The Magic Wand Project :The Magic Wand Project An experiment to transform rural poverty


Slide 2:How does one take a bunch of really poor, uneducated folks living in a remote village… Name: Ramesh Education: No Schooling Village: Kotigudda Name: Chandana Education:12th Standard Village: CN Halli & transform them into…. Name: Chandru Education: No Schooling Village: Koppal Name: Meghraj Education: No Schooling Village: Koppal Name: Hemanna Education: No Schooling Village: Koppal Name: Jayaraj Education:10th Standard Village: CN Halli Name: Divyashri Education:12th Standard Village: CN Halli Name: Uttam Education:10th Standard Uttaranchal


Slide 3:Smart, confident professionals earning Rs.6,000+ per month - fluent in English, computer-savvy & an ability to deliver presentations to an audience?? & all this in 8 months!!!


Slide 4:"An year ago, I had no knowledge of Computers or English. I had never written my own name in any language. I never wore slippers or shoes" Chandru (19), a villager from Koppal. Another villager Ramesh(20), who has never been to school, says "If I can work in a BPO, anybody in my village can. The only difference between me and them is that they are not trained to work and they don't know that they can work“ Today, they earn Rs.6,000+ per month working for a BPO. They type at 40+ words /minute, speak confidently in English, do calculations using MS-Excel and you will mistake them for any other city-educated professional! The Power of Transformation..


Slide 5:Watch Ramesh on the first day of training: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=m-qwh7ZpaM0 And 8 months later, Ramesh on his Graduation Day: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=A_wGj3pl3qo Watch Chandana on the first day of training: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=eCxcWLzvkeY&feature=related And 8 months later, Chandana on her Graduation Day: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=kwPltQBQESk&feature=related For a complete review of the project, check out: http://www.f4life.org/Progress_so_far.htm


Slide 7:Foundation for Life(www.f4life.org) is an NGO conducting transformational workshops for the last 14 years Samuha (www.samuha.org) is an NGO working for Integrated Rural Development for the last 25 years in India The Organisations that weaved this Magic!


Slide 8:Sunil Savara, Foundation For Life Founder and trustee of Foundation for Life. Founder Director & past CEO, Automated Workflow Pvt Ltd. The Believers… Samik Ghosh , Foundation For Life CEO and trustee of Foundation for Life, managing various aspects for the last 7 years Manages Professional Services & Strategic Relationship for Automated Workflow Group. Rajesh Bhat, Foundation For Life Trustee of Foundation for Life and manages the training at Foundation for Life Designs and delivers the curriculum to train people with little or no education Pradeep T, Samuha Founded and managed Samuha, he now manages I2D – an offset of Samuha His experiences range from volunteer stints to heading institutions


A snapshot of the Magic.. :A snapshot of the Magic.. Eight youngsters from poor families – some who had never held a pencil in their lives, nor could write their names in their native language and others who had dropped out of the education system - living their lives in debt and hunger They were chosen through an interesting “interview” experiment and relocated to Bangalore for a rigorous, unconventional training for eight months The intense training comprised of Spoken English, Analytical skills, Math Ability, Computer awareness, personality building and other life skills 8 months later, they are now employed in a BPO, working on an insurance back-office project by HDFC Life Insurance where they earn between Rs.5,000 to Rs. 7,500 per month.


Slide 10:This training capability is designed to be replicable, although much of it needs face-to-face interaction It uses a mix of transformational methods, including ontology, and a technology which we have termed “Learning through Conversations”, as also a series of down-to-earth exercises designed to accelerate the pace of understanding and learning. Learning through conversations is to enable an understanding of “context”, which then can pave the way for a much faster grasping of a situation, and the ‘conversations’ around that situation The Training Methodology


Slide 11:What is possible now is that millions of villagers - too poor to go to school, barely able to eat, can experience a transformation to a life with dignity 8 months of breakthrough training enables them to be capable of doing the work of a knowledge-worker! The vision is to transform 6 million villagers and enable them to live a life of dignity This experiment is path-breaking..


Slide 12:As the next step towards scaling up & proving the feasibility of this approach, Project Rural Edge will attempt to train 120 youngsters in 3 villages - Kanakagiri, Koppal and Tavaragera of Koppal district in Karnataka, India. 120 uneducated/semi-educated village youth will undergo intensive unconventional training for 8 months and become knowledge-workers. This training will be conducted in the villages itself Project Rural Edge will also attempt to create employment in their own villages where they will earn Rs.5,000+ per month , and financially contribute to the village infrastructure development, creating other opportunities for their fellow villagers. The Next Frontier…Project Rural Edge!


Slide 13:Koppal District Karnataka, India Tavaragera – 2 batches of 24 people each Kanakagiri – 2 batches of 24 people each Koppal – 1 batch of 24 people The Villages that are chosen for this project..


Slide 14:The training for 120 people will take place for 8 months using trained Training Managers and Training supervisors. During the training period the trainees will be paid stipend to ensure that there is no pressure from their parents to pull their children back into the manual labor to feed the family This training will be a full-time residential program and hostels are being constructed at these villages A separate ‘Train the Trainer Program’ is scheduled for training the trainers & training supervisors in the transformational methodology and curriculum. After the training is complete, the villagers will get confirmed appointment letters to start working on the transaction processing BPO at the villages itself. HDFC Life Insurance has lauded the output of work of the 8 villagers in the “Magic-Wand Project” and has committed to continue the outsourcing of these processes for another 120 people The quality of the work output will be monitored & managed by Foundation for Life The investments into construction of the buildings & computer infrastructure will hold good for subsequent batches since the same buildings & infrastructure will be used for multiple training/accommodation purposes in the years to come – this will lower the fixed costs per training batch in the coming years of operations. All the project sites are well connected through roads and have adequate facilities like water, electricity, etc. The Model..


Slide 15:Funds required for the 120 people project is estimated to be Rs.143 Lakhs with the breakdowns as below The Investments required


Slide 16:Foundation for Life is now looking to raise this money to get Project Rural Edge started and we want to reach out to you, to help make a difference! How can you help? Be the Transformer: Sponsor the training costs for one or more of the villagers – this is estimated to be Rs.90,000/- per person for the entire duration of the 8 months. You will be linked to the person that you are helping transform and we also invite you (if your time permits) to be a mentor for this person during the course of the training. This can be thru skype, chat & emails You will also receive regular monthly updates on the progress of the person We invite you to make a difference.. From corporate sponsors, we also seek support on procuring used notebooks/laptops that will be used for training


Slide 17:We are planning to kick-start the process by February 1st, 2009 and will need to complete the fund-raising by 31st Jan 2009. So request you to let us know your decision to be “Transformer” at the earliest! We are also organizing a visit to Koppal on 17th January 2009, to see the village and meet some of the people who will be involved in the training. Koppal is about an overnight bus journey (10 hours) from Bangalore. We invite you to make this trip and get a first-hand feel of the project For more details, you can either mail or call Rajesh Bhat on rajesh.bhat@f4life.org / +91-98868-95436 The Next Steps..


Slide 18:We look forward to having you with us on this journey into transforming lives!