A New Perspective: What Drives Vibha’s Volunteers

In recent times, motivated Vibha teams across the USA have striven to volunteer, conduct, and organize fundraising events that play a crucial role in achieving Vibha’s goal: to seed, to grow and to scale grass-roots ideas that can solve systemic problems related to the underprivileged child and his or her future. In this feature, we look to decipher what exactly motivates these individuals to actively pursue volunteering through Vibha.

Sumana Hatwar

My name is Sumana Hatwar, I am from Boston and I just joined Vibha in December 2012. I came to know that new Boston Vibha Chapter was being found, and I thought this would be good opportunity to participate.  The reason I joined Vibha was I wanted to help out as little as I could, and just donating money was not somehow cutting it. I wanted to give back some of my time, and once you have child, you want the world to be as rosy as possible, make things better for atleast one person,  and hoping that the world gives back as much as you give to it. The other reason was to find more like minded people to interact, communicate and bond with. I had a group of friends, but many of them were in different phases of life, so I was looking for people with some common linkage and ideology.  Doesn’t totally sound altruistic, right, but I was hoping that these two expectations would motivate me to go far as I could on this journey

I am currently a VR for Boston. We are just setting up a center here, so things that I do vary and I actually like that. So, from contacting the volunteers, to talking to them to setting up events, we kind of do lot of things. We had one small event in early January, now we are planning on holding another event, so working on figuring out the best event idea for our chapter here.

In the last few months that I have been involved, I would say the highlight would be the Henna event that we had arranged for Vibha.  As we set up that stall, and we were talking with folks, this lady came in and she started talking to us, about the organization and asking questions on our own involvement with Vibha. Finally, she kind of concluded that she really appreciated all that we are doing, and hopefully we would act as beacons for other volunteers to join and spread the good in the world. The heartfelt comments from that stranger actually made my day and gave us the positive reinforcement that we all need!!

Shweta Kaushal

1. Why did you join Vibha, and how long have you been with Vibha?

Back in 2008 one of my friends was volunteer with Milwaukee Action center. I was impressed to view them catalyze change and transform society. I wanted to be part of movement to help underprivileged children, providing them better future, building strong foundation for future generation. In November 2012 Vibha gave me platform here in Detroit to contribute towards our core values thus giving me an opportunity to serve.

2. What is your current role at Vibha?  Describe what you do on a periodic basis.

As Action center co-coordinator for Detroit chapter. My main responsibility is to built self sustaining center, working towards larger goals, activities include discussing core values with new volunteers, involving them with Vibha center activities, creating Vibha awareness though mixers and booths at other community events, planning and organizing events.

3. What is your favorite event/highlight of working with Vibha?

I really look forward to engaging people to participate and organizing a lot of different events.

 4. What do you look forward too most for Vibha?

Creating a robust foundation, preparing the next generation with basic skills to function as a productive, responsible member of society. Education and empowerment for girls for striking social balance.

Atlanta’s Vibha DreamPlay 2013

An event at the Vibha DreamPlay 2013.

Innovative. Well planned. Excellent place for fun sport. These were just some of the words that were making their way around the arena, on the 16th of February 2013 when the 10th Annual Vibha DreamPlay was hosted at South Forsyth Middle School.

The Vibha DreamPlay is an annual Chess and Table Tennis tournament. In addition to those events, 2013 also saw the addition of an Art competition, proactively organized by the Vibha Youth to raise funds for projects supporting the under-privileged children in India. The location served well for the artistic delight, intense thinking, and physical competition that took place throughout the day. As the day unfolded, the South Forsyth hallways was filled with a smiling atmosphere – kindergarteners accompanying parents and grandparents – all of the 400 eager participants to compete against each other and stake their claim on the trophies.

The team in Atlanta who made the DreamPlay happen.

The Vibha DreamPlay 2013 was fully organized by the youth. From initial groundwork to gathering sponsorships and registrations, the event plan and execution was charted by the youth, who were dedicated to giving back to the world. This included informing school clubs and contacting local sports and art academies as well as harnessing the power of social media, such as posting on Facebook and tweeting. The youth team leads Khushboo Sarda (Lakehill Vibha Youth), Manasa Chimpiri (Northview HS Vibha Youth) and Rachana Kotapalli (Alpharetta HS Vibha Youth) along with Volunteer Management Lead (Sanket Mehta) and Publicity Lead (Rishi and Vikas) were also responsible for coordination and planning which they seemed to handle aptly. Deadlines and short-term goals were met as early as December and no stone was left unturned in making the event a major success. The parent coordinator, Priti Sarda, also added to this mentioning, “It was fascinating to see students from middle school and high school, dedicated for more than three months in the tough school environment, to give back to the people around the world.” This was added to by Outstanding Youth Volunteer award winners, Rachana Kotapalli and Deeksha Malhotra, who were proud to be making an impact on the world at such an early age. While performing these activities, the main goal of Vibha was never put out of sight: Vibha strives continuously to create brighter futures for underprivileged children, a motto that has proved itself true by the success of all of Vibha’s fundraisers.

In an effort to make the event even better, the Vibha Youth incorporated feedback given from participants from previous years. Chess was made Rated for the serious players while keeping the original open championship available for adults and new players. The change was welcomed well and there were 150 Chess participants in different categories. TT was organized to start and finish promptly, and the record breaking 200 TT participants were accommodated extremely well. In addition, the youth decided to add another event to the fold this year, with an art competition designed for little ones being appended to the occurrences during the day. The newly added Art Competition also received an overwhelming response and there were 50 artists of all ages putting their creativity on the paper.

The Vibha DreamPlay Chess Tournament saw great attendance from youth players everywhere in the region, with

A heated chess game at the DreamPlay 2013.

record turnout in both the rated and unrated competition. One could see novices testing their skills against the most experienced in the game, and testing situations for all sorts of players. Tournament Director Keith Sewell was to thank behind the smoothly ran rated competitions, where many young and skilled chess players had an opportunity to shine. A special gratitude must be shown for Steve Schneider, founder and director of Champion Chess and author of the Scholastic Chess series, who helped coordinate the chess tournaments throughout the day. The Scholastic Rated Champion Chess was won by Shanmukha Meruga, while the Scholastic Unrated Open Chess was won by Rithik Konda Doddla.

Table tennis was also prolific this year, the event bringing in almost 200 individuals and teams. Archana Athalye, a former state level champion in India and founder of Archi’s Table Tennis Club in Atlanta, coordinated the Table Tennis event for the 2013 DreamPlay. She helped coordinate the event remarkably well.

In the 2013 event, the numerous divisions were broadly divided into mens, womens, mixed, and U-15. As the matches unfolded one by one, the players did not fail to impress, engaging the audience and maintaining fair play as their mantra. Krishna Venkatesh bagged the Men’s championship and Kim Fuley became the champion in women’s category.  Srikar Yendapally, Atharva Athalye, Brandon Koh came up winners in the under-16 tournament respectively at Basic, Intermediate, and Advance categories.

Alongside the much acclaimed table tennis and chess tournaments, the introduction of an art competition to the Vibha DreamPlay 2013 saw immediate fruition. The idea for a youth art competition stemmed from the Vibha Youth’s desire to add a contest where young people could express their creativity. Categories were created such that peers of the same age could paint together, fostering friendly competition and communication, with a special emphasis on the uniqueness of art. Rashi Patel (4-6), Shriya Nayak(7-9),  Nikhil Kumar(10-12) and Lavanya Chellam(13-16) were recognized as the winners of the Vibha DreamPlay Art Competition 2013.

The 10th Annual Vibha DreamPlay was a success and the youth’s commitment towards service through restarting the Vibha Youth as well as management of the event is what really made this event click. The event was an excellent example of how Atlanta Vibha Youth is growing stronger and flourishing in terms of event successes. Youth were given full freedom to show their leadership and employ new strategies to make the event more effective. The result: record breaking funds raised and maximum participant satisfaction from the event.

Vibha is grateful through the support it has received in numbers through its sponsors, especially title sponsor K-MACS, and Serenity Infotech as well as financial and physical help to make this DreamPlay a success of immense stature. Srinivas Vangimalla and Dilip Tunki of Serenity Infotech gave away the prizes and thanked the participants. Both noted that they felt it was an honor to work with Vibha for such a noble cause.

For complete results of Vibha DreamPlay 2013 , please visit www.atlanta.vibha.org/DreamPlay2013.

Written for Vibha by Sanket Mehta

Vibha’s Philosophy

Vibha’s philosophy is that of a social venture catalyst. We seed, grow and scale grass-roots ideas that can solve systemic problems related to the underprivileged child through a cure that involves minimal external intervention with large scale societal impact. Such solutions are typically hard to find and involve closely working with all players related to the eco-system of the problem – the beneficiaries, beneficiary families, village, town and city councils, governmental agencies and above all society at large.

Vibha is not a funding agency. Vibha is a platform that brings together people that want to make a difference in the life of an underprivileged child (grass-root entrepreneur, donor, volunteer, govt. agencies and partner NFOs). Funding is one of the tools provided by this platform towards ensuring a scalable cure is found to SOLVE a systemic problem in the life of the underprivileged child. Vibha provides its social entrepreneurs with significant know-how, financial and management skills, Information Technology skills, marketing and fund-raising skills as well sustainability and scalability skills.

Vibha’s project screening process is a pain-staking detailed process so as to identify ideas that could possibly SOLVE once and for all a systemic problem related to the underprivileged child. Once selected, the social entrepreneur is provided with the necessary seed capital as well as know-how with constant project monitoring assistance through Vibha personnel and staff on the ground towards ensuring the project is meeting its necessary milestones towards achieving a scalable cure. If after a certain period of time (typically 3 years), the project has not achieved its goal of finding a scalable solution for the problem its trying to solve, Vibha starts a gradual exit process so as to ensure the project continues to benefit its beneficiaries with minimal disturbance.

If the project does achieve its goal of finding a scalable cure for the problem it is trying to solve, Vibha now plays the role of disseminating this cure far and wide through various channels including partner NGOs, other Vibha projects in different geographies, govt.agencies, and the involvement of society at large.

In short, Vibha seeds, grows and scales sustainable and scalable solutions for systemic problems affecting the lives of the underprivileged child.

Volunteer Interview: Featuring Hetal Patel from Raleigh

1. Why did you join Vibha, and how long have you been with Vibha?

I’ve been a volunteer for Vibha for about one year now. I joined because Vibha is a great organization which allows an individual to be him/her self when it comes to contributing ideas and time to help underprivileged children. Growing up in third world country I saw many children with minimal to no resources for basic needs of daily life. As a child I had made a promise to myself that one day I would help those children live a better life. Vibha allowed me to jumpstart my childhood promise.

Recently I visited one of Vibha’s projects in India while I was visiting family. Being onsite and seeing what we as Vibha do was a true satisfaction. What I like about Vibha is that is allows an individual to come forward with different ideas and visions. It is not like a standardized non-profit organization where all you do is raise money and send it over to projects. Vibha lets you be part of the grass roots, it lets you experience first hand. It’s a unique capital venture organization which helps scale and sustain reproducible system for struggling areas of education and health system in India.

2. What is your current role at Vibha?  Describe what you do on a periodic basis.

My current role at Vibha is of an Action Center Coordinator for Raleigh-Durham Chapter of NC. Five like minded individuals set up the Raleigh-Durham Chapter in June of 2012. Since I’ve taken on the role of ACC, my role is to help volunteers of our Action Center to learn about Vibha, come up with ideas to help spread awareness in the area, come up with local volunteering ideas, help plan fundraising events, set up booths, and be there for volunteers for any need they may have. My role is to also oversea projects and events being held/planned for the year.

3. What is your favorite even/highlight of working with Vibha?

The most rewarding part of it is the enthusiasm and excitement of all the volunteers to help our local community as well as helping underprivileged children in India. My favorite highlight of our chapter so far has been our first event Bowl-a-thon. The event was to simply attract people and show what Vibha was about. We not only had a good turnout but we had over 30 plus volunteer sign ups in a span of two months.

My second most favorite highlight has been the local volunteering at Stop Hunger Now. At Stop Hunger Now, we helped package 200 plus meals for third world countries. The event was success and such a fun event. We enjoyed measuring different dehydrated veggies and grains and packing them. As a group of 8 plus volunteers it only took us 45 minutes to pack 200 meals. We had not realized how big of an impact we all made in just 45 minutes. All the volunteers contributed their time and money for this event and everyone walked out with a huge smile wanting to come back again to do it ALL OVER AGAIN!

4. What do you look forward to most for Vibha?

In the future I am patiently waiting for our action center to grow and become a strong foundation for our area. I am excited to make big impacts from small to big ideas by our volunteers. I look forward to our Dream Mile Event and couple of other events we’ve been talking about. All in all, I am very pleased with our Action Center and all the hard work of each and every individual of Raleigh-Durham Action Center. I hope to serve to the best of my ability and bring excitements and enthusiasm for our Action Center.

From the Perspective of a Youth Volunteer…

The youth is the hope of our future. Jose Rizal, Phillipine Nationalist

Youth volunteers were asked the following three questions:

1. How long have you been volunteering for Vibha?
2. Why do you volunteer for Vibha?
3. What is your most favorite event of the year and what do you do to prepare/what is your role?

Read their responses below!

Neeraja Sarda

1. I’ve been volunteering for Vibha since I was 9 years old, so about 8 years.

2. Most high-achieving high-school students these days take part in some or the other volunteering, but few can truly say that they make as big of a global impact as I am able to make through Vibha. To me, volunteering has been part of my growing up and there are few causes in the world greater than that of Vibha. I highly appreciate the level of responsibility I am given, because it not only makes me a better member of the community, but a better human being, in general.

3. My favorite event would have to be the Dream Mile. It’s nice to know that the adult core group trusts youth volunteers like me to do the massive tasks involved in preparation for the Dream Mile, annually. This past year, I was in charge of the whole registration team which involves collecting registrations in the months leading up to the event, as well as managing the volunteers and participants on the event day. It makes me feel capable and powerful when I am able to solve problems and give people answers about everything they could possibly imagine, as a teenager.

Manasa Chimpiri
1. I have been volunteering for Vibha for about 9 years. I have been coming to events since I was younger and I began volunteering for little things since I was about 7.

2. I volunteer for Vibha because it is a great experience to be a part of. Not only are their the benefits of leadership, teamwork, and volunteering experience, but their is also a greater aspect. Firstly, all the volunteers of Vibha are very close; it doesn’t feel like an extra activity simply because everyone is so willing to help out. Secondly, the impression of our efforts go a long way. I have visited one of the numerous Door Step Schools in Pune and I got to see what an impact our fundraisers make and how they are used. It touched me to see so many children so eager to receive an education provided by Vibha which they would not have otherwise. Also, Vibha has always been a family affair for me. Everyone I know has so much respect for this organization and what they do. Lastly, Vibha is fun! We get to plan events, volunteer and all with friends so that is always a great aspect.

3. I used to advocate the annual Dream Mile, simply because it is the event with the most response and most funds raised. But, the latest Dream Play has really changed my mind. The Dream Play, previously known as the Khel Mela, is aimed at being a completely Vibha Youth driven event. I was one of the co-organizers of the event this year so along with other volunteers we made sure that this event would be amazing. The weekly phone calls, frequent meetings and constant emails paid off. Being so closely affiliated with the process of organizing made me feel like we can accomplish something and is a great experience for the Youth volunteers especially. It amazes me how Vibha Youth actively participated and made this a success. I am proud to say I am a part of Vibha.

Rachana Kotapalli
1. I have been volunteering for 2 and a half year now. I started when I was 14. My first event was the Dream Mile.

2. The cause- there are only a few organizations that actually provide dual service, that is, to both here and India. Along with dual service, comes the projects; I highly value the saying that "education is for everyone," and Vibha’s main projects center around child education as well as health and wellness.

Honestly, I enjoy just helping in general, no matter what, or where the issue is, and Vibha has a great set volunteers that believe the same; it’s a very welcoming group that has great ideals.

3. I love volunteering for the Dream Mile! The stress piles up as the amount of work increases, but the stress motivates everyone to work so hard. Also, the ambiance is so friendly  The huge crowd that shows up makes it all the more fun. The Dream Mile is actually on the top 10 races to run in the South! wohoo! Preparation  meetings! We usually meet, each person gets assigned tasks to do and we all discuss future implementations in the fundraisers, ways to better it, etc.  My role last year was in registration- got a hold of any problems that needed fixing (wrong numbers, someone didn’t pay, they didn’t have a number, etc). 

Adithya Ganesh

1. I started volunteering occasionally at a handful of events in 7th grade, 4 years ago.  Now, as Co-Editor of VibhaScope, the team works to publish a monthly publication.

2. My serendipity in being born into relative middle-class affluence is a matter of sheer probability.  As much as I didn’t do anything to deserve my quality of life, the impoverished masses do not deserve their plight.  While many say the impact of a single individual is small, helping others is not an activity of statistics and numerics. A single person helped is indeed only a small fraction of the world’s population, but holds an enormous degree of significance, for both the giver and receiver — a philosophy I feel underpins volunteering in general.

3. I like the Vibha Kite Flying Festival.  When I can go, a fellow Dallas youth volunteer, Rishi, and I prepare a speech on the history of kites.  We help out with handing out kites, kite-making workshops, and general promotion.  The picture of hundreds of kites flying freely is a particularly enthralling sight.

National Volunteer Week–April 21-27!

National Volunteer Week is coming up on April 21-27, 2013! Since its inception in 1974, National Volunteer Week is a period to celebrate the power and impact of service. National Volunteer Week is bolstered by the support of President Obama, Congress, governors and mayors. Indeed, as Obama stated in 2012:

“As we continue to pursue progress, service and social innovation will play an essential role in achieving our highest ambitions — from a world-class education for every child to an economy built to last. During National Volunteer Week, we pay tribute to all who give of themselves to keep America strong, and we renew the spirit of service that has enriched our country for generations.”

Send your thoughts and ideas for National Volunteer Week to vibhascope@vibha.org.

An alarming trend and what we at Vibha are doing about it

Posted by: Ron Victor, President of Vibha

Ron Victor, President of Vibha

I visited India in Dec 2012 and met a couple of our project partners as well as some other NGOs (Non-governmental Organizations) that I know. This was all in the midst of the horrific rape incident that gripped Delhi and the rest of India.

I visited Jan Madhyam in Delhi where we held a meeting with a bunch for new volunteers from Delhi towards getting the Delhi Action Center going. I then visited DSS (Door Step School) in Pune which we are now in the midst of scaling. As quite a few of you may already know, DSS focuses on the children of migrant laborers at construction sites. DSS is doing well with quite a few of the builders in Pune now calling on DSS to setup a school at the construction site before they start construction; and more importantly, the same builders are taking complete ownership of the funding to run these schools – something we have focused on and driven for a while so as to make DSS self-sustainable. It’s all coming to fruition, albeit slowly.

I then visited YuvaParivartan (Yuvaparivartan.org) – an NGO that I have known and been involved with in an advisory capacity for a while; that works with youth towards providing vocational training so as to enable youth to earn a living. What I learnt there was most disturbing. This was just after the rape incident in Delhi. I learnt the following:

1. Most vocational training classes conducted for trades typically handled by men (example – Electrician, Refrigerator repair, auto mechanic, etc.) were all going empty with less than 50% occupancy.
2. Most vocational training classes conducted for trades typically handled by women (examples – Beautician, Embroidery and Tailoring, Retail desk saleswoman.) were all going full with more than 80% occupancy.

This made me ask some questions as to why this is the case. I learnt the following through those questions:

1. A day laborer in metro India makes Rs.300/- per day on average.
2. A carpenter in metro India who is employed, i.e. does not operate his own business, but works for another carpenter – makes Rs.700 per day on average. However, the sky is the limit for the same carpenter once he is independent and runs his own shop – the gains are a factor of 10 or more.
3. An auto-rickshaw driver in Mumbai make about Rs.1000/- per day.

While all the above work to earn a living, the carpenter and the rickshaw driver seem to be quite satisfied with where they are at and not at all incentivized to learn a skill that will pay them any more than the Rs.700 or Rs.1000 mentioned above respectively. That leaves the day laborer. This day laborer is typically a migrant from rural India. He is the one that is attending the male vocational training classes to learn a skill to get him above the Rs.300/- per day barrier. He is part of that 50% that is attending the male vocational training class.

So, what’s the problem? Why are the vocational training classes for males with such low attendance? The classes are pretty much given away for nothing, so money we know is not the issue. I learnt that there are significant youth in India of capable earning age that just do not wish to work and contribute to their families and society at large. Yes – it’s not that they can’t or they don’t have an opportunity to do so. They choose not to. They take it for granted that the women in the family will work and bring in the cash required to run the household. Whether this is from an early childhood upbringing where they saw this growing up in their households or whether they just decided not to contribute – the issue is that the trend is growing more and more.

I then started talking with various people both in the NGO world as well as others to validate what I had just learnt. Alarmingly, the results of these discussions (universally – and I mean 100%) all led to the same point – that a substantial number of the high-school drop-out or the high-school-only graduated males in the lower income group in India just do not choose to work. They have gotten accustomed to the women in the house doing everything from running the household to managing the kids as well as now being responsible for the family’s livelihood.

The males in these households then resort to violence (wife beating) to show that they still have a voice in the house. Given the fact that they do not contribute in any manner towards the household, their only option is violence in a bid to assert a false authority. A lot of this violence is towards extracting money from the women towards drink and alcoholism – all in all a negative cycle - Don’t be productive – beat the wife – get drunk – then repeat the cycle again the next day. The view among this class of males that, it is the woman’s job to do all the work and then be used as a commodity, is what is driving the violence against women in India.

Thus, while we at Vibha are working towards ensuring the underprivileged child’s right to health, education and opportunity in India, we actively need to ensure that as these children grow up (the males) , they understand their role and responsibility towards family and society. While we may ensure they get educated, if we do not ensure that they have been provided with the requisite life skills to understand their role in contributing to their family and society, we are not achieving what we set out to do.

As a result, Pragati 2013 (our annual conference in India where all our projects come together for 3 days to connect with each other, share success stories and leverage each other’s strengths) will have a significant impetus this year on ensuring our project partners in India have been sensitized to the above so as to ensure that they in-turn impart the required life skills to their male clientele.

I hope that through the same, we will start playing an important role in ensuring mutual respect for women and causing a dent in this cycle of violence and disrespect that came to an unfortunate tipping point with the Delhi incident.

Best,

Ron.