India – Blog https://www.archtam.com/blog ArchTam Thu, 09 Dec 2021 14:41:47 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 https://www.archtam.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/cropped-favicon-32x32-1-2-150x150.png India – Blog https://www.archtam.com/blog 32 32 People Spotlight Series: Meet Vipul Surana https://www.archtam.com/blog/people-spotlight-series-meet-vipul-surana/ Thu, 02 Dec 2021 16:57:31 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=11285 Our People Spotlight series gives you an inside look at our technical experts around the world. This week, we are highlighting a regional director from our Transportation business line in India and providing you insight into their inspiration and work. With more than 25 years of global experience and a strong background in civil and […]

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Our People Spotlight series gives you an inside look at our technical experts around the world. This week, we are highlighting a regional director from our Transportation business line in India and providing you insight into their inspiration and work.

With more than 25 years of global experience and a strong background in civil and structural engineering, Vipul Surana has shown his proficiency in strategy, leadership, project management and commercial acumen. He is currently the regional director for the Western Region and responsible for the successful delivery of key projects in India such as Mumbai Metro Line 3, Mumbai Coastal Road Project, Mumbai Trans Harbour Link and Ahmedabad, Pune and Nagpur Metro.

Among his international signature projects are the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, Incheon Sea Crossing, Docklands Light Rail Extension, Penang Widening and Fountain View. He is a Fellow at the Institution of Civil Engineers and a Member of International Association of Bridge and Structural Engineers.

What inspired you to join the industry? My father was a bridge engineer and commonwealth scholar. He was a professor at Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi. I grew up watching him prepare and deliver lectures on bridges, which I’ve always found fascinating. Having said that, choosing teaching as a profession with such high standards in the family would have been naïve. The other smart option was to join the industry and build bridges, which I thought would give me the satisfaction of changing or impacting lives.

What is your favorite ArchTam project that you’ve worked on and why? My favorite project to date is the Mumbai Coastal Road Project, which I have led since joining ArchTam more than three years ago. The project has all that a civil engineer can dream to have in one project: TBM, bridges, roads, reclamation, sea walls, cross passages, interchanges with eight arms at three levels, promenade and many more.   

With ArchTam as general consultant, leading a US$1.65 billion mega signature job like this is a feather in my cap and I take a lot of pride in contributing to improve the life of every resident of the commercial capital of India. 

The project has some key unique features such as the use of traditional group pile method for the viaducts. Through this method, the deck will be supported by the pier which will transfer load to a pile cap and then into a group of piles, which will serve as the foundation system.

The open sea conditions and the intertidal zones made shifting of the jack-up barges for pile locations a challenge. To overcome this, we used monopiles, a proven technology in wind turbine construction and used in developed countries. This allowed for faster and noise-free work, and less damage to the seabed.

The project also used the largest tunnel boring machine (TBM) in the country, which measures 12.3 meters in diameter. ArchTam recommended the Saccardo ventilation system for the tunnel, which is being used for the first time in India.

In addition, the project will include the creation of 110 hectares of green open space that’s critical in enhancing the environmental conditions of the city.

It will also include an intermodal hub with interchanges at Amarsons Garden, Haji Ali and Worli, which will connect the coastal road to the mainland. It will relieve traffic on existing road networks to a great extent; help improve connectivity between the southern and northern parts of Mumbai; and provide better accessibility to historical and heritage structures in South Mumbai.

Tell us a story of how your work positively impacted the community. With the Mumbai Coastal Road Project, our aim is to reduce commute time and provide a green space for the community. The first phase of the project is a 9.98-kilometer section from Princess Street Flyover at Marine Lines to the Worli end of the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. It will cut travel time between Nariman point and Bandra from 1 hour to 10 minutes, and save about 35 percent of fuel per day.

The project includes the reclamation of 110 hectares of land and a green belt, which is much needed in Mumbai. It will also include a promenade with recreational facilities to help improve the quality of life and health of citizens.

Extending 6 meters to 20 meters in width at some point, the promenade will feature amenities for the public such as benches, small eateries, kiosks, public toilets, art and sculpture, amphitheaters, children’s play area and an outdoor gym. ArchTam proposed to leave the 6 meters of land oceanward free of any built structures to allow unobstructed public movement and active use for walking, jogging and bicycling.

We also proposed a biodiversity park that will have certain themes unique to that area such as a viewing tower, butterfly park, bamboo garden, healing garden, flowering garden, boardwalks and paved plazas. The park/s will include amenities for sports such as basketball, tennis, badminton and skateboarding, as well as space for outdoor markets and small concerts.

The concept is expected to have a big impact on the community, and I am proud to have these ideas approved and implemented on the project.

Share a piece of career advice. My piece of advice to all the young engineers is to have flexibility and willingness to travel and not get stuck in one location, as it allows growth not only by increasing technical knowledge, but also by working with people from different cultures. Diversity and inclusion are paramount to success and we need to respect everyone all the time.

As Mahatma Gandhi said “Our ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and the test of our civilization.”

I also encourage all engineers to contribute to delivering a major project in whatever capacity possible. To quote the Institution of Civil Engineers, “Civil Engineering is everything you see that’s been built around us.” Background, gender and age are no bar.

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Helping Pollinate to mitigate the risks of contaminated drinking water in India https://www.archtam.com/blog/helping-pollinate-to-mitigate-the-risks-of-contaminated-drinking-water-in-india/ Mon, 08 Jul 2019 18:29:38 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=8179 ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is a part of blog series that chronicles employees’ work through Pollinate Energy’s […]

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ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is a part of blog series that chronicles employees’ work through Pollinate Energy’s Professionals Fellowship Program over the last few weeks.

How would you like a total stranger coming into your home and asking you invasive personal questions about your life? Think about that question for a minute before reading on.

Much of my time, like others’, was spent on my laptop in an air-conditioned café or at The Hive (Pollinate Headquarters, also our accommodation). My group and I decided early on that the way we could make the most impact was not to maximize time on the ground in communities, but to minimize it. The best outcome was to spend as little time infiltrating these peoples’ homes as necessary to deliver high-quality, insightful advice in our report on the TamRas water purifier.

There’s an element of naivety to the view that these disadvantaged people would be grateful for our presence, especially foreigners with whom they are unfamiliar. Yes, there may be an element of excitement upon entrance particularly in the kids; however, there were cases of frustration too. If they don’t see positive outcomes linked to our visits, then who could blame them?

Thus, our focus became minimizing disruption while acquiring the information we required to help Pollinate better serve these communities in the future. What community visits did I personally make?

  • A pre-survey visit to get a feel for the communities — Cobra community (less than two hours)
  • Initial survey roll-out visit — New Horizons community (two hours)
  • Water sampling visit 1 — Manyata community (0.5 hours)
  • Water sampling visit 2 — Light community (0.5 hours)

Of the 11 fellowship days, I spent no more than five hours on the ground in Bangalore’s informal urban settlements. Other fellows’ community contact time would have ranged from equal to perhaps double or even more — this variation was due to project requirements, delegation of work and personal preferences. During my brief visits, I still felt I had gained a sufficient understanding and feel for community life from my first-hand experiences and while hearing others recount theirs.

All up, it’s been saddening to deepen my understanding of the quality of life many people lack. On the flip side, most people said they were happy — they have a strong social fabric in their communities and lead a physically engaging life — arguably their lives are more aligned with how humans have evolved over millennia to live; food for thought. I must say I was also filled with some hope that things could improve for these communities. Contrary to my initial thoughts, most of these communities, at least in Bangalore, are composed of economic migrants who are there by choice (a heavily constrained choice) instilled a sense of hope. Hope that with rain and/or more egalitarian government policy for India’s regions, they might possibly return to their preferred homes and lifestyles.

In relation to my group’s project, we got some water sample results back. Of the communities tested, most exceeded the allowable calcium and magnesium concentration (however, not a significant health concern). Most notably, one community suffered E. coli contamination, which would be mitigated by the TamRas product. A further benefit of TamRas is that regardless of water quality at the source, the product helps to mitigate the risks of contaminating drinking water by poor hygiene and sanitation practices. It achieves this simply through adequate contact time with copper, the product’s purifying component.

We were able to deliver a framework through which to categorize communities by health priority and saleability to help focus Pollinate’s efforts in future. We also formulated insights and advice from our dealings with community members and Pollinate’s sales team. We endorsed the TamRas water purifier to enter Pollinate’s product suite for sale and identified further work for future fellows.

In all, we felt we achieved our problem statement, which for us and Pollinate was to, “understand the water lifecycle of urban informal settlements to improve community wellbeing in India.”

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

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Understanding the water lifecycle to improve community well-being in India https://www.archtam.com/blog/understanding-the-water-lifecycle-to-improve-community-well-being-in-india/ Wed, 26 Jun 2019 19:56:20 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=8162 ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is a part of blog series that chronicles employees’ work through Pollinate Energy’s […]

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ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is a part of blog series that chronicles employees’ work through Pollinate Energy’s Professionals Fellowship Program over the last few weeks.

My first few days in Bangalore were spent acclimating and familiarizing myself with the hustle and bustle of this vibrant city and the cheerful and motivated group of fellows with whom I’m sharing the experience of Pollinate Group’s 50th fellowship program.

By Wednesday, May 23, we had advanced our understanding of Pollinate’s operations and the nuance behind its mission: “To empower women to lead their communities out of poverty.”

It was now time to get going on our project briefs — the main benefit that we are to provide to Pollinate Group during our fellowship. Our ArchTam team are spread across the four projects:

Me (Gareth): Tam Ras Water purifier (a new water-treatment product developed in Bangalore)

Ed: Cashless transactions — mobile money

Juliette and Sam: Poverty Index

Suzanne: Data Validation Study — Salesforce

I was thanking my lucky stars that I got my first choice in the water-purification project. Why? Because poor-quality drinking water is the source of many illnesses and sometimes death, particularly in children under five years old. In addition, much of my time working for ArchTam has been spent under the stewardship of our ANZ Technical Director for Water Supply and Wastewater Treatment, Peter Hillis, so I felt I could make more impact through this project!

The self-defined problem statement of our project is: “How might we understand the water life cycle of our community members to improve their well-being?”

This will involve an options assessment of the Tam Ras purifier and other water-treatment products against varying needs identified across the slum communities of Bangalore.

We’re still fine-tuning our approach based on what is realistically achievable in our community dealings — these will form the basis for understanding the needs of the communities Pollinate Group helps. The overwhelming sentiment from our visits (we have visited two communities at time of writing) is the friendliness of the people, particularly the kids. Most of the families would best be described as economic migrants coming from rural regions for better work opportunities due to the growth of Bangalore and the drought in their home communities, which has been hampering their ability to make a living.

Thus far, developing our survey has been our priority. We have spent some painstaking hours writing our survey questions, which must maintain their precision through translation into the local dialect(s), mostly Kannada, but some Hindi. We have some local fellows to thank for doing an amazing job in this department — they’re also great people! Today, we piloted our survey in a particularly urban community with success — vindicating our back and forth in developing our questions.

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

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Opportunities in Bengaluru https://www.archtam.com/blog/opportunities-in-bengaluru/ Wed, 12 Jun 2019 20:07:17 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=8152 ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is a part of blog series that chronicles employees’ work […]

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ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is a part of blog series that chronicles employees’ work through Pollinate Energy’s Professionals Fellowship Program over the last few weeks.

The business model of Pollinate Group is based on providing access to life-improving products such as solar lights, water purifiers and cooktop stoves to communities within India and Nepal with limited access to clean water, and little or no access to electricity. Local women are provided with the tools, skills and products to sell to families within their communities and the products can be paid for over several months to increase affordability. In addition to directly impacting the lives of local women and their communities within India and Nepal, Pollinate Group also engages with volunteers from across the globe, exposing them to the projects and initiatives of the organization. One of the aims of the volunteering program is to inspire participants to continue to work on tackling global issues, such as limited access to essential services, once they return to their day-to-day lives.

As one of the five participants in a two-week service trip in India, I am in Bengaluru working with Pollinate Group to collect data on the demographics and aspirations of the communities. This information will help Pollinate Group identify the potential to increase or modify their product range, with a view to improving the living conditions of people within the migrant communities of Bengaluru.

Our approach to data collection is to meet with residents living in the slum communities of Bengaluru and invite them to talk about their current needs, as well as their aspirations and the hurdles they face. Where possible, the conversations lead to an understanding of the individual, acknowledging their past as well as their present situation. The vast majority of people we talk to used to be farmers in their native land; however, lack of rain has led to crops failing and been the impetus for their migration off the land into the slum communities of Bengaluru. Now, most people work in construction and as housekeepers, their eyes set firmly on the future, with the shared goal of providing their children with a good education.

A day in the life of one of Bengaluru’s residents

Met Nagaraj, a farmer from Manthralaya, who has moved to one of the slum communities within Bengaluru. The rains have been arriving at the wrong time for the crops so he has come to the city along with his wife to work in construction. On the days when there is work available, they earn 400 and 300 rupees each. Nagaraj gets up at 3 a.m. to collect water and likes the climate of Bengaluru, which is cooler than his hometown. His community of approximately 100 homes shares three solar fans. There is no toilet and no electricity. A railway line marks the edge of their settlement, where he has lived for five years.

When the unpredictable rains do arrive, Nagaraj returns home for up to three months to help tend the land and harvest cotton. He takes with him solar lamps purchased from Pollinate Group and leaves them with his native village. His three children have remained there and are at school in Years 6, 7 and 12. During school holidays, they come to Bengaluru to visit.

Tinsel lines the rafters of Nagaraj’s home. His wife’s bangles hang from nails and utensils are arranged in order of height. Our translator relays my description of the challenges faced by farmers in Australia. He recognizes the story; he knows it by heart.

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Data is key to designing solutions aimed at reducing poverty in India https://www.archtam.com/blog/data-is-key-to-designing-solutions-aimed-at-reducing-poverty-in-india/ Tue, 11 Jun 2019 20:16:07 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=8138 ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is the second of a two-part blog series that chronicles […]

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ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is the second of a two-part blog series that chronicles an employee’s work through Pollinate Energy’s Professionals Fellowship Program over the last few weeks.

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.

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New Horizons in Bangalore https://www.archtam.com/blog/new-horizons-in-bangalore/ Thu, 06 Jun 2019 19:45:19 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=8127 ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is the first of a two-part blog series that chronicles […]

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ArchTam’s Australia and New Zealand partners with Pollinate Group to support employees wanting to take time to #GiveBack. This year, five employees participated on the 50th Professional Fellowship Program. As they return from their journeys, we’re following their stories through the #ArchTamBlueprint blog series. This is the first of a two-part blog series that chronicles an employee’s work through Pollinate Energy’s Professionals Fellowship Program over the last few weeks.

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.

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Experiencing the Hive https://www.archtam.com/blog/experiencing-the-hive/ Mon, 12 Nov 2018 16:00:18 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=7670 Our #ArchTamBlueprint Travel Grant blog series takes us to India, where two of our employees from Australia joined Pollinate Energy’s Professional Fellowship program, which supports the organisation’s work to promote safer, more affordable, clean-energy solutions for the country’s urban slum communities. This is part three of a three-part story. I wanted to take this chance […]

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Our #ArchTamBlueprint Travel Grant blog series takes us to India, where two of our employees from Australia joined Pollinate Energy’s Professional Fellowship program, which supports the organisation’s work to promote safer, more affordable, clean-energy solutions for the country’s urban slum communities. This is part three of a three-part story.

I wanted to take this chance to explain what Amy, Aditya Vikram Singh (our local fellow) and I were trying to achieve working on our Honeycomb (our assigned project for the Fellowship) in the ‘Hive’ (our living quarters, office and home-base for the Fellowship). A lot of bee-related terminology, I know.

Pollinate Energy is developing a new marketing strategy known as the Mobile Hives, which demonstrate the use of Pollinate’s product range in a mini expo in the heart of communities. One of the main goals of the Mobile Hives is to showcase Pollinate’s non-solar products, which are too heavy and bulky for the Pollinators (Pollinate Energy’s local Indian employees that sell the products direct to the community members) to carry around in their backpacks.

Our main task for our Honeycomb was to develop a “Mobile Hive Success and Impact Tracker” to keep an accurate record of the specifics of Mobile Hive events and anything that might influence their effectiveness, from the products that are being tested, to the weather and time of day. At the same time as developing this tracker, we trialled a number of different strategies for improvement of the Mobile Hive scheme.

Every day of the program was full of challenges and learning for me. As I’ve not really spent any decent length of time outside of English-speaking countries, not being able to speak the local languages (most people in Lucknow speak Hindi with a small amount of Udru) was a bit of a shock. Luckily, I had one of two local fellows, Aditya and Faizan, with me most of the time to help translate. We were also learning Hindi basics each morning, which was really helpful. I started to be able to direct my Ola drivers and introduce myself to members of the communities we visited.

I was also grateful to have a great group of people around me with a world of experience to share. There were eight international fellows, two local fellows, and two city leaders working together to help solve Pollinate Energy’s problems. We all got along well together and I really enjoyed collaborating with people from a wide variety of different backgrounds.

It was nice to get stuck into a problem outside of the field of engineering and put my analytical abilities to work in an entirely different context.

As they say in Hindi, “phir milenge!” or “see you later!”

Learn about Amy’s experience here and here.

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Collaborating for Female Empowerment https://www.archtam.com/blog/collaborating-for-female-empowerment/ Mon, 12 Nov 2018 15:30:13 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=7656 Our #ArchTamBlueprint Travel Grant blog series takes us to India, where two of our employees from Australia joined Pollinate Energy’s Professional Fellowship program, which supports the organisation’s work to promote safer, more affordable, clean-energy solutions for the country’s urban slum communities. This is part two of a three-part story. Last year, Pollinate Energy merged with […]

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Our #ArchTamBlueprint Travel Grant blog series takes us to India, where two of our employees from Australia joined Pollinate Energy’s Professional Fellowship program, which supports the organisation’s work to promote safer, more affordable, clean-energy solutions for the country’s urban slum communities. This is part two of a three-part story.

Last year, Pollinate Energy merged with Nepalese social enterprise Empower Generation. Their missions could not align better – both empowering local entrepreneurs to serve the most marginalised communities by delivering life-changing products and meaningful employment opportunities to people living in poverty, with a strong focus on sustainability.

We were fortunate enough to have the Pollinate Energy and Empower Generation management team visit the ‘Hive’ for a Q&A panel. After a few challenging days of learning to overcome cross-cultural communication barriers and logistical setbacks, the panel was exactly the inspiration needed to get our project back on track!

Sita Adkihari, Co-Founder and Director of Empower Generation, discussed how they have empowered local Nepalese women by providing opportunities for entrepreneurship through selling products such as solar lights and sanitary pads. The organization firmly believes that women are the best investment and strongest catalyst for change, because they will invest profit into their families’ and communities’ future when given an opportunity to earn meaningful income.

I’ve seen this first-hand through Pollinate Energy’s female entrepreneurs, who are referred to as Suryamukhis (which beautifully translates to “sunflowers”), when the women are in communities forming connections with mothers and families.

One night, after a busy afternoon of slum community visits, we watched the Bollywood hit Pad Man, which tells the true story of social entrepreneur and Padma Shri recipient – Arunachalam Muruganantham. He made it his mission to create and deliver affordable, safe and sustainable sanitary pads to women living in poverty in rural India, and at the same time empowering thousands of female entrepreneurs through his distribution model. It was exciting to see the extraordinary relevance of the film to our work, particularly the very similar female distribution model adopted by Empower Generation! This is a must-watch film, complete with fantastic Bollywood tunes and moves.

I’ve often found that the people you meet when travelling are what make the experience so unforgettable, and I was so amazed by the inspiring, innovative and ambitious women I met during this fellowship. From Sita’s unequivocal passion and inspirational mission for Pollinate Energy and Empower Generation, to the local women in the slum communities who are striving to make life better for their families, to Shivani Kanodi – Pollinate’s Fellowship Manager – who brightens up every day at the ‘Hive’ with her bubbly energy and positivity. I cannot wait to see what the team achieves next for female empowerment in India and Nepal.

Read more about Amy’s work with Pollinate Energy here and learn about her colleague Jack Blackwell’s experience here.

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Illuminating India’s communities https://www.archtam.com/blog/illuminating-indias-communities/ Mon, 12 Nov 2018 15:00:37 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=7648 Our #ArchTamBlueprint Travel Grant blog series takes us to India, where two of our employees from Australia joined Pollinate Energy’s Professional Fellowship program, which supports the organization’s work to promote safer, more affordable, clean-energy solutions for the country’s urban slum communities, and this is part one of their three-part story. In late August, after a […]

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Our #ArchTamBlueprint Travel Grant blog series takes us to India, where two of our employees from Australia joined Pollinate Energy’s Professional Fellowship program, which supports the organization’s work to promote safer, more affordable, clean-energy solutions for the country’s urban slum communities, and this is part one of their three-part story.

In late August, after a week of traveling through northern India, visiting the cities of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, I arrived in Lucknow for the Pollinate Energy’s Professional Fellowship program. Although I thought I had done enough research before jetting off, nothing quite prepared me for the colorful chaos.

In a short time, I experienced the beauty of traditional Indian-Mughal architecture during sunrise at the Taj Mahal; I witnessed the generosity and “guest is god” philosophy of the people as I was warmly welcomed into their homes with offerings of freshly brewed masala chai; and I discovered that road lanes and line markings were merely suggestions, adding to the madness of dodging cows, goats, chickens, camels and even elephants!

After meeting with the fellowship team and settling into our dorms at the ‘Hive’ (brace yourselves for bee-related metaphors), we familiarized ourselves with our new city through an “Amazing Race” like tour around Lucknow, where we completed challenges, tasted local delicacies and were blessed in a temple.

On the second day of the program, we visited our first slum community called Balu Adda. Known as a shanty community, meaning that homes are essentially tents made from spare material such as tarpaulin and sheet metal. It houses around 115 families who are predominantly construction workers or rag-pickers (people who rummage through refuse to salvage materials to sell).

Balu Adda is just one of 370 urban slum communities in Lucknow. Many of these slums are not connected to city grid electricity or water supply, forcing people to forego these necessities, or resort to unsafe practices and products. Families rely on harmful kerosene for lighting, drink unclean water, and cook with dirty cookstoves resulting in detrimental health consequences. Witnessing this firsthand was a sobering and eye-opening experience, and further demonstrated the importance of our contributions over the next two weeks.

My colleague Jack Blackwell, as well as Aditya Vikram Singh, a local Pollinate fellow, and I worked together to develop the strategy and impact assessment of Mobile Hives in the slum communities. Mobile Hives are set up to showcase Pollinate Energy’s solar lights, water filters and safe cookstoves to the community, whilst educating families about the social and sustainable benefits of the products, which ultimately helps to improve their standard of living.

These first few days were an overload of information and the Hive was already buzzing with ideas!

Read more about Amy’s work with Pollinate Energy here and learn about Jack’s experience here.

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Bringing it home https://www.archtam.com/blog/bringing-it-home/ Wed, 13 Jun 2018 23:42:41 +0000 https://www.archtam.com/blog/?p=7087 Our amazing time in Bangalore, India, working with Pollinate Energy has come to an end. Our last days with the Professionals Fellowship Program were filled with preparing final presentations and reports, enjoyable nights out together and emotional goodbyes to new friends as we headed to our respective homes across the globe. The findings and recommendations […]

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Our amazing time in Bangalore, India, working with Pollinate Energy has come to an end. Our last days with the Professionals Fellowship Program were filled with preparing final presentations and reports, enjoyable nights out together and emotional goodbyes to new friends as we headed to our respective homes across the globe. The findings and recommendations we made in our reports will help Pollinate Energy evaluate the effectiveness of their products and help improve their product range moving forward.

After having a few days to reflect on the program, I decided to catch up with the ArchTam team and ask each person a question about their experience.

It is said that “India is a land of contrast.” Did this statement resonate with you?

Grant Smith (Perth): Absolutely, I will forever remember the stark contrast of the wooden dwellings covered in a characteristic blue tarpaulin against a neutral concrete high rise backdrop. We often found that some of the residents of the slum communities had been the construction workers on these exact apartment developments. The irony was not lost on them, either.

However, this glaring disparity is just as memorable as the striking visual impact of seeing a community of more than 200 tents using Pollinate Energy products, signified by a small solar panel placed above the doorway of the home. The panels were akin to a badge of honour for the Pollinators, who strive to reach as many members of the community as possible, positively impacting lives.

The Fellowship spans a short time, a mere 12 days — what were you able to achieve during this time?

Jeremy Tan (Auckland): While our experiences in India with Pollinate Energy lasted only 12 days, each day was packed full with community visits, meetings and adventure. I recall days where we would work from morning to night, even on our only Sunday! However, this was definitely not mundane or arduous in any way, as the people I was surrounded with were supportive, encouraging and fun.

In addition to the friendships made, we were each able to take personalised learnings from our own unique experiences. Mine was centred on my interactions with the people — be they from the temporary slum communities, Pollinate Energy or even the locals we met on the street. Through these interactions, I learned a lot about Indian culture, the sense of community people share in general, the role of social businesses, and even the importance of cricket.

Pollinate energy is a social enterprise. Do you feel you are returning home with a deeper understanding of what this means?

Kimberly Skellern (Sydney): I’m definitely taking home a deeper understanding of how a social enterprise works. Like a non-profit, Pollinate Energy is driven by a social, environmental or cultural cause, but like a private business, it derives most of its income from trade (not donations or grants). Uniquely, Pollinate uses most of its profits to work toward its social mission and increase its scope/magnitude of impact.

Over the past two weeks, we also experienced first-hand some of the challenges faced by a social enterprise, such as being heavily reliant upon (but also constrained by) their finite human resources.

Something else I’ve found is a renewed understanding of how to approach the problem of poverty. I admire the way Pollinate sees its customers and works with them. Instead of giving one-off handouts or assuming what people need, Pollinate works to understand and empower people. And the products help others thrive. For example, solar lights enable young people in the community to study at night. A smart phone can help a resident access job opportunities. I find the approach very inspiring.

Is it true what people say, that India is an “assault on the senses”?

Shannon Davies (Newcastle): So many senses are overwhelmed in India. In the cities, there is the sound of ever persistent honking. Your nose takes in both the whiff of cow dung and aromas of spices and incense all at the same time. Eating with your hands allows for a secondary sensation to the experience of taste. And finally, the scorching heat serves to make each moment more intense!

I thoroughly enjoyed the colours of India — women in the street wearing their saris, passing colourful temples and people selling fresh flowers. I struggled with the inequality that still exists between castes and the poverty that is so widespread, but India is also a living example of how people of different religions can live together in relative harmony.

Above all, I fell in love with the food. More than just being delicious, it was immediately obvious that food in India is the glue that connects people. It is one of two common loves that unite the nation. Food…and cricket!

*****

Working with Pollinate Energy has been an amazing experience for our ArchTam team. Each of us has reflected that, while we set out to Bangalore hoping we could make an impact for others, our individual and collective experiences have also made a lasting impact on each of us.

We’re thankful for Pollinate Energy, not just for the way we were welcomed in India, but for the continued amazing work it does. We’re also thankful to ArchTam for providing this wonderful opportunity to give back. If you missed previous posts from my colleagues, scroll through the ArchTam Blog. And to learn more about our Corporate Responsibility platform, Blueprint for a Better World, visit: https://www.archtam.com/about-aecom/corporate-responsibility/

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