Since my time in the Sandbox, I have understood blindness through the lens of Samarthanam. My second experience with the issue of blindness would be with Orbis International. During our last Sandbox Fellow’s meeting, we met with Mr. Golden Frankly, a Program Manager for Orbis. This organization works all over the world to eliminate blindness. In the Sandbox , Orbis has a partnership with the M.M Joshi Eye Institute, a renowned local eye hospital, to operate vision centers in the small towns of Mungod, Alnavar and Akki Alur. For an hour, the Fellows and I had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Frankly about blindness, the Sandbox and his experience as a young professional.

Before moving on, here are some quick facts from Orbis about blindness in India:

- India shoulders the world’s largest burden of blindness. Of a total population exceeding 1 billion, as many as 15 million people are blind, with an additional 52 million visually-impaired.

-Among those are 320,000 children under the age of 16, constituting one fifth of the world’s blind children.

Mr. Frankly first talked about how Orbis not only addresses the health aspects of blindness, but the educational aspect as well. Many people are still uneducated about this disease, especially in village areas.  Some people think of certain eye diseases as good luck, while others see it as a curse. During my time at Samarthanam, some students talked about how different individuals in society thought blindness was a result of a sin from a previous life. Mr. Frankly told us some misconceptions he has heard throughout his life, as well as with his time at Orbis. It’s very disheartening to hear how people view this disease. Many people talk about how the health issues of blindness should be addressed, but what some don’t realize is that the educational campaign is just as important.

When our discussion moved to the Sandbox, Mr. Frankly talked about the projects going on in Mungod, Alnavar and Akki Alur. In these three towns, Orbis has vision centers run by local youth who have been trained in common eye disorders, refractive errors, the use of a slit lamp and management. Eye technicians see patients everyday and provide reading glasses, write prescriptions and make referrals to the M.M Joshi Eye Institute. To make sure people can afford these services, each patient is only charged Rs. 20 per visit. Reading glasses are sold for Rs. 100 a pair (Rs. 50-100 below the market rate). Since the launch of these centers in November 2009, Orbis has screened 4,750 patients, made 1,023 referrals, and prescribed 1, 654 spectacles. Despite these successes, the need is still high in the Sandbox, and Orbis hopes that program will continue to grow.

When I asked some people at Samarthanam how the young man I interviewed last year was now doing, someone mentioned to me he wasn’t able to finish the program. Because of some personal issues, he could not go through with it, and had to leave. Now, he is working at a small factory doing manual labor. It made me upset to hear this. The NGOs in the Sandbox work so hard to try to put individuals on track for a bright future, but sometimes life has other plans.

It’s easy to become pessimistic about things when you hear about this, but in the end all you can do is have hope. For this young man and the millions of other visually-disabled individuals I have hope that they still have a bright future ahead of them. I still have hope next time I stop by the office, I will be hearing great things about this young man.

The mail, traveling from Harrison, New York, to Somerville, Massachusetts to New York City, finally arrives at my house in Hubli when I receive a copy of the Summer 2010 newsletter from the last school where  I taught. The principal’s letter talks about alternative routes to certification and the importance of thorough and accurate preparation for teachers in fundamental skills like teaching decoding and reading comprehension. And most interestingly for me, all the reasons why existing programs are not suitable and the actions the state is taking to allow alternative routes to certification.

Four-year olds in South Boston, USA in a summer meals program

Four-year olds in an affordable private school in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh

My own work with The Teacher Foundation has taken shape rapidly in the last month: I am conducting research — both in the field and through existing literature — in order to set the framework for an initial education program for people entering the teaching profession. There are numerous routes to receive teaching credentials: D.Ed. colleges give degrees for primary school teaches, B.Ed. colleges for secondary school teachers and both can be given by either government or private institutions. In addition, some credentials can be obtained through open institutions, or distance learning. But to cite Gloria Ladson-Billings, qualified and quality teachers are not the same thing. Just as teachers in Connecticut and New York are unprepared to advance their students’ skills, India’s teachers are often similarly ill equipped.

Non-governmental organizations and the private sector are increasingly filling the void to improve the impact of education on India’s children. The Teacher Foundation is building its programmatic base to do just what some US states are exploring — developing alternative paths to certification. Instead of providing another route to the same end, The Teacher Foundation is pushing the definition of what standards a teacher should meet to be considered an effective educator. An effective teacher, in my mind, is one who is able to take a group of students, whatever their backgrounds, and increase their academic, social and emotional competencies. This definition means more than any set of academic credentials or a piece of paper. Whether or not others subscribe to the same definition, dissatisfaction with the quality of existing teaching is evident-world wide.

An enthusiastic standard 9 teacher with some of her students in the background

I recently attended a conference in Hyderabad pulling government officials, private school owners, investors — both Indian and international, NGO directors, officers from foreign aid organizations and representatives from for-profit companies. The topic was affordable private schools with examples from Ghana, India, Kenya, and Pakistan. It also featured discussions about the choices parents make to spend 15% of their meager incomes on private education for their children. Opinions varied greatly over how to provide children with a quality education including debates on scripted curriculum, the value of technological resources, in depth teacher education, learning materials available and the importance of games. Throughout this confernece the common theme was a thorough dissatisfaction with the standard of education and in particular the gaps in teacher knowledge and ability.

At work, after I am asked, “Where are you from?” the next question is inevitably, “What are schools like in your place?” Well-to be honest, they have a lot to learn and much of that experimentation and innovation is coming from organizations here in India.

Standard 6 students explaining a game that teaches players about endangered species

At times, I feel like EA is a baby that requires constant care and attention. If I’m not pitching to new partners, designing courses, or teaching students, I’m training faculty, designing new marketing materials, or coordinating guest speakers.  While I’m very passionate about my work, it is also incredibly draining and there are days in which I really struggle. Throughout the ups and downs, I’ve found that what really keeps me going is the community that I’ve developed here.

In reading the books, The Blue Sweater, Three Cups of Tea, and Mountains Beyond Mountains, which chronicle the stories of Jacqueline Novagratz, Greg Mortenson, and Paul Farmer respectively, I felt a sense of comfort in learning about the tremendous challenges they faced and were able to overcome. I also found it intriguing to see how critical the connections were that they made with the local communities in which they worked.  It’s no breaking news in the development sector how important it is to immerse in the local community to ensure that any solutions outsiders try to implement are culturally appropriate and viable. However, equally important is recognizing what a key role these communities play in the lives of the outsiders that enter them. There is something very unique about the relationship that develops between someone living in a community far from their home country and the community that embraces them.

While my work with EA does not place me inside a tight-knit rural network the same way it did for Novagratz, Mortenson, and Farmer, I do feel a part of a close community here in Hubli. Some of my favorite experiences in the Sandbox have been the experiences I’ve shared with the community here. Whether it’s girls’ dinner night, a co-worker’s baby shower, chats over lunch at the office, celebrating festivals, or attending in cultural events, I find that my life here is incredibly rich with amazing people and that’s what keeps me going, regardless of the other challenges I may be facing.

Given this context, Navachetana does not often send its staff to trainings or workshops; the thought process behind this is that the time will be better spent accomplishing tangible deliverables in the field or at the office.  On a rare occasion, however, a training appears promising enough, and comes so highly recommended, that Navachetana chooses to attend.  This was the case with the recent Innovation Workshop for Social Enterprises, led by Parvathi Menon of Innovation Alchemy (and supported by the Marico Innovation Foundation), in which two Navachetana representatives participated.  The overall theme of the workshop was catalyzing innovation in the social enterprise sector.

The Innovation Workshop started off in a fairly straightforward way: Ms. Menon facilitated a discussion on the impact of innovation in the social entrepreneurship sector through a range of thought-provoking examples from around the world.  This was followed by the opportunity to engage and interact with two leading practitioners who have scaled their social enterprise innovations in a major way: Mr. Ramji Raghavan, the Founder of Agastya International Foundation, and Ms. Meera Shenoy, who served as Executive Director of the Government of Andhra Pradesh’s Employment Generation and Marketing Mission.  Participants then identified the critical learning points made by each speaker, and discussed the relevance of these points to their own organizations.

What made this workshop stand out was that these speakers and the corresponding discussion were just the jumping off point; what followed proved to be two highly productive days of actively applying sound advice to, in the case of Navachetana Foundation, the challenges Navachetana Dairy Initiative (NDI) is confronting in its efforts to innovatively scale its operations.  For example, my team member and I quantitatively identified the size of the core social challenge NDI is attempting to impact: Haveri District has a population of over 14 lakhs, 75% of these people are engaged in agricultural livelihoods, and nearly all of these people have at least one milch animal.  Nonetheless, dairy is not practiced as a primary livelihood activity, only 27% of Haveri district farmers are linked to remunerative dairy markets, and current organized dairy interventions are characterized by numerous problems.  How to effectively address these problems, create strong market linkages, and enable dairy to become a lucrative source of income – for Haveri district farmers and beyond?  Then, we quantitatively and qualitatively identified the impact NDI is having so far, and compared this to the level of impact we aspire to have.  Next we identified what factors (internal and external) are currently blocking NDI from reaching our desired level of impact, and then, most crucially, we brainstormed ways (some reasonable, some crazy yet possible) to overcome these blocks.

While many trainings often become tiresome and monotonous, Ms. Menon’s use of a variety of learning methodologies kept the pace and energy level of participants upbeat and engaged.  For example, after discussing blocks to scalability with my Navachetana teammate, we sat with representatives from another organization, Ujjivan, discussed the blocks we had each identified, and shared resources and ideas.  (For Navachetana, one particularly useful outcome of these small group discussions was some comprehensive insight into the workings of Karnataka’s cattle insurance industry.)  In another instance, a representative from each organization participating in the workshop stated one key obstacle his/her team was confronting in their attempts to scale; all other organization participants then crowd-sourced ideas and insights, based on concrete examples from a range of industries, on how to address these obstacles.

What stands out about the Innovation Alchemy approach is that the application of lessons learned does not stop when the workshop ends – the workshop is just the beginning, and Mrs. Menon and her team make sure of that.  The training concluded with a dynamic discussion of how to transform problems into innovation challenges, seek insights for radical new learnings, develop and prioritize new ideas, mature some of these ideas into prototypes, pilot the best of these prototypes, and then build and scale a model.  This innovation route map was not just discussed in an abstract sense; each organization was compelled to apply these steps and learnings within the context of their project, and identify key steps to be taken over the next several weeks.  Innovation Alchemy will follow up with each organization’s progress over the next month and a half (if not longer) through Webinars, teleconferences and in-person visits.  This hands-on, action-oriented, organization-specific approach to integrating innovation in social entrepreneurship and enabling scale is not practiced often enough, and I am glad Navachetana had the opportunity to participate in such a uniquely productive training.

By meeting new RAPID Members and observing the changes in women who have completed RAPID trainings I have come to understand much more about the impact of RAPID’s work on widows and deserted women in the Hubli-Dhwarwad area. In initial meetings, many of these women explain that they are not involved in social events in the community, are not comfortable communicating with people, and many rarely leave their houses. They do not have a reliable stream of income or skill set which has prepared them to work outside of the home and have a difficult time making ends meet. These women’s housing situations are often poor, for example, one stays in a tiny room with her daughter and another lives in a house which is unsafe and falling apart. The conversation sometimes includes descriptions of emotional or psychological problems or descriptions of abuse they faced.

Being only two months into my Sandbox Fellowship at RAPID I have not yet witnessed the completion of the full RAPID cycle to economic independence (often taking between 12-18 months), however I have certainly noticed the differences between new RAPID Members and those who have started businesses or gained employment through the assistance of RAPID. For example, at a recent event for RAPID businesswomen many RAPID Members volunteered to share their challenges and successes with their business in front of the whole group. In another case, women who are participating in a computer course at RAPID sought out job openings by identifying classified listings in the paper and organized themselves to meet with the supervisor and submit their applications. Recently, I observed RAPID Members at Guruwar Bazaar confidently engaging with customers and making sales. These are just a few examples of the types of results I have seen in women involved with RAPID.

RAPID’s quantitative impact is impressive, having provided assistance to over 900 women in and around Hubli and Dharwad. However, RAPID’s work goes beyond economics; the social, cultural, and personal realms of women’s lives life are transformed through the RAPID cycle, as the ripples of impact in RAPID Members lives builds sustainable and lasting changes. Numbers and statistics provide an important measure of the success of an organization, but often times it is the individual stories and small victories, the Peda at the end of a long day, which strike the deepest chord.

After a discussion with Julia Bach, a current Sandbox Fellow who works at the Teacher Foundation, I decided to create a class based around reading The Onion. Fellows in each class were placed in groups of three and assigned one of seven articles whose premise was severely skewed by false facts feeding a satirical idea. For example, one article informed its readers about a recent decision by the US Department of Homeland Security to release five terrorists who were perceived to be the most dangerous in the country for the purpose of providing an opportunity to the US military to test its national security. The military would be responsible for preventing any attacks after the terrorists would be released and given ten thousand dollars along with a forty-eight hour grace period during which they would not be tracked by anyone.

I was surprised to see that in participating in this activity fellows would focus their energies so deeply upon understanding the content of the article that once they came to an agreement about the meaning of the article, there would be no discussion about the validity of its facts. Furthermore, when articles purposely used faulty logic to rationalize a certain premise of the article, the fellows simply summarized such parts without any questioning. A likely explanation of this is that having only recently developed competent speaking and writing abilities in English, they were satisfied simply in their ability to comprehend the article. Their response also reflects the way in which critical thinking is not an integral part of the Indian education system, as news articles were almost regarded as facts. However, I noted that after each article presentation at least one person in the audience was able to recognize the irrationality of the premise of each article, which would then spark a discussion highlighting the importance of questioning what we read in the news. The activity turned out to be a successful way to introduce the DFP to the practice of identifying logical fallacies and biases in the literature that they may encounter during the course of their fellowship and beyond.

In addition to designing and conducting ongoing classes on critical thinking, I am in charge of facilitating discussions with the fellows on a number of different TED Talks over the course of my time at the DCSE. TED Talks are inspiring speeches by people who have implemented ground-breaking ideas in the fields of technology, entertainment, or design. I recently came across a very inspiring speech by Steve Jobs titled “How to live before you die.” In his speech, Jobs discusses difficult life-changing decisions he made and the lessons he learned as a result of them. The fellows were able to observe how Jobs relied heavily on critical thinking to ensure that the decisions he made were rationally sound despite the social pressures he faced. For example, he speaks about how he dealt with the dilemma of deciding whether or not he should complete his college education after having reflected that he was gaining nothing of true value. Despite pressure from his family and friends to complete his bachelor’s degree at Reed College, he felt that he could not justify wasting the money his parents had spent years to save and therefore decided to drop out.

After looking back upon his decision and the series of favorable events that followed, he came to adopt his philosophy of “connecting the dots,” which has helped him find the courage to make difficult decisions with the faith that his actions at the time would somehow grant him the experience that he could connect with an opportunity in the future. He concludes his speech with the statement, “Believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-worn path”. After a reflective discussion with the fellows, it seemed that many of them had chosen to apply Jobs’ philosophy to their own lives by considering that they too, will be able to connect the dots when the experiences of the next six months in the fellowship will enable them to execute some ground-breaking idea in the future.

Outside of providing fellows with occasions to sharpen their critical thinking skills, the fellowship continues to focus heavily on improving their listening, written, oral communication skills. I recently taught a class on professional emailing as part of a three-day Effective Communication module and found that the challenge fellows grappled with the most was demonstrating a level of interpersonal understanding toward the person being emailed. For example, in a group assignment in which fellows were asked to compose an email thanking a guest speaker, the group agreed upon using the line, “we expect to see you again soon at DCSE”. After a brief discussion about alternate word choices that convey the same sentiment, the group decided that in order to avoid the risk of being perceived as demanding they would modify the line to say something to the effect of “it would be a pleasure to have you visit us again.”

After an initial round of mentoring the fellows in a one-on-one setting I found that a common concern for many of them is the need to improve their English and communication skills on an ongoing basis. Although fellows practice using English regularly in activities such as writing news blurbs and making PowerPoint presentations of on monthly leadership activities, a number of fellows expressed the desire to further improve these skills under the supervision of native English speakers. Although the rigorous forty-five day period of English and IT pre-training is complete, the fellowship plans to launch an International Cultural Exchange program through which fellows will have the opportunity to interact with English-speaking friends and affiliates of the Deshpande Foundation via Skype.

Over the next few weeks I will be working on a number of different DFP-related projects such as drafting an impact study for cohorts 3 and 4 of the fellowship, composing music for the DFP promotional video, and providing ongoing mentorship to a group of 10 fellows. I am very pleased that the junior fellowship turned out to be as fulfilling as I had expected.

Two weeks ago, I visited Agastya’s campus in Kuppam, Andra Pradesh to learn about their projects and facilities and to meet with officials who work there. The 20 hours long bus ride from Hubli isn’t something I’d be willing to take again anytime soon, but for this time at least, the trip was completely worth the hassle of the long ride. The scenic Kuppam campus is located in rural Andhra Pradesh near the Karnataka border and spreads over 300 acres. There are huts, stone buildings, herb gardens, outdoor science models and wide paths that crisscross the campus. Apparently, children and teachers come not only from neighboring villages but from all over the country to learn, discover and experiment in the Kuppam campus. It is not only a learning center but also a place to experiment new ideas and projects for Agastya- teachers and other staffs of the campus design and try new science experiments to show children, or build new cost-effective lab equipments, or engage in discussions and observations of how children learn, teach and discuss the best.

I think what is really great about the Kuppam campus is that it feels extremely welcoming. Considering how happy school children that were visiting the campus looked, I was sure that it wasn’t just me who felt welcomed. The campus welcomes kids who are mainly from government-run schools in rural, underprivileged areas to a place that has everything they can ever wish to have in terms of learning and growing- from passionate school teachers who love to teach them and friends to an environment that is as pristine as it is inspiring. A building called the “creative center” provides various tools to create and play with models, and other resources for students and teachers to explore different ideas and concepts. I couldn’t help but feel energized and excited by innumerable children moving around the campus, going from one class to another, or sitting on the floor listening to and discussing things with their teachers, or sitting at a kiosk learning, experimenting, making models, laughing and sharing their creations with their friends. The enthusiasm was also shared by the many teachers who were visiting the campus from all over India to learn about low-cost model making, innovative teaching, etc. to try to expand Agastya’s mobile laboratory program to other parts of the country. There were also visitors from abroad who came to study Agastya’s model of science education. It has been a while since the last time I did a science experiment in a lab, but with all the enthusiasm for hands-on learning and the emphasis on asking “how”, “when” and “why”, I couldn’t help but ask many of those questions myself.

During the three days I was there, I gathered some exciting and memorable experiences and learned a great deal about Agastya’s programs, approaches, progress and challenges. I was not just surprised but inspired after meeting two young girls from a neighboring government school who were going to participate in the IRIS-Intel Science Fair, India’s largest science fair where students from public and private schools all over the country participate, in November. With the resources and opportunities they got through Agastya, they had come up with a way of building low cost fire extinguishers and had built them at Agastya’s low cost model lab in Kuppam. They believed that their product is particularly suitable for villagers and hoped to market it after returning from the science fair.

These students were chosen to participate in the IRIS-Intel national science fair to showcase their low cost fire extinguisher.

The life-sized science models displayed around the campus for children to play with and learn from, the campus ecology lab which has medicinal herb gardens in the shape of a human body along a small hillside and the art center with many fun and creative learning opportunities for students are some of things I really liked about Agastya’s Kuppam campus. My meeting and discussions with Mrs. Manjula Rao, who leads the Young Instructor Leader program and has more than 30 years of experience in the education sector in India, was particularly inspiring and enlightening.
One of the things I wondered about on my way back to Hubli is Agastya’s emphasis on teaching Science. We can possibly engage the children in many other kinds of creative activities like creative writing, drawing, painting, music, etc. After all, “how”, “when” and “why” are questions that could be asked in almost any other discipline- history, philosophy, politics, religion, economics, just to name a few. But why did Agastya decide to focus on Science? Agastya’s long-term vision definitely seems to encompass other disciplines as well. I got the impression that encouraging children to ask questions, seek solutions, and engage in meaningful discussions about what they think and wonder, is the major focus of the organization and Science in general seems like a good subject for the children to start with for many reasons. After all, creativity and passion for learning is transferrable to any discipline that the children may decide to pursue in the future.
I returned from the Kuppam campus inspired, energized and fully motivated about my work with Agastya this year. I am very excited to be part of an organization whose mission and vision I strongly believe in!

I chose to work in development due to an insatiable curiosity towards people and their life stories. Whenever I go to the field I try to spend as much time as possible with the communities I visit. I’m lucky because I speak Hindi and this invaluably helps my interactions with the locals in India. Even here in Karnataka, where the Deshpande Foundation is active, I can get by with my Hindi, at least in the towns. Sometimes though, curiosity and enthusiasm are not enough to deal with the endless frustrations of this kind of job. Whenever I feel the world around me is hopelessly unfair to the weak and the vulnerable I try to constrain my mind to think on the shortest term possible, day by day, rather than on the long-term. I try to zoom in looking for small victories because, as cliché as it sounds, they actually make your day.

My office at Samarthanam is located in a large building which also serves as a training center and a hostel for boys and girls who are visually impaired and physically challenged. Therefore, I have the chance to interact on a daily basis with the people I ultimately work for: Samarthanam’s beneficiaries. I have never been in such close contact with people with disabilities before coming here. For those whose legs don’t function properly, life is, it seems to me, especially difficult. The kinds of wheelchairs we are used to seeing in the West are very expensive; also, they wouldn’t be suitable for the conditions of Indian roads. Streets are uneven to say the least and sidewalks, when they exist, are very high and steep. Also, wheelchairs were desgined for a culture of chairs and tables, whereas, in India, people usually eat and do many things sitting on the floor. Architectural barriers are everywhere and a culture of sensitivity towards people with disabilities still needs to be developed in India. In the meantime people get by as they can.

One of the people that has struck me the most at Samarthanam, since my first day, is Raju (name changed), the computer trainer. He was born with crippled legs; nonetheless he has a MSc in computer science and several years of work experience as a technical trainer and a graphic designer. This man walks using his hands and then lifts himself up onto a chair when he wants to use a computer or needs to teach a class to his students. He has an open smile and a dignified posture, even if he has to crawl on the floor to get around. He gave me the impression that he is a very private person; therefore I was pleasantly surprised when one day he came to my desk asking me to look at something: a slide show of pictures of his daughter’s first birthday party. I had no idea he was married or had a daughter. This episode reminded me of how important it is not to take things for granted.

As the Media Fellow, my main medium is film, but recently the Deshpande Foundation decided that we should have an audio podcast. Every month in the “Featured Partner” section of the website, we would include this audio podcast that would take our audience into the world of one of our NGO partners. Now, one would think that putting together an audio podcast would be much easier than creating a short video, but in many ways it’s harder. In film, your audience can see what’s going on, but with audio, you have to paint them a picture through sounds. At the beginning of this project, I knew I could capture good sound bites, but the real challenge would be to have the audience feel what is going on in that NGO.

My first podcast assignment was with the Agastya International Foundation.  I travelled to Bangalore to sit down with Mr. Ramji Raghavan, the Chairman of the organization. At the beginning of his career, Mr. Raghavan worked in consulting and banking.  Despite working in big cities like New York and London, Mr. Raghavan always wanted to return to the villages of India. As he stated, “For many years I had this dream, if you like, of starting a school for creative leaders in India, and do it in a social context. So the time felt like I had to move and make it happen.” In 1999, he did make it happen. That year, Agastya was established as a Public Charitable Trust.

When Agastya first started, it did not have the funds to develop a center where children could come and learn. Rather than wait around for the funds to come in, Agastya decided that they would take their learning methods to the villages. They started science on wheels, also known as “The Mobile Lab”. In this program, a driver and two instructors travel to remote rural villages to demonstrate models and experiments and involve children and teachers in hands-on science. Through these interactive demonstrations, Agastya hopes that students learn more than just science.  “I think the important thing we are doing is we’re sparking curiosity and creativity”, says Mr. Raghavan.  After my visit to Bangalore, I was interested to see the “sparking of curiosity and creativity” in person.

About forty children sat in the village square as the Agastya instructor began to show scientific experiments. Never have I seen children so excited to learn. There were even some adults in the audience. Although some had a look of skepticism on their face, there were a few who looked just as intrigued as the children. An Agastya Project Coordinator told me, “As Agastya is doing the activity in the school…the same awareness we need to bring in the society also. So how really science is fun for the society. So whatever models we have for the children, it is for the community also.”

My last question to Mr. Raghavan was: How would you like the Agastya story to end? His response was, “Ending really has very little I think to do with Agastya as a Foundation or as an organization. The more important thing is the ideas, the methods, the philosophies that we are propounding and propagating. If they take root in the system and we can see visible change and feel we were an important part of that change, then that’s the way I would like to see the Agastya story end…At that point if the Agastya Foundation exists or not is not so relevant. What’s more important is the story of Agastya should take root in the system.”

After my interviews and field visit, I felt like Agastya gave me enough sound bites to put together their story. The challenge now is to put it together in a way that is not only informational, but inspirational as well.  As Agastya is sparking curiosity in the millions of children across India, I hope that in my podcast, I can spark curiosity about the Sandbox.