The last week and a half has been exceptionally busy. Since my last post, I’ve been allocated my project and dove head first into the challenge. My project, the Poverty Index Study, looks to identify feasible methods to measure the level of poverty in the urban slums that Pollinate services. Measuring poverty sheds light on the demographic serviced, measuring social impact, and is a metric used to apply for philanthropic grants.

When our group of four was initially allocated the project, we began with a design-thinking workshop. Given the overall project needed to be completed in a fortnight, it was important to work quickly and effectively. We spent time defining the real problem and coming up with the problem statement, “How might we quantify poverty within communities to support future initiatives to improve the quality of life for community members?”

To go about this, we spent the rest of last week venturing out to different urban slum communities and asking households about their quality of life and a list of their household possessions, which is a strong statistical indicator of their likelihood and levels of poverty. As part of this exercise, we managed to collect 50 sets of data from a whole range of households. Even before we’ll get around to analyzing the data later this week, it was clear that there was a range of poverty in differing communities. As an example, some households were using a candle for light, others solar, and some even had power from the grid.

Gathering all this data meant getting an opportunity to talk with a range of people and households. It was a humbling experience as I learned that most people were migrants from rural India, where drought has plagued the agricultural industry for a long time. We discussed the hardships of uprooting their former lives in search for work in the city, usually as construction workers and other unskilled labor, and leaving their families behind to move to a booming city with a rapidly growing population, but a severe lack of infrastructure. What surprised me the most was that in spite of this, they were so open and honest with complete strangers about their challenges and aspirations. It was clear that they were also proud of what they had built for themselves.

In the next few days, we will present our project findings in a report and template; but until then there’s plenty more data crunching to do!

Take a look back at my first blog post about this trip.

The post Data is key to designing solutions aimed at reducing poverty in India appeared first on Blog.

I recently travelled to Bangalore to begin a two-week adventure with Pollinate Group, a social enterprise based in Australia, Nepal and India that sell products (e.g. mosquito nets, water filters and solar lights and fans) to local communities that have social impacts, such as helping to improve people’s health and wellbeing, and in the process train local entrepreneurs to sell these products.

My journey began after a long red-eye flight, when I joined the other professional fellows to check out the area, Indiranagar, a trendy and upcoming suburb of Bangalore. We explored the streets, tried local foods and visited a local brewery for a Bangalore Sunday session.

My initial thoughts about Bangalore were very different from my expectations; the place wasn’t as busy with people and traffic as I was expecting and there also weren’t as many historic buildings. I soon learned that Bangalore was a relatively new city, with a thriving tech hub considered to be the ‘Silicon Valley of India’. Within the city, the streets were full of restaurants, cafes, shops and bars, with many dedicated green spaces.

My program, which was the fiftieth for Pollinate, started with a half-day introduction to Pollinate Group as a company, and all things logistics and safety. After, we went on our first visit to an urban slum community, which was an experience that I was personally very interested in and a big opportunity that drew me toward the program.

The urban slum, called New Horizons, was located half an hour outside the city with two hundred families living in the community. Even though we were debriefed for this trip, it was still very confronting to see the housing conditions up close and in person. The lack of sanitation and running water was a stark reminder of the poor living conditions that many communities face. Despite the conditions, the people were very friendly and were happy to answer questions about their family, life in the Bangalore and future ambitions.

Over the next few days, I will visit other communities to assist with our program’s projects. For the next two weeks, I hope to gain a greater understanding about the challenges faced by this community, as well as to understand more about poverty and its cycles, and learn more about the social enterprise model.

I am fortunate to be one of five employees that ArchTam sponsored to be part of the professional fellow. The fellowship is a two-week intensive program that teaches the fellows about the social-enterprise model and Indian culture, while allowing us to work on a mini-project to address the company’s problems and needs.

Stay tuned for what happens next. My second blog will be published soon.

The post New Horizons in Bangalore appeared first on Blog.