Tag Archives: India

Goan progress and looking to the autumn

26 Feb

Namaste from India,  where I’m now three weeks into my current trip,  which has included undertaking some fascinating interviews for my book,  Mother India, as well as volunteering for local children’s charity Educators’ Trust India.

Read more about all of that over at The Gender Blog.

I’ve also been asked to contribute some material to this autumn’s International Leadership Association conference,  which will be held in London in October.  I’ll be part of a panel discussing the diversity and cultural implications of globalisation – an issue which creates interesting debates for leadership and talent management teams.

Should leaders be the same worldwide or should they have distinctive talents and characteristics based on their location? Is there one leadership brand for a company,  or many?

What’s your perspective?

Returning to India

5 Feb

Next week, I head back to India for a further month.  During this time,  I’ll be having meetings in Mumbai and undertaking initial interviews for a very exciting new project – a book about women in India which has the provisional working title of Mother India – check out my new site here for further details.

After Mumbai, I’ll be back in Goa where I’ll again be volunteering with charity Educators’ Trust India,  whilst also doing a bit of freelance writing work for my banking client in London.

Details of all of these adventures will be told over at the Gender Blog,  so perhaps I’ll see you there.

Searching for the pot of Goan gold at the end of the rainbow

21 Jan

My article for theGlasshammer about my time in India,  doing volunteer work for charity Educators’ Trust India,  has now been published:

Goa: the smallest and the richest state in India; a former Portuguese colony, a place of beautiful golden beaches, swaying palm trees and over a million domestic and foreign tourists per year. The wealth brought by the tourists also brings an influx of economic migrants. In search of work and money, they travel to this tiny state in western India from other areas – hundreds and in some cases thousands of miles away.

I first visited Goa in 1999, have been back many times since then and have seen the volume of both tourists and of workers from other parts of India soar in the intervening years.

Click here to read the rest of the article and here to visit the charity’s website and make a donation – thank you.

A balancing act …

13 Jan

One of the most interesting and wonderful things about being a freelance writer is the sheer diversity and variety of writing assignments which come my way. One week I’m writing a white paper on global diversity;  the next,  it’s an article for a website or a magazine, a corporate award entry,  a briefing speech for a CEO or,  as was the case over Christmas,  a brochure for a small children’s charity in India.

And the Educators’ Trust India leaflet is now available – click here to take a look at it or to  download the PDF.

Educators’ Trust India flyer_January 2011

When worlds collide

4 Jan

The New York based website theGlasshammer.com, for whom I am a regular contributor,  has emailed and asked me to produce an article about my time in India for their “Intrepid Women” piece.

It’s rare that my worlds collide in quite this manner,  but I know I’ll enjoy writing about my experiences with the children and volunteers from Educators’ Trust India – and sharing their story with a more corporate audience.  I also plan to donate my writing fee (small,  but it will buy a few pairs of shoes!) to the charity.

* * *

Updated as at 21st January - you can now read the published article via this link.

Merry Christmas from Educators’ Trust India

19 Dec

(c) Educators' Trust India

Today I’ve been working on a Christmas card which will be sent out this week via email to the supporters of Educators’ Trust India.

It features this lovely photo,  which was taken in Goa on Thursday evening, when the children went out carol singing.

And here’s a link to the PDF of the card itself:

Educators’ Trust India_Christmas card 2010

Small cash, big impact

17 Dec

The most recent Gender Blog update shares the story of how a £10 contribution towards a few pairs of flip-flops has changed the lives of children in Goa,  thanks to the work of charity Educators’ Trust India.

Does poverty have a colour?

14 Dec

With the children from the Leading Light school, Goa, India

Hello again;  I’m now back in the UK,  undertaking freelance diversity consulting work for an investment bank in the run up to Christmas – and working on website and newsletter content for Educators’ Trust India in my spare time.

I’ve also updated The Gender Blog with some details and photos of the slum settlement where many of the children helped by this tiny yet passionate and committed charity live – click here for details.

More about Educators’ Trust, India

10 Dec

Here’s the draft copy for the charity website I mentioned earlier this month; I am writing the website and an accompanying newsletter for them, pro-bono.

(The underlined words will be URLs in the final online version).

* * * * *

India is one of the world’s booming economic success stories.  For a few,  it is a country of unimaginable wealth and great luxury.  For many others,  it is a place of poverty,  illiteracy, hunger and poor health – and children bear the brunt of this inequality.  Educators’ Trust India, founded in 2008, is a British and Indian registered charity which works to help the children of migrant, impoverished, illiterate families – and to  educate them,  not only in academic terms but also about health, hygiene and nutrition.

Educators’ Trust India is solely funded by charitable donations and is staffed by a dedicated team of global volunteers who include teachers and doctors.  We run two schools in Goa,  western India,  where we provide a non-denominational education to the children of the migrant workers who flock here, hoping for a slice of the economic pie, from other parts of India each autumn.  These are the children who you may have seen begging on the beach or perhaps selling jewellery and peanuts;  we work to break the cycle of illiteracy and child labour,  which keeps them in poverty,  by teaching them to read and write, to speak English and to learn maths.  We give India’s forgotten children a future.

The people who we help live in shacks and slum settlements,  without access to such basics as running water, sanitation or even a roof over their heads. In addition to our two schools,  we also run an outreach programme in the slum areas where we help the parents understand the need for education, good food and hygiene; there are many proven links between poor health and poverty and so we will always help sick or injured children via our weekly drop-in clinic, run by a retired British GP.

But we can’t do this work without your help.  If,  like us,  you believe that education can improve the future of the poor,  then please join us and support our work by sponsoring a project,  making a donation, volunteering with us or visiting our schools when you are in India. Please follow the links on this page to learn more,  and to support us on Facebook and Twitter.   Thank you.

Update from India

1 Dec

I’ve been in Goa, western India for the last three weeks,  working on my novel and visiting Renuka,  the nine year old girl that I sponsor at a local children’s home.  I’ve also got involved with a small British and Indian registered charity called Educators’ Trust India (I’m pictured here at the beach,  with some of the children who attend their school)  and I’ve agreed to help them with their new website, newsletter and general on-line media strategy.

Their focus is on helping to educate the migrant children who arrive in Goa each tourist season.  The ETI team provides free education,  food and lessons on health, nutrition and hygiene and they work with the parents to help them appreciate the significance of education.  Given that most of the parents are illiterate and rely on the children working or begging on the beach to supplement the family income,  just obtaining their permission for the children to attend school or even to play on the beach rather than work there is a massive undertaking and so the reference to “education” in their charity name is as much about educating the adults as it is about the children.

Educators’ Trust India do some wonderful work for these people at the bottom of the Indian economic pile and I’m very proud to be able to use my writing skills to help them out.  Many of the children who they help live in tarpaulin shacks,  in a field a few miles inland from the beaches where tourists soak up the sun.

For more photos and details of my time in India,  please visit my recent posts at www.TheGenderBlog.com

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