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An Inspiring Class of Young Investors

Over the years, we’ve come to know many Teach for India Fellows and are always impressed by the work they do and the engaged classroom environments they create. This summer, Payoshni Saraf interned with us at our Bangalore office and through the interviews conducted by her students, we learnt more about the authors we have been working with.
Today started on an inspiring note when we found out that Payoshni’s class participate in the DESIGN FOR CHANGE School Challenge 2013. Their class project ‘POWER OF ONE’ is one of the Top 20 winners of  the Challenge. Wooohoooo!
State the problem you chose and why did you CHOOSE it?
We got back to the class with our research and realized that the problem is really big with no easy solutions. Doling out money just like that is not going to help us fight poverty. We need to empower the people so that they themselves can carve out a way out of Poverty. We decided to hence help them in their business ventures so that they can expand, make more money and get their children educated, get better Health and Sanitation.
Payoshni’s students organized themselves into groups and started saving money. After a month of saving, they were ready to make their investment. Through the Rang De website, each group chose a borrower they wanted to invest in and also got a chance to meet the borrowers to see how their investment had helped them.

This visit completed the circle of money/investment / growth for the kids and they could see how sacrificing the packet of Kurkure can actually fill colours of Joy in somebody else’s life. Through the entire process of the kids, not only did the kids grow academically (learning concepts of Microfinance, Interest ,Business etc), they learnt of a heap of Life Skills and Values. Joy of Giving if no more just a phrase but an actual feeling. They have learnt the values of Belief (in themselves) and the Social Responsibility that each one of us carries. They have learnt to handle negative reactions and criticism and mitigate it and the value of NEED vs GREED. Because, we truly believe, TOGTHER, we WILL make a Difference.

Read all about their project for change.

Thank you for sharing this inspiring project, Payoshni! And congratulations to your wonderful class of social investors :).

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