Traveling As a Rang De Volunteer
| —“The Journey is the destination”.
Why I quote this? Because not all journeys should have a destination, some of them should and are taken for the purpose of the journey and not for seeing a particular place or site. One such journey I took some time back as a volunteer with Rangde. For those who are not familiar with Rangde but want to do something for this world I strongly recommend you visit the website of Rangde. Still I would like to give a small primer about Rang de over here, it was founded by Ram and Smita after quitting their IT jobs abroad with the sole purpose of providing easy loans to small entrepreneurs at a low-cost using the innovative crowd funding methods. |
For as low as 100 Rs one can become investor and volunteer with Rangde and contribute to eradicate poverty. The point to note here is that you are not giving charity this is a loan, (at very generous terms compared to the moneylender) and is sanctioned after a proper credit worthiness check.The whole idea is to keep the process IT enabled and transparent for all stake holders like investors, borrowers and field partners.
As part of close interaction between borrowers and investors a rang de volunteer can join on some of the field trips to various parts of India. I joined one such trip some time back to small town called Adoni near Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh. The idea was to meet around 10 potential borrowers, interview them and see if they are loan worthy or not. We were also planning to meet some past borrowers and see if there is any change in their life and financial condition after taking a loan and successfully paying it back.
We were 6 Rang de volunteers from Hyderabad and left early morning in 2 cars for Adoni. The road till Kurnool is the Bangalore highway and very good. After that the great rural roads of India start. At places on the road we found people drying their farm produce like chilies etc. We had to drive slowly to not to spoil the same. Adoni is like any other Kasba (small town) in India, not very big, not very small. Like most small towns in India it is has pockets of different community and is divided on those line, but we were interested in the biggest division of all the financial divide.
The potential borrowers were already doing some small business like Vegetable selling, tailoring, running a small eatery for laborers, but the most enterprising was” Amma” as everybody was calling her, running her own masonry business with her daughter and daughter in law while the men folk worked in Bangalore. She was able to explain exactly what the extra loan of 7-10K will mean to her business, in form of buying more raw materials, and building a shed to keep some of the raw material so that it is not prone to theft and elements of nature. She was not only self-employed she was giving employment to 2 of her relatives and one other neighbor, that is the power of these small enterprises.
We returned to Hyderabad in the evening talking about this unique travel and learning experience that not only showed us city bred folks another face of India but also a lesson in entrepreneurship that is hard to learn in the MBA textbooks. If you would like to volunteer for Rangde, you can contact them through the website and join this mission to eradicate poverty using the path of entrepreneurship. This would be one journey that will not only open your eyes but also open new avenues and options for a small entrepreneur. Remember? ” The Journey is the Destination”
Firstly thanx for educating about Rang De.The paper on ‘The Journey is the destination’ has been very well formatted.It also in a way highlights apathy of authority responsible for development of rural India to some extent and the grit of Indian rural entrepreneur esp women folks.
Hi Shyam… thanks for your inputs… rangde is indeed doing a great job in providing small loans for converting dreams into reality
thanks…
Wow! Thanks for the info on Rangde …. and your travels take you to very interesting places
Thanks Meena…traveling is indeed fun
Truly wonderful initiative.
Thanks Rajesh.. travel with a purpose is the best IMO
Good to know about Rangde and the place.
Thanks Roopa…glad you liked about Rangde
That is a splendid venture! Efforts like these go a long way in encouraging the village folk stand on their own. Wonderful work, thanks for sharing your experiences
Thanks Arti…Rang de is indeed changing life of a lot of people.
this is such a wonderful initiative! very inspiring. would love to be a part of something like this one day.
Thanks Debajyoti…all the best…
Nice to learn about Rangde. I think that’s a very sensible idea. This way the money goes to people who make something out of it and secondly, because it is money borrowed these small entrepreneurs would use it responsibly.
And what a nice name — Rangde. Apt!
Hi D.Nambiar…. thanks for your comments, and I totally agree with you that it is a great concept.. the best part is money once returned by borrower can be used for some body else and the cycle of poverty is broken by cycle of borrowing and returning… thanks.
wow that was new to me.Never heard of Rangde very thoughtful and very nice to see ur information.I am sure it will be one good lifetime experience happy to see good people like u doing such good boy.High fi to you.
Thanks Janani…I am happy to spread awareness about wonderful institution like Rangde…thanks.
I had heard of Rang de and now I know about them in details thanks to you. Kudos to each contributor
Thanks Ghazala… Rangde is starting their Kolkata Chapter..on December 9th… pls check their website for more details..Thanks.
though, i have heard of rang de..but, never knew what exactly they operate.. great piece of info!!
Thanks Vandana, glad that you are more informed about Rang de now..