Shanghai!

Hi Everyone, Danielle is going to thrill us with some lovely stories and pictures from her internship in Shanghai!

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Hello from Shanghai! I can’t believe I’ve already completed my first two weeks at Ventures in Development (www.venturesindev.org), a nonprofit that promotes social entrepreneurship in the Greater China region. Ventures in Development’s work spans two areas, Knowledge Development (spreading awareness of the idea of a social enterprise) and Enterprise Development (identifying and incubating ideas that have the potential to become sustainable business enterprises yielding quantifiable direct social benefits in areas of need).

Right now, Ventures in Development is incubating two social enterprises: Shokay and Mei Xiang Yak Cheese. I have mostly been working on online marketing for Shokay’s products, which include kids’ and ladies’ clothing, accessories, home collection and knitting yarn all made from Tibetan yak down. One challenge is communicating our story to our distributors and customers – essentially, Shokay wants its stakeholders to understand the concept of a social enterprise and how Shokay is having a development impact.

Here’s a diagram I made showing how Shokay works:

My PennSEM mentor is Carol Chyau, one of the co-founders of Shokay and Ventures in Development. Carol met Marie So, the other co-founder, while at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government to study International Development. They were united by a common belief that social enterprise presented a more viable solution for development problems than traditional top-down approaches, and they both wanted to apply these ideas in Greater China. Their original idea was a Mobile Movie Bus – inspired by the idea of a mobile library, they envisioned a bus that would travel to rural villages in China, generating advertising revenue and creating a social impact by playing educational clips. The bus would also sell consumer goods from the cities that are normally not available in rural areas. However, after doing some additional research they abandoned the idea, as they found that previous attempts at creating such a mobile movie bus had been unsuccessful and the government also had plans to fund a similar program.

While visiting the China Exploration Research Society, Carol and Marie learned of a project to apply Western-style cheese-making technique to make cheese using Tibetan yak’s milk. As they researched how to turn this project into a successful social enterprise, they discovered that yak down could also be processed into a cashmere-like textile. It was then that they realized the potential of a sustainable social business that brings gourmet yak cheese and luxury yak down products to the international market.

Yesterday evening was the grand opening of Shokay’s second retail store, located in the Sheraton Shanghai Hongqiao Hotel. It’s been really inspiring to see how much Shokay has grown since its founding in 2006. Here is a picture of the Shokay team after the ribbon-cutting, showing off our stuffed yaks and giant shrimp sushi (all hand-knit with Shokay yarn, of course):

Weaving through the villages...

Updates from dear Corey!

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I traveled to the field last week to interview approximately 10 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) as a whole and 50 SHG members. I spent three days in Thanagazi, trekking from village to village and conducting interviews. Unable to speak Hindi, I was accompanied by Priyanka, another JRF employee, who served as my translator. Neetu, the Thanagazi Program Coordinator, and Sudhir, the Thanagazi Field Officer, served as our liaisons, facilitating our entrance into each village and then introducing us to the SHG members.

Although I could not understand their conversations (neither Neetu, Sudhir, nor any of the SHG members spoke English), it was obvious that the SHG members, all of whom were women, felt comfortable around Neetu and Sudhir and as a result were more willing to open up to Priyanka and me. Thus, I would not have been able to conduct my assessments if it were not for Neetu, Sudhir, and Priyanka. They did not just make my job easier - they made it possible.

The interview process was long and exhausting. I asked the SHG members a series of questions, both as a group and individually, on carpet-weaving, the structure and rules of their SHG, their livelihoods, and their future vision for their SHGs. Since each interview took about a half hour, we left for the villages early in the morning and did not return until late at night. The long hours, coupled with the 115O F weather, were both mentally and physically draining, but I would not have traded them for the world.

My trip to the field has thus far been the highlight of my internship. Not only did it provide me with a greater perspective on the SHG model that JRF has implemented, but it allowed me to observe and interact with the people who I hope to help. Having them teach me how to weave, sing me songs, and laugh at my pathetic attempts to speak Hindi were just as meaningful as the answers I compiled from my surveys. My trip to the field deepened my understanding of the rural weavers and served as a window into the culture, life, and soul of the weaving villages.

-Corey

Greetings from San Francisco

Greetings from dear Michael in San Francisco!

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Greetings from Fog City! That is, of course, the nickname given to San Francisco, CA for the blankets of fog that roll into the city through the golden gate. Unbeknownst to me, San Francisco has very mild summers, and I made the mistake of packing mostly t-shirts and shorts. Oh well.

These past three weeks have gone by in a flash… that can probably be attributed to the amount of work we have been doing lately. I am interning at Rubicon National Social Innovations (RNSI), which was being incubated by Rubicon Programs, Inc. and is now spinning off to be it’s own non-profit. RNSI’s mission is to create social enterprises that have the primary purpose of improving the economic well being of low-income people and communities. To achieve this, RNSI works with businesses, philanthropy and non-profit organizational partners throughout the country to develop nationally scaled social purpose businesses which rely on market forces to achieve financial sustainability while maximizing social returns for working poor and disenfranchised communities.

The project that I have been assigned to is the development of a national-scale energy efficiency retrofitting business. RNSI is currently running a feasibility study on the market opportunity and viability for the retrofit business with a focus on a “triple bottom line,” an expanded criterion for measuring economic, social, and ecological success. There has been a lot of talk about an opportunity to create a “green collar” economy, one that is inclusive and provide pathways out of poverty for disenfranchised communities.

I truly believe that the goals of mitigating global warming and creating well-paying jobs here in the United States for those who need them the most can be accomplished at the same time. That is RNSI’s vision for this enterprise, and we see it as the perfect triple bottom line opportunity.

So why is RNSI focusing on building energy efficiency retrofitting as a social enterprise? For one, building energy use accounts for about 40% of U.S. energy consumption. Secondly, buildings are highly inefficient and waste energy through leaky ducts and inefficient appliances and light bulbs. By improving the efficiency of energy use in homes and commercial buildings, less energy would be needed to heat and cool buildings resulting in lower energy bills and green house gas emissions. It isn’t uncommon for low-income households to spend 16% or more of their income for their energy use. Not only will this business provide entry-level job opportunities to the target population, but it will also be serving the target population by reducing their energy bills and granting them more financial stability.

Since the enterprise is still in development, I have been very fortunate to experience all of the difficulties of coming up with a business plan. I’ve been exposed to how business models are crafted, how businesses seek out public and private capital, how they pursue potential partnerships, how they research high potential markets, and how they see the market through competitor analyses. It is a very exciting process but also very crucial to the success of the enterprise. RNSI has been working at a rapid pace to construct a business model and form partnerships due to the limited amount of time to secure federal stimulus money that was allocated for green job training and energy efficiency retrofitting. Our biggest challenge is that the space is extremely new and underdeveloped, and because of this we are taking a great risk. But because of the increase in funding from the Recovery Act, we also have an amazing opportunity to use our non-profit status to capitalize on the stimulus package and the lack of capacity to spend it wisely.

So far, I have been having an amazing time here in San Francisco. I love the work I’m doing with RNSI, the city is very progressive in terms of sustainability and civil rights, and it has so much amazing history. My place here is not too far from the “painted ladies” shown in the photo below. I am also very close to the Haight-Ashbury district, home to many free-loving hippies and artists. I hope that everyone else is enjoying their internships as much as I am, and I can’t wait to read all of your entries! J

Take Care,

Michael Paci

Arrival at Jaipur, India!

Hi guys, here's our first post from Corey in India! We wish her all the best in her internship with Jaipur Rugs.

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Surviving 28 hours of traveling, I arrived in Jaipur, India a little over a week ago, eager to start my mentorship under Mr. N.K. Chaudhary at the Jaipur Rugs Foundation (JRF). Registered under the Public Trust Act 1959, JRF was established in 2004 as a welfare initiative of Jaipur Rugs Company (JRC). JRF seeks to protect and empower its weavers, 70% of whom are women, through various initiatives, including mobilization campaigns, capacity-building trainings, and microfinance assistance.

During my mentorship, I will focus on JRF’s microfinance assistance initiative in Thanagazi, a region of the Alwar District of Rajasthan. JRF’s microfinance assistance initiative centers on the formation of self-help groups (SHGs). The SHG model was initiated by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) in the early 1990s and links informal groups of women in rural areas to the mainstream banking system. Currently, JRF has formed 55 SHGs (11-17 women in each) in Thanagazi. Through comprehensive observation, research, and feasibility studies, I will assist JRF in developing a strategy for its SHG program in order to improve its effectiveness, facilitate its expansion, and ensure its sustainability.

My mentor is Mr. N.K. Chaudhary, Managing Director of JRC, Owner of Atlanta-based Jaipur Rugs Incorporated (JRI), and Trustee of JRF. After graduating from the University of Rajasthan, Mr. N.K. Chaudhary traveled to Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan, and bought two looms, which he installed in his home. Once he familiarized himself with carpet-weaving, he expanding his weaving business by adding six more looms in his house and installing additional looms in Churu, a nearby village. In 1978 Mr. N.K. Chaudhary started a rug export business and has not turned back since. Soft-spoken and kind-hearted, Mr. N.K. Chaudhary possesses an unparalleled determination to rid the carpet-industry of its exploitative practices, connect the rural poor with the markets of the rich, and use carpet-weaving to uplift deprived and underprivileged communities of India from poverty. His strong work-ethic, unwavering perseverance, and deep commitment to social justice will undoubtedly transform the carpet industry.

Although my work was limited to the office last week – learning about JRC and JRF, assisting in documentation, and researching the carpet-industry, the culture of India, and social enterprise - I had the opportunity to travel to the field this week. Accompanied by a JRC employee, another intern and a quality-supervisor (the role of the quality-supervisor is to ensure that the weavers are producing high-quality carpets), I traveled to the village of Narhet in Thanagazi to observe some weavers at work. Not used to seeing a foreigner, a crowd of smiling adults and curious children followed me from loom to loom. After I adjusted to my newfound fame, I was able to take in the carpet-weaving process. Whether wooden or iron, each of the looms we visited seemed colossal, towering over the 2-3 weavers who worked on them. Additionally, I was shocked at how grueling the carpet-weaving process was. Following a design map, the weavers make each carpet by tying thousands and even millions of knots, depending on both the size of the rug and the type of weaving material, on the hundreds of strands of string mounted between either ends of the loom. It is a grueling and laborious process that takes 4-6 months of eight-hour long days. Despite the intensity of their jobs, the weavers that I observed carried out their responsibilities with a sense of composure. Without breaking a sweat, they tied rows of knots at lightening speed, cut each knot with one swift swoop, and even turned the design blueprint into a song that they sang to each other. Watching the weavers was not just a learning experience, but it truly was inspirational. It gave even more meaning to the needs of the weavers, the mission of JRF, and the vision of Mr. N.K. Chaudhary.

-Corey