So far I have been working on setting up a fundraiser to help support rural artisans in the Surendranagar district of Gujarat, India while also developing an inventory of assets and work approaches of NGOs within a Non-Traditional Livelihoods (NTL) Network in order to better gauge the environment women across India are operating within. This will aid in the creation of a standard framework that all members can utilize to assist in their individual objectives. I’ve been surprised by (and admire) the amount of preparation time that goes into each and every Saath project and appreciate that Saath has the same rigorous expectations for me to do the same. My mentors have been very helpful in making sure my project goals and methods are clear, specific, and focused while operating within a reasonable and manageable timeline. Rather than just blindly delving into a project unprepared, my mentors have emphasized a sharp degree of intentionality and planning that I think will definitely have a big pay off in the long run. I’m most excited to officially start the fundraising campaign and actually launch events to engage communities to help support these hard-working artisans. I’m also excited to begin analyzing the data that I will collect after distributing the inventory to members of the NTL network. My only concern is primarily related to the time constraint. I want to do as much as I can, but I’m also trying to have realistic expectations given there’s only so much one can do in two months. Regardless, I’ll do my best. Saath has actually done a very good job explaining their broader organizational objectives and program interventions in meticulous detail through orientations and Q&A sessions so all of my questions have been answered as of now. They even are planning collaborative immersion activities such as virtual tours of Saath’s offices and sweets-making to ensure we’re staying connected. So I appreciate their efforts there as well.
