The number one lesson learned: Get partners - rugged, go-to, and knowledgeable partners – then leverage the partnerships to meet needs. None of us can go it alone.
We always have a list of the partner organizations is posted (right hand side), and pictures of our partners and the government in our photo albums (right hand side). We have many kinds of partners: financial partners, silent partners, volunteer partners, even a handful of Zen-like district government babus.
This post is dedicated to the:
"TOP TEN PLUS ONE MOST AMAZING MOMENTS IN RAINBOW SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS!"
1) Number one is Ravi-Srinu. Ravi and Srinu are our silent partners. They're connected. In a good way. They know the honest people in government and how to work levers of power to make things happen. I met Ravi through friends. He is casual for a huge, big land baron. He introduced me to Srinu. My favorite moment from this partnership was the first time meeting Srinu in his office. He guided me through the basic paperwork of presenting to a government official with serenity and precision. Later, when I reflected on what an idiot I was for troubling the big guy with my paperwork, I was so honored by his thoughtfulness. End of that story: I was well taught and never had paperwork issues again.
Many times I went back to his office to mull over next moves, it is a happy place. But there are several all-time greatest Ravi-Srinu moments where I wasn't even present and they overshadow all the others:
Ravi-Srinu raise $14k USD for the school in January 2007
Ravi-Srinu bust a stonewalling set of state officials who would not release permissions for the school (5 months of waiting)
Ravi-Srinu set the police on illegal land squatters to defend our plot
Ravi-Srinu, Ravi-Srinu, Ravi-Srinu... there are too many other moments to count. Ravi and Srinu are the angels of the school. Without them, we would not have a Rainbow School. And through their kindness, I grew up to be a proper manager.
2) Preetha Bhakta runs Naandi’s education program, “Ensuring Children Learn,” and Leena Joseph runs the Naandi “Mid-day Meals” program. Along with Jolly, they landed permission to have meals delivered to our school in about 10 seconds.
The new District Collector (a great guy) was overworked, rather remote, and tough on details. Intimidated, I stayed back.
Now, Preetha and Leena are constantly in touch with the government officials, using a steady, low drumbeat of communication. Leena, Jolly, and Preetha sailed in, sat behind the DC in a crowded audience hall full of heckling, stomping supplicants. They presented on 1/2 a page what was needed, asked him to make a call to the district education officer, and it was over. It was a lesson in old-fashioned relationship building, using the drumbeat plus the “belly-to-belly” work. I've used Preetha and Leena's example and secured dozens of "must have items" from the government using the same technique (like, uh, teachers).
3) Mallesh from the MV Foundation is patient, passionate, and modest. He guided me through a mandal (about 1/2 million people) they have "cured" of child labor. After touring fields and talking to village panchayats, I was convinced their model was unusually effective. At mid-day, I saw children with visible signs of enslavement at their child labor rehabilitation camp. They were laughing and learning to be children again. I saw the MV Foundation’s organizational structure and dedicated personnel at a district meeting late in the day, and visited the headquarters later that week. I was totally sold on the idea that you can train masses of volunteers and get such a huge job done, with only a handful of dedicated staff. Now Mallesh has staff on the ground in Masthan Nagar who – like Leena – keep a steady drumbeat of communication with the parents and panchayat. He says we have 40 children out of school and working in Masthan Nagar (tea shops, construction, housework). I can predict a drastic cut in that number by end of 2008 now that Mallesh is on the job.
4) Like the MV Foundation, Pratham uses volunteers to get the job done. Their ASER survey is a critical tool to measure student learning in government schools. I saw the ASER team in action in mid-2007: A gang of trained volunteers, all young professionals, walked into the heart of a local town and in 1/2 a day, canvassed, tested, and mapped the whole school and area. We reassembled for data collection from the teams that night in the Hyderabad office. The Ranga Reddy district is included in this survey, and I used the findings immediately in meetings with NGOs, the government, and with my teachers.
A future moment in the making is Pratham's “Read India” program. It also uses the volunteer-based model for their speed-reader program, called "Read India." It gets kids up to basic literacy in less than three weeks. Pratham's management is constantly tailoring their programs to meet changing needs on the ground. Even though we're nominally linked to Pratham at the Rainbow School through ASER (which will be independent from Pratham in 2008), we plan to grow into a full partnership with Pratham in 2009.
5) We were so touched and surprised when Swapna, a truly gifted teacher, just showed up one day in October 2005. Then we found out Project 511, an NGO in Hyderabad, had a donor that "adopted" our school. How did they find out about us? We still do not know. Since then, Project 511 have been unstinting in their support of the school, which included a teacher for one year, electricity and additional material support in 2008. For 2009, we have asked for ayahs to help clean, and it looks like they will be able to do that. Thanks go to Usha Madam, our headmistress, for cultivating this relationship.
All the schools that Project 511 adopts are long-term projects. At a meeting just this last Friday, the director, Smita, coordinated with the new district SSA man, Jagannath Reddy, to make sure the government gives every rupee possible to our school and the others in our district. The government has funds for more teachers (junion teachers), but not funds for other items, like electricity or cleaning supplies. Project 511 will step in and supplies these.
6) WIM is a group of professional women I met one day in another part of the slum (now dismantled). They came about a year later to the Rainbow School. They teach spoken English on Sundays and have financially adopted our top ranked 5th standard students, plus they donate other stop-gap measures like donations of low-cost uniforms, etc.
So what is the great moment? Our partnership has grown so deep that the head of WIM is considering taking off a year leave from her job as a professor to go work at the Rainbow School. No kidding. Thanks go to Usha Madam, our headmistress, for cultivating this relationship.
7) The Google.Com management team came to visit early in 2006. One of my all-time favorite people, Sheryl, brought another Googler, Jonathan. He had never been around India; we had the best time showing him around the school. Sheryl and Jonathan brought garlands for the teachers and flowers for the students to honor what a great job they were doing. SO SWEET. Not to be forgotten: David, another Google.Com guy, has won our award for "Most Visits by a Non-Resident Googler.” He visited three times, I owe him a bottle of …something.
8) The first meeting of the Ranga Reddy Education group was with Jayanadha Rao, our previous district SSA officer. It was held almost one year ago. This meeting was his idea. He was tired of meeting with us individually. Kidding! He really wanted to have us coordinate more effectively with each other and with him.
I met people from Dr. Reddy's Foundation, Byrraju Foundation, GMR Foundation, corporate donors from HSBC and Infotech... it was amazing to feel the support and shared desires and frustrations. We are now continuously in touch to "guide each other." His #2, Chary, and #3, Sunder are my zen-masters at the District office, good souls with every good intention. We became close friends after these meetings.
9) The government is our largest partner. When I asked our previous district education officer, Mallama, to consider switching out our non-performing headmistress, I did not expect success. But, Mallama was a dream. She stormed over to the school THE NEXT WEEK. She asked the previous HM why and what and how, made a spot-on recommendation for a "voluntary transfer" and pushed her out. We got USHA the next school year, June 2006. Seeing a gutsy government official in action gave me goosebumps! She was transferred rather quickly (like Rao, our SSA man – who is another education department not really related to the district education department, it all makes for good red tape). I learned a valuable lesson - these lovely people do not last long in the government. OK, that was a downer. But while she was around, SHA-BAM things got done.
10) Bhartee is my all-time, evergreen partner. We've worked on a weekly-to-daily basis over two years. I had to put him as #10 to build the suspense. He is the engineer from the Naandi Foundation in charge of building our school's new home. This is part of Naandi's "Building Model Schools" program (which will close soon due to unwillingness of government to pay the bills). He'd never encountered the Ranga Reddy government before, which is far more laid back than Hyderabad district government. An added disadvantage: Naandi has huge programs (and political capital) in Hyderabad, but in Ranga they are unknown. A third disadvantage: I was clueless that first year. Together we navigated about 50 meetings - most with government engineers around Ranga Reddy and the district land offices. We fought off competing claims on the land, very common when any construction is about to start. We were dealing with police, mobs of local wannabe land owners, local corrupt politicians, and incompetent land officers. After a year of red tape on the land then the building design, we were thrown a huge "NO" from the state engineers regarding minimum levels of setbacks that we could not meet due to the small plot size. It was nearly a death blow (See #1 in the Top Ten Most Amazing Moments, Ravi-Srinu). I was beyond burned out.
Bhartee turned to me and said, "Well, we will get this done. I'm up for another year of this, if that is what it takes."
Who could ever ask for better? Bhartee never showed any signs of fatigue; even when I am stomping mad at a contractor (we fired one). I love how he constantly uses his engineer eyes. When we are out for coffee, he examines the building and explain the functions to me. He reminds me of my dad, another civil engineer.
10 + 1) Kalpana. Who else can be the Plus One? In her hands, the entire finances run for the school. She got me into the school, started off our government work, held our first parent’s meeting (very boisterous), helped construct the first hut (it fell down). She has a will of iron and a soft spoken manner so misleading that no one would guess the depth of her knowledge and management skill. We’ve been through very tough times for the school, and we’ve had the highest of high times. We celebrating breakthroughs and progress, we schemed behind the scenes, and we pushed ourselves in front of countless government officials. I try to invite myself over to her house for a free lunch at every chance. She has the best food in Hyderabad, made by her cook who lives in Masthan Nagar. The cook has a grandchild in our school; she outdoes herself every time I come over.
My favorite moment with her was yesterday, over lunch with her family. Her father, a retired judge, drank whiskeys with my husband (and, um, me too). We talked politics, families, next moves, and future visits. Through Kalpana’s guidance, I’ve learned how to see Hyderabad and Hyderabadis. They open up slow, with graceful reach towards new friends. All work is no fun, they want to do belly-to-belly first. Then, over time, they are at ease. Then they are as bold and as loud as the loudest Americans! (K: That is my highest compliment.)
***
I had a theory, "If you build it, they will come." The partners came. And they were far greater than I could imagine.
We always have a list of the partner organizations is posted (right hand side), and pictures of our partners and the government in our photo albums (right hand side). We have many kinds of partners: financial partners, silent partners, volunteer partners, even a handful of Zen-like district government babus.
This post is dedicated to the:
"TOP TEN PLUS ONE MOST AMAZING MOMENTS IN RAINBOW SCHOOL PARTNERSHIPS!"
1) Number one is Ravi-Srinu. Ravi and Srinu are our silent partners. They're connected. In a good way. They know the honest people in government and how to work levers of power to make things happen. I met Ravi through friends. He is casual for a huge, big land baron. He introduced me to Srinu. My favorite moment from this partnership was the first time meeting Srinu in his office. He guided me through the basic paperwork of presenting to a government official with serenity and precision. Later, when I reflected on what an idiot I was for troubling the big guy with my paperwork, I was so honored by his thoughtfulness. End of that story: I was well taught and never had paperwork issues again.
Many times I went back to his office to mull over next moves, it is a happy place. But there are several all-time greatest Ravi-Srinu moments where I wasn't even present and they overshadow all the others:
Ravi-Srinu raise $14k USD for the school in January 2007
Ravi-Srinu bust a stonewalling set of state officials who would not release permissions for the school (5 months of waiting)
Ravi-Srinu set the police on illegal land squatters to defend our plot
Ravi-Srinu, Ravi-Srinu, Ravi-Srinu... there are too many other moments to count. Ravi and Srinu are the angels of the school. Without them, we would not have a Rainbow School. And through their kindness, I grew up to be a proper manager.
2) Preetha Bhakta runs Naandi’s education program, “Ensuring Children Learn,” and Leena Joseph runs the Naandi “Mid-day Meals” program. Along with Jolly, they landed permission to have meals delivered to our school in about 10 seconds.
The new District Collector (a great guy) was overworked, rather remote, and tough on details. Intimidated, I stayed back.
Now, Preetha and Leena are constantly in touch with the government officials, using a steady, low drumbeat of communication. Leena, Jolly, and Preetha sailed in, sat behind the DC in a crowded audience hall full of heckling, stomping supplicants. They presented on 1/2 a page what was needed, asked him to make a call to the district education officer, and it was over. It was a lesson in old-fashioned relationship building, using the drumbeat plus the “belly-to-belly” work. I've used Preetha and Leena's example and secured dozens of "must have items" from the government using the same technique (like, uh, teachers).
3) Mallesh from the MV Foundation is patient, passionate, and modest. He guided me through a mandal (about 1/2 million people) they have "cured" of child labor. After touring fields and talking to village panchayats, I was convinced their model was unusually effective. At mid-day, I saw children with visible signs of enslavement at their child labor rehabilitation camp. They were laughing and learning to be children again. I saw the MV Foundation’s organizational structure and dedicated personnel at a district meeting late in the day, and visited the headquarters later that week. I was totally sold on the idea that you can train masses of volunteers and get such a huge job done, with only a handful of dedicated staff. Now Mallesh has staff on the ground in Masthan Nagar who – like Leena – keep a steady drumbeat of communication with the parents and panchayat. He says we have 40 children out of school and working in Masthan Nagar (tea shops, construction, housework). I can predict a drastic cut in that number by end of 2008 now that Mallesh is on the job.
4) Like the MV Foundation, Pratham uses volunteers to get the job done. Their ASER survey is a critical tool to measure student learning in government schools. I saw the ASER team in action in mid-2007: A gang of trained volunteers, all young professionals, walked into the heart of a local town and in 1/2 a day, canvassed, tested, and mapped the whole school and area. We reassembled for data collection from the teams that night in the Hyderabad office. The Ranga Reddy district is included in this survey, and I used the findings immediately in meetings with NGOs, the government, and with my teachers.
A future moment in the making is Pratham's “Read India” program. It also uses the volunteer-based model for their speed-reader program, called "Read India." It gets kids up to basic literacy in less than three weeks. Pratham's management is constantly tailoring their programs to meet changing needs on the ground. Even though we're nominally linked to Pratham at the Rainbow School through ASER (which will be independent from Pratham in 2008), we plan to grow into a full partnership with Pratham in 2009.
5) We were so touched and surprised when Swapna, a truly gifted teacher, just showed up one day in October 2005. Then we found out Project 511, an NGO in Hyderabad, had a donor that "adopted" our school. How did they find out about us? We still do not know. Since then, Project 511 have been unstinting in their support of the school, which included a teacher for one year, electricity and additional material support in 2008. For 2009, we have asked for ayahs to help clean, and it looks like they will be able to do that. Thanks go to Usha Madam, our headmistress, for cultivating this relationship.
All the schools that Project 511 adopts are long-term projects. At a meeting just this last Friday, the director, Smita, coordinated with the new district SSA man, Jagannath Reddy, to make sure the government gives every rupee possible to our school and the others in our district. The government has funds for more teachers (junion teachers), but not funds for other items, like electricity or cleaning supplies. Project 511 will step in and supplies these.
6) WIM is a group of professional women I met one day in another part of the slum (now dismantled). They came about a year later to the Rainbow School. They teach spoken English on Sundays and have financially adopted our top ranked 5th standard students, plus they donate other stop-gap measures like donations of low-cost uniforms, etc.
So what is the great moment? Our partnership has grown so deep that the head of WIM is considering taking off a year leave from her job as a professor to go work at the Rainbow School. No kidding. Thanks go to Usha Madam, our headmistress, for cultivating this relationship.
7) The Google.Com management team came to visit early in 2006. One of my all-time favorite people, Sheryl, brought another Googler, Jonathan. He had never been around India; we had the best time showing him around the school. Sheryl and Jonathan brought garlands for the teachers and flowers for the students to honor what a great job they were doing. SO SWEET. Not to be forgotten: David, another Google.Com guy, has won our award for "Most Visits by a Non-Resident Googler.” He visited three times, I owe him a bottle of …something.
8) The first meeting of the Ranga Reddy Education group was with Jayanadha Rao, our previous district SSA officer. It was held almost one year ago. This meeting was his idea. He was tired of meeting with us individually. Kidding! He really wanted to have us coordinate more effectively with each other and with him.
I met people from Dr. Reddy's Foundation, Byrraju Foundation, GMR Foundation, corporate donors from HSBC and Infotech... it was amazing to feel the support and shared desires and frustrations. We are now continuously in touch to "guide each other." His #2, Chary, and #3, Sunder are my zen-masters at the District office, good souls with every good intention. We became close friends after these meetings.
9) The government is our largest partner. When I asked our previous district education officer, Mallama, to consider switching out our non-performing headmistress, I did not expect success. But, Mallama was a dream. She stormed over to the school THE NEXT WEEK. She asked the previous HM why and what and how, made a spot-on recommendation for a "voluntary transfer" and pushed her out. We got USHA the next school year, June 2006. Seeing a gutsy government official in action gave me goosebumps! She was transferred rather quickly (like Rao, our SSA man – who is another education department not really related to the district education department, it all makes for good red tape). I learned a valuable lesson - these lovely people do not last long in the government. OK, that was a downer. But while she was around, SHA-BAM things got done.
10) Bhartee is my all-time, evergreen partner. We've worked on a weekly-to-daily basis over two years. I had to put him as #10 to build the suspense. He is the engineer from the Naandi Foundation in charge of building our school's new home. This is part of Naandi's "Building Model Schools" program (which will close soon due to unwillingness of government to pay the bills). He'd never encountered the Ranga Reddy government before, which is far more laid back than Hyderabad district government. An added disadvantage: Naandi has huge programs (and political capital) in Hyderabad, but in Ranga they are unknown. A third disadvantage: I was clueless that first year. Together we navigated about 50 meetings - most with government engineers around Ranga Reddy and the district land offices. We fought off competing claims on the land, very common when any construction is about to start. We were dealing with police, mobs of local wannabe land owners, local corrupt politicians, and incompetent land officers. After a year of red tape on the land then the building design, we were thrown a huge "NO" from the state engineers regarding minimum levels of setbacks that we could not meet due to the small plot size. It was nearly a death blow (See #1 in the Top Ten Most Amazing Moments, Ravi-Srinu). I was beyond burned out.
Bhartee turned to me and said, "Well, we will get this done. I'm up for another year of this, if that is what it takes."
Who could ever ask for better? Bhartee never showed any signs of fatigue; even when I am stomping mad at a contractor (we fired one). I love how he constantly uses his engineer eyes. When we are out for coffee, he examines the building and explain the functions to me. He reminds me of my dad, another civil engineer.
10 + 1) Kalpana. Who else can be the Plus One? In her hands, the entire finances run for the school. She got me into the school, started off our government work, held our first parent’s meeting (very boisterous), helped construct the first hut (it fell down). She has a will of iron and a soft spoken manner so misleading that no one would guess the depth of her knowledge and management skill. We’ve been through very tough times for the school, and we’ve had the highest of high times. We celebrating breakthroughs and progress, we schemed behind the scenes, and we pushed ourselves in front of countless government officials. I try to invite myself over to her house for a free lunch at every chance. She has the best food in Hyderabad, made by her cook who lives in Masthan Nagar. The cook has a grandchild in our school; she outdoes herself every time I come over.
My favorite moment with her was yesterday, over lunch with her family. Her father, a retired judge, drank whiskeys with my husband (and, um, me too). We talked politics, families, next moves, and future visits. Through Kalpana’s guidance, I’ve learned how to see Hyderabad and Hyderabadis. They open up slow, with graceful reach towards new friends. All work is no fun, they want to do belly-to-belly first. Then, over time, they are at ease. Then they are as bold and as loud as the loudest Americans! (K: That is my highest compliment.)
***
I had a theory, "If you build it, they will come." The partners came. And they were far greater than I could imagine.
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