This week’s update

Bit of a mixed bag this week. While one of the charities is going through some serious funding issues, that means that I as the interim treasurer is having to pour over financials and making the usual mess of it. Its so important in this day and age to make sure that your funding and your expenses are matched, otherwise we end up in severe trouble and then the basic existence of the charity itself is threatened. Specially the fact that your funding is very lumpy and not so certain while your outflow is smooth and very certain. The basic difference between your fixed and variable costs. Not good. The more I learn about this and the fascinating links with the public funding the more astonished I am.

On the SIFE front, went to hear the LSE team present to the business advisors. They did a fantastic job, I was so proud of what they have achieved, very professional and slick. I like!. My boys and girls, very nice. I do think they will do brilliantly at the national competition. We also need to print off their Annual Report. Will try to get a copy online.

On the IT4CH front, got the 1000 PC units from the bank, now the challenge is where to put them all, usually we get them in dribs and drabs, but now we got the full lot. So we need to worry about it a bit, but Pat is on the case.

This time when I am in India, I will try to pop into Disha to see how they are getting along. Long time no talk to them. I wonder how they are getting along. Ma and Baba are not getting a bit old to go check them out so have to go there myself.

Charity Photographic competitions and other news on the charitable front

I am conscious that i haven't posted here for some time, it has been manically busy at work and then I left for holiday so wanted to drop a line on what I have been up to in the past month or so.

1. The IT4CH charity is now moving from up north down to London, it just makes it easier for our CEO and our team to do this from London.
2. We are also negotiating with several local authorities to lease their buildings for us to keep our spare equipment in, this promises to be of much use.
3. I put in some funding proposals for carbon change improvement products back in the firm, but dont think they got selected. Shame, next time I will do better :). Am trying to see if we can get some of this stuff formally pushed and funded in a separate matter
4. SIFE is powering up for this academic year, as usual, I will be at LSE but have also offered to help Essex out. As I mentioned before, i am considering doing something with them on the academic and research front and I thought it might be able to kill 2 birds with one stone.
5. The discussions with Manchester Business School proceed sporadically, I am specially happy about an internship/graduate recruitment proposal, lets see, early days yet.
6. And finally, am thinking about submitting my photo essay on the Whittington Hospital in North London to this photo competition. I realise what we do with the kids is not so visually attractive, perhaps Disha would have been better but its way out in India and dont know when I will be there next. I quote from the site:

PhotoPhilanthrophy believes in the power of photography to inspire hope and understanding and to connect people around the world. All subjects photographed should be treated with respect, compassion and dignity. PhotoPhilanthropy reserves the the right to reject any submission based on quality, content or theme. All submissions will be reviewed by the PhotoPhilanthropy team for accuracy of information. Written essays may be edited for clarity.

Submitted photos must depict the work of a charitable organization (designated by 501c3 in the US, or international equivalent) and be presented as a photo essay. All photographs in the essay must have been taken within the last 3 years. Photographers may enter two essays in the same year. An essay entered in a previous year of the competition may not be re-entered.

For all submissions, collaboration with the charitable organization will be verified.  For this reason it is mandatory to submit a contact name and email of the person you worked with at the organization.

Upon completion of review, accepted photo essays will be posted on the PhotoPhilanthropy website.

What do you think? do you think I have a shot at it with the photographs from the hospital? I realise the differences between the visual impact of a hospital in north London versus say a charity in a hauntingly beautiful but bloody poor place in say Nepal or hot/dry/dusty Sudan, but what the heck, all part of the learning, eh?

Another tiny step forward

You might remember that I wrote a photo essay on the Bhopal Charity some time back. I was so pleased to see an email ping into my in-box today morning. Indeed God is great, he sent another good Samaritan down to help those lovely kids. See she wrote a response on the above mentioned link.

This is something I would like to contribute to financially, how do I get in touch with the administrators?

Small steps, indeed small steps :)

My first visit to Disha

I wrote earlier about a small charity that I got involved with some months back. Finally managed to get myself to Bhopal to see it. The full essay is on the main site.

 

these are girls from the local basti who come in to the centre to learn about the 3 R's

here are the actual boys

the teacher stands behind the boys, these 5 boys are singing a welcome song for us.

this standing boy cannot speak Hindi, a language which nobody understands...

they know their letters and numbers..

there was almost a fight over who gets to do this...

 

this is the boy who was giving the radio commentary 

they are reciting the sanskrit shloks which they recite before every meal.

listening raptly

here are the cupboards

 

digging into his locker

very nicely arranged, the little that they have. It is well arranged. wallpapered with old newspapers. 2 sections, they also have put up photographs of film actresses. the only little place they can call their very own.

 

my home, and that's the curtain.

 

the main room 

the boy and his drum

the kids off for lunch

sitting in disciplined rows for their food.

 

this is where they sleep

 

the courtyard

 

the bathrooms

 

the toilets

 

the washing

 

getting served

good wholesome food being served. They don't start eating till everybody has been served. Very disciplined, very impressed.

 

Here is the full slide show if you are interested in seeing it.

 

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