to coordinate the program and make all of us feel welcome. Their gratitude for the contribution we can make is humbling.

There are 17 young professionals this time around: 11 Australians and New Zealanders as well as six locals. To help run the program this time, a volunteer from the U.S. and another from Australia join the team.

The swell in team numbers since the inaugural Young Professionals Program last August reflects the enormous growth Pollinate has achieved. More than 3,000 solar lights have been installed and over 14,000 people reached across 450 communities. It’s inspirational to be working so closely with the co-founders and invaluable to hear firsthand how their innovative social business has taken shape.

Our first few hours have been action-packed! Final tweaks to our data collection plans for the impact assessment are frantically made before a visit to the urban slums on the first afternoon. My team is responsible for collecting 30 evaluative stories over the two-week period and so far so good. Some lessons learned on our first visit identified the need to further refine our approach before training the wider team on our collection method.

Our local pollinator, Tamil, introduced us to a slum community in the east of Bangalore, and seeing the solar panels sitting on top of many of the tents gave us evidence of the impact Pollinate has made in this area. The residents are friendly and welcoming and show an immediate interest in our arrival. There is a strong feeling of community, and connections made are apparent in children playing and adults socialising.

Engaged and inspired, my desire to help make a difference here continues to grow.

Until next time,

Chris

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