Young Indian Futures Update, May 2012
Many thanks to all of you, who have contributed so generously to make these projects possible, and to give a new future to talented young people from poor families in many different areas of India. Here is an update on the signs of success so far, and ongoing and new projects.
For more detail, and the students' stories in their own words, see our website www.youngindianfutures.org
Five flourishing training communities
At Aryaloka Computer Education Institute, Nagpur, 19 young men and women are being trained in General Computing skills, plus Hardware and Networking repairs which will give them an edge in this burgeoning jobs market. Two more talented young people are training in Animation skills, practising at Aryaloka on Government projects.
These opportunities to lift themselves, their families and communities out of poverty, would be completely closed to them without your generosity.
8 more students from very underdeveloped states (Bihar and Arunachal Pradesh) are being supported in a Graduation Project, as potential leaders of their communities, presently marginalised by caste, poverty, and gender discrimination.
They are all delighting in the freedom-with-empowerment setting of cooperative communities; one of them purpose-built. All of their families are far too poor to afford them any opportunity like this.
Their courses will finish in July this year - they will then be supported for a little longer until they take their next step on their career ladder. Then we hope to fund more training communities based on the success of the present ones.....dependent on the generosity and efforts of donors and fundraisers.
Previous Successes
Out of 10 young people trained in Animation and computer skills at Aryaloka Computer Education institute 2009-10, nine have now found jobs in those fields. Two have found jobs as Animators with high salaries; but perhaps the most satisfying result is that 4 from the 6 women who lived and studied together for a year in the Maitrikula women's community adjacent to Aryaloka, have found work in photo studios, enjoying self-reliance and growing career opportunities. One woman is now teaching Animation at Aryaloka itself. One woman is working in her father's internet cafe. One of our star Animators has found employment with a TV Company as an animator, in Nagpur, her home city; two of our ex-trainees have embarked on rewarding careers in Bangalore; and one in Delhi.
All these are now helping to support their families as well as themselves. Those who are breaking through to success are very active in supporting and encouraging the students still in training,or still trying hard to build a career.
Opportunities in Orissa
Business planning workshops, development programmes, and visits to remote villages and places of historical interest, were the objectives of the trip which Helen Sullivan, Priyadaka, and I took in January '11, to this beautiful state with its hidden strata of awful poverty. The young people who organised the trip, most efficiently, are seeking to improve the lives of marginalised people of their own background, mostly followers of the great leader of erstwhile 'Untouchables', Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. To give them a means of self-support for this work, we are currently looking at the development of tourism/pilgrimage in Orissa (Odisha), which will combine their knowledge of their own traditions with a flexible means of earning.
New Developments in Chhattisgarh
The success of the Aryaloka computer centre as a thriving business training young people from poor backgrounds, has helped us to incubate a scheme to duplicate that model elsewhere, in parts of India where our ex-trainees can use such a centre as a base for their community development work. The most forceful participant behind this initiative is Phoolmani, one of our young trainees now earning her living (and learning the trade) in a photo studio. The intention is to set up a computer centre in Raipur, main city of the state of Chhattisgarh in central India, where village life is being rapidly replaced by heavy and brutal industrialisation. This Right Livelihood initiative should offer an alternative career to a large number of young people with whom we already have contact.
Further Plans and Projects
In Odisha, a tailoring training group for women in a remote village in a poor area, is all set to go ahead, with 30 young women eager to learn this useful and potentially liberating skill. So far, they have only one sewing machine, (they need 4 more) but a detailed business plan (thanks to Helen and Trinath) and a lot of enthusiasm.
The number of young people looking for us for training and living support this year (2012-13) could be as many as 30, including more young women from Bihar. Their families cannot help them, so we look to you.....
Again thank you, for making all this possible, and changing so many lives for the better.
Shakyajata
May 2012
