We Care Diaries
Ishaan Deva
Light of life Trust (LOLT) entrusted us with the task of creating an e-commerce website to help increase sales of handmade products created by the rural women supported by the NGO. Due to the pandemic , villages are hard hit and these women need additional income to support their families. Hence the need for such a project. The project itself was a tremendous learning experience and it gave me great pleasure to know that I am making a real difference in the community. All my gratitude to the organisation mentors for their tremendous support. You really made us feel like colleagues not interns, and the passion you have for your cause , was invigorating!
Kirti Agarwal
The 21 day experience was quite a fulfilling experience since I got an opportunity to work for a noble cause. My role was concerned with raising funds for the terminally ill children whose proceeds would be utilised for granting their wishes. Initially, raising funds were quite difficult since a lot of households were affected owing to the pandemic and people were reluctant to donate. However, creating awareness made a big difference and that unwillingness faded away with time. This internship taught me the importance of communication and persuasiveness while approaching people for fund raising. I would like to thank SRF for providing me an opportunity to work for this cause.
Make-A-Wish Foundation
Aayush Sinha
The experience was wholesome. After aligning myself with the mission of reaching out to 100 million children in the next 5 years, the team was able to devise strategies in line with the National Education Policy, 2020. Other than that, contributions to internal process enhancements were made and the overall interactions will stay with us for a lifetime. Getting the chance to go on a field trip with the Agastya team to witness a live workshop for rural kids was an enriching experience. For me, interacting with kids, understanding their challenges with respect to education and helping them fulfill their massive potential was the most gratifying experience. I would like to express my gratitude to Agastya International Foundation and our mentors, Mr. Mukesh and Mr. Alok for their continued support throughout the duration of our internship and the way they allowed us to map our skill set with meaningful contributions towards the space of the education of underprivileged children.
Harshita Sethi
WeCare offered us with the opportunity to be a part of something that profoundly impacts the well-being of deafblind children in our country. It sensitised us to the severity of deafblindness as a sensory impairment, and how organizations like Sense International have devoted themselves to this cause. I worked with the digital marketing team, and assisted them with social media analytics across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. We leveraged data to increase post engagement, which would consequently help in obtaining the requisite funding. I felt extremely lucky to be able to contribute to this cause, and realized that we, as MBA students, hold immense power to help the society in myriad ways
Nikita Garg
The whole WeCare Internship process was very smooth. From the onboarding and understanding the functioning of the NGO, my mentor ensured that limitations of the virtual mode of internship don't hamper the experience. Our project was designed to create an online library for different set of students. This was an interesting project as it helped us create value for the education of students who have limitation to educational resources. We are given complete autonomy to work as per our understanding of educational trends. Our NGO mentor was easily approachable, accommodating and warm. This enhanced our overall experience at DCWC .
Akash Kakkar
My enriching journey with Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy helped me hone the knowledge gained from our curriculum through practical usage. This was a completely new experience for me as for the first time I was working with an NGO as a managerial intern rather than a volunteer, with my efforts now being utilized to improve the working and functioning of the NGO as a whole. Even though the stint was hosted virtually, we were fortunate to visit the NGO to meet our mentors, who not only guided us throughout the course of the internship but were always appreciative and critical about any inputs brought upon by us. The opportunity presented by SRF is a great addition towards individual growth with the invigorating work being a bonus for the satisfaction felt by contributing towards the good cause.
Saujanya Sengar
"Today, whenever I take a management decision for my company, I yearn to tread a few steps that would inch us closer to our sustainable goals, smearing our otherwise productivity oriented objectives with a greenish hue..." Well, the above quote might come from future myself but the aspirations, right now, are very current. I don't know if this experience was life changing or not, but it certainly would help me in changing many lives (that's what that eventually matters, right?) Two months of being in a milieu that lives and breathes conservation has infused my thought process with a blow of pragmatic attitude that fosters the conjoint presence of profitability and sustainability. This was driven by the opportunity of closely working on projects that involved hunting the inconspicuous profit making opportunities in sustainable modes of operations pertaining to the circular economy. It certainly helped me in ousting my preconceived notions whose provenance had been the not so thoughtful linear economic practices sailing across the decades due to the capitalistic and inconsiderate mindset being at the helm. I would like to thank SRF for the experience that they curated for me. It will forever remain a very important part of my MBA journey.
Prithiviraj Siran Kumar
My Wecare internship at WORD helped me understand the legal aspects of an NGO as well as the various initiatives undertaken by the organisation for the welfare of women, children, and migrants in the Namakkal, Salem, and Erode districts. Despite the fact that we had a completely virtual internship, we were given the opportunity to interact with various programme incharges and volunteers. My primary responsibilities in WORD included case documentation, secondary research on various schemes such as the Sumangali scheme and its impact on textile industries in Tamil Nadu, the impact of labour codes, and so on. Secondary research and interactions with WORD volunteers helped us understand some of the key issues that our society had overlooked, as well as WORD's initiatives to address these issues. Overall, the experience helped me gain a deeper understanding and mature perspective on issues affecting the people in bottom of the pyramid, as well as the importance of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Society
Purvak Agrawal
Getting place in WTA and the project that I was involved in gave me a newer perspective towards how the different geographies are working towards the collective goal but operating in every innovative way possible. I was a part of team wherein we were understanding the issue of waste management in the urban and rural areas. And the waste here refers to everything under the sun, the municipal corporation handling, daily waste commercial and residential as well as industrial waste. I was given the opportunity to interact with industry leader who are processing waste as a private firm and have achieved the rank of “Zero Waste”, their views, vision for better way to manage involving technology gave me real life learning. A small E-waste processing firm in Nagpur was working with NGO and were partnering with them to collect E-waste across the 100 km radius of Nagpur, newest way to get a hold of waste by Partnering, so learning of MBA and how to implement across any industry is what helped me in WeCare Internship.
Pranav Warrier
In most cases, a volunteering project may not turn out to be as impactful as in the case of a proctored WeCare project managed by SRF at NMIMS Mumbai. I was given the opportunity to be a part of a team that pitched a funding renewal round for our NGO, to none other than the Azim Premji Foundation. Having been able to contribute to the effort that successfully secured the funding which will sustain thae NGO's operations and enable them to continue bringing smiles to the faces of the underprivileged, was nothing short of an honour.
Rajarshi Raghav
After being associated with Literacy India and Indha for the past three months and being exposed to the kind of work they are engaged in despite various challenges, there were a lot of learnings that were imbibed by me. In the broader sense, apart from the learnings and exposure that pertains to business acumen and the area (B2B Marketing) that I worked upon, some of the core learnings from social aspects are mentioned as follows, • A major population of our country is unable to utilize the given opportunities because of the stringent societal norms • Women, especially in the marginalized strata are made to prioritize marriage over their careers and therefore have to let go of their aspirations • Such fundamental societal issues, despite the development in metropolitan areas, need to be acknowledged and acted upon • Adequate measures and programs need to be implemented so that people don’t miss out on opportunities due to economic limitations • Vocational training must be provided to the marginalized sections so that they have their way to a life of dignity and success • Organizations like Literacy India and initiatives like Indha help in bridging the gap and ensuring that everyone has the right to dream and live a life of independence
Rishabh Bhargava
The We-Care Internship was really good. It helped us explore a social side and made us more empathetic to people who are in need of our support. It was an overwhelming experience to contribute to the country's underutilized talents and to the economy in a way. The internship has been a fulfilling experience for us and helped us channelize our inner values into something really fruitful. It was all about making a difference. Right from day 1 where we were asked to check the sustainable development goals that the Fair Trade Forum members were complying with, to shortlisting CVs for the posts of marketing officer, and lastly, presenting the leadership with solutions regarding making a change to their business model adopting a hybrid B2C and D2C approach, the Wecare internship also gave us a chance to apply the knowledge that we imbibed in our business school to real-time life scenarios.
Aastha
My We Care experience was a lot like I expected it to be. The organization that I was associated with, worked for a better overall life of children it sheltered. They provided them with food, education, tuition, sports facilities, and anything else they would need. It also worked towards helping women get trained on skills, like stitching and beauty-care, that would help them earn their living. I got the opportunity to visit the place in person, and it was a wonderful feeling to meet the children and women in person. The project we worked on was to improve the social media presence of the organization to help it capture more eyes, and thus more funding. We were also given the responsibility to help women sell their handmade products online. For this, we visited the organization regularly, created videos on various subjects, talked to the children often, and discussed the progress with our mentor there. Towards the end of the two-week-long experience, we had created a strong social media presence for the organization.
Priyanshi Shah
My experience with We Care was transformative. During my internship in the education department of Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care (SRLC), my project was skill development and models for integration at the school level. Having lived in the city of Mumbai my entire life, the first few weeks researching the education sector in rural areas and for tribal children was eye-opening and gave me a new perspective towards the sector. Understanding models of in-house skilling and integrating vocational training in schools, developing a skills framework, mapping global best practices of NGOs and governments, doing a comparative study of career counseling organizations, researching loan options and schemes available to students, all the tasks I did during the course of 3 months have not only developed me as a person but also helped the organization in creating a positive impact. I am truly thankful to SRLC and NMIMS for giving me this amazing opportunity!
Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care
(SRLC)
Avinash Sharma
I was privileged to complete my We Care internship at Sujaya Foundation. The foundation works with specially abled youth to empower them to pursue a career of their own, enabling them to stand on their own feet. I was part of the I learn I earn program which aims to develop computer and data entry skills in specially abled youth. Moreover, it is not just limited to training but includes an internship and placement as well, thus ensuring that the learner is industry ready. The success of the program is entirely due to the enthusiastic work done by the mentors. Aditi ma'am is one of the best people I've had the opportunity to work with. By personally working with the students, I witnessed first hand their determination, grit and drive for success; but more importantly, I was exposed to their optimism and cheerfulness, which has undoubtedly left its mark upon me. I am glad to have contributed to a program making such an impactful change in the lives of people society generally ignores.