Engage with India

As a fellow, I left my family, friends and life back home to make a commitment, a commitment to take action by serving the Melghat tribal community in Lawada alongside my partner NGO Sampoorna Bamboo Kendra. This dedication and commitment to action through service, is at the core of what Indicorps promotes and does in India. Regardless of how seemingly insurmountable the odds were from the get go or how successful I might be, it was important that I take action. In doing so, I saw the deep complexities of rural India and as an american, how truly ignorant I was about the ground realities. Initially though, with no background in development, no local language skills, having never lived in India and host of other barriers, I was unsure of how much I could help my community...why should they listen to me, what can I possibly do, what sort of impact could I make...

But now looking back, thanks to the immense support & guidance of Indicorps, its amazing to see whats been done; was it the first set of advanced artisan trainings that I helped to introduce...or maybe it was the 1 hour I spent with Antulal, a local tribal artisan, every night on the top of the hostel looking at the stars & discussing our every so different lives...maybe it was the new exam system I created to improve handicraft design quality...or was it teaching a young ambitious Chanda basic mathematics so she can cost bamboo products accurately...possibly it was mentoring Motilal, the former bar owner turned lead bamboo artisan, through his amazing life transformation...or maybe seeing Vijay for the first time pridefully selling his products to customers telling them the highly skilled 30+ plus step manufacturing process...or was it...

Big or small, these are all experiences from my time in India, each with actual impact on the ground. And every one of the fellows can share a similar list of amazing things from their time in India. The collective impact of such action is great, but the fact that each of us will continue to do so in our lives will be even greater. And this was all possible because Sonal, Roopal & Anand took action, took similar steps years earlier to create Indicorps. They take those steps everyday as they choose to engage with India, in spite of all the challenges, risks & obstacles it throws at them. It is that path & message that will bring about positive social change in society and one that I will always keep with me as I forge ahead.

Rohan Jasani
January 2007 Fellow