Featuring Man Deshi Foundation : ESIH 2010 winner

The Mann Deshi Foundation was one of the five winners of The Edelweiss Social Innovation Honours (ESIH) 2010 in the category of Livelihoods.

The group, founded by Chetna Gala Sinha, combines financial services, business development services, and formation of new social networks to help rural women entrepreneurs succeed. The Mann Deshi Group operates in the drought-prone areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Innovation

In 2006, the foundation launched the country’s first rural business school – Mann Deshi Udyogini – with classes held in Mann Deshi Bank branches. Udyogini also travels to interior Maharashtra and Karnataka through a bus fitted to meet state-of-the-art classroom requirements.

The curriculum and faculty are led by women entrepreneurs. It focuses on developing technical, financial, and marketing skills of semi-literate and illiterate women to enable them to develop small enterprises. The mobile business school also offers vocational training covering a wide range of skills, like screen printing, tailoring, fast-food preparation, agricultural courses, dairy production, and veterinary training.

Impact

Since its launch, the project has opened new livelihood avenues for women, while reducing their dependency on agriculture. With the increase in income levels, there is also a visible increase in the confidence levels of women in the areas.

The program has succeeded in convincing many women that training and microfinance works and, therefore, ensuring that they come forward to seek business education, with the hope of eventually setting up their own businesses. Most of the entrepreneurs who have received support from the Mann Deshi Foundation have become role models for other women to pursue this advancement option. This has also led to a decrease in emigration from Mhaswad, and lesser drop-out rates of girls going to school in the area.

Evolutions of the Mann Deshi Foundation post the Awards:

“For the Mann Deshi Foundation, the award has helped in designing advance financial literacy program for rural women. The organization has also been able to develop the curriculum of the financial literacy program with the award money, which is useful in expanding both the business school as well as the banking services provided by the organization” says Chetna Gala Sinha, Founder, Mann Deshi. She further adds “one of the most valuable aspects of the ESIH Awards has been the exposure that we have got to various other investors, which has strengthened our sources of funding, thus helping us further our reach and impact in society”.

For more information visit www.manndeshi.org or contact them at +91 2373 270788 or write to them at chetnavsinha@gmail.com

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To apply online for EdelGive Social Innovation Honours 2011 click here

Information courtesy: EdelGive Foundation