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Stories of Change: APU Case Study Challenge Plustrust Case Study October 2018 LI 1

DISCOVERIES IN MICRO INCUBATION

THE PLUSTRUST RURAL WOMEN EDUPRENEURS

Our Story

Plustrust works to encourage people who make choices based on their inner voice. We are strengthened by

the knowledge that there are many “PEOPLE LIKE US” who follow their instincts to reach out to others

and express care and compassion in concrete terms. Plustrust was founded to honor the memory of GOWRI

SUKANYA IYER (1986-2008) and strives to live up to the values dear to her like:

Compassion

A sense of fairness and equality

The courage to speak one’s mind

An openness to listen to others’ points of view.

We commenced activities in an informal way in 21st October 2008 and the trust deed was signed on 7th

May 2009 at Hyderabad and registered as a trust on 18th March 2010.We are three trustees, each juggling

personal and professional priorities (http://plustrust.org/plustrust-team/)and hardly in a position to take on

something demanding fulltime attention and engagement. Therefore we were not ready to take on a

steady programme! Moreover we had no big idea or theme to work on. The best that we could do was to

pool our resources and skills to encourage others who had such ideas, as they tested them. Early or

embryonic stage support is not so readily available and we have no bandwidth to support

largerprogrammes.We have found our niche in micro incubation, with some trials, a few errors and some

success. We work on Inclusive Education and Animal Welfare.

Our focus is on supporting young people with a desire to test their ideas for improving the lives of people

around them. We do this through fellowships at the pre-incubation stage and through events from time to

time. Support is through a close relationship with the project holder and includes one or more of these

aspects (as required):

Guidance to develop project idea

Some financial support for personal needs for 6 months or a little more

Links and support for learning and professional education

Networking and contacts relevant for the project

Mentors, coaches, identified and briefed by Plustrust

Edupreneurship has emerged as our new approach and we have piloted the idea with the three batches of

Rural Women Edupreneurs (RWEs). This essay describes the fellowships and our RWE experiences in

greater detail.

When we started out in 2009, we had no big game plan or theory of change. The trust was simply our way

to cope with personal loss. We did not imagine that we would hold out for nearly a decade nor did we think

we would have a story that would be worth telling! It has been a journey of hope and gradual discovery. We

have learnt as we went along and in this narrative, we hope to share our joy and seek support and guidance

for going further.

http://plustrust.org/plustrust-team/


Part I

EARLY YEARS (2009-2015)

I.I. Plustrust Changemaker Fellowships

In 2008, we found ourselves volunteering with local NGOs and we were neither consistent nor effective,

with a personal feel good effect but little else. Our first project in inclusive education was to facilitate a

self-assessment process for Gurukulam Schools of the Government of AP for UNICEF Hyderabad. This

generated some surplus and a few such projects followed. Our model was to do some work and use the

money generated to support the work of young people with ideas to test through our Changemaker

fellowships. In the first three years (2009-2012) we were content with doing three fellowships or less in a

year. Individuals heard about us and got in touch for fellowships. We were willing to support if they could

come up with an implementable action plan. We had a rather basic website and some word of mouth

going for us.

Table 1 PLUSTRUST FELLOWSHIPS 2009-2015

Padma’s film,‘Platform 8’ was our first fellowship, in collaboration with Sathi, Bangalore. Successive

fellowships to Sandeep Mehto (Bharath Calling), B G Bhuvaneshware (Varnamaya), John Basumatary and

Sandesh Raju (Samabhava) taught us how to shape our fellowship process. We gained in confidence as we

found many young people, looking for affirmation and support in the initial stage of their work. We offered

fellowships to 31 individuals between 2009 and 2015.

I.II. The Plustrust Pre- Incubation Workshops

From 2014, we started offering our Pre Incubation Workshop to enable potential applicants to clarify their

ideas and come up with a coherent plan for testing their ideas. This offered us many advantages.

Administratively, we could deal with a batch of fellowships with the trustees sharing the tasks of guiding

and supervising progress. One problem we noticed was that the fellowships were too closely managed by

the senior Trustee. With this increase in size, all three trustees got involved.

Two workshops were organized in Bangalore in 2014 and 2015.The first one marking five years of our work

brought together former fellows, young social work professionals and aspirants for our fellowship. It was

an eclectic group of around 25 people. In 2015, the majority were those seeking fellowships and some of

our former fellows. This workshop model has stabilized and we continue to use the same elements. We

usually spend the first day and a half building the group through personal sharing, exploring self, play and

fun activities. The project idea is approached and tentative thoughts shared. Field visits to other NGOs/

Social Enterprises are organized on the second day afternoon or the third day morning, with a clear

briefing on the learning agenda and this proves to be a powerful experience. The focus then clearly shifts;

participants define the client group they wish to serve and develop a value proposition they wish to offer

to this client group. A first version of their project plan is developed and presented for peer review and

2009- 2010

2010- 2011

2011- 2012

2012- 2013

2013- 2014

2014- 2015

2015- 2016

Total

No of fellowships 1 3 3 5 5 6 9

31

Average fellowship value

130 67 109 102 131 105 137 87


trustee inputs. After some reflection and consultation with local stakeholders, participants send in a more

detailed proposal with a monthly action plan. Team Plustrust then reviews and the proposals and finalizes

the fellowship details and amount. Clearly we were able to handle more fellowships with the workshop

approach and the involvement of all three trustees.

To bring in more perspective and develop longer term resource support for the fellows, we began to find

mentors who could become go to persons for the changemakers as they grew beyond Plustrust. As we

progressed, we often relied on our former fellows to take up mentoring.

I.III. The Plustrust Qualities

When we were asked about what we hoped to inculcate in our fellows we took up some discussion and

dialogue with stakeholders and well-wishers. Based on the reflections in 2015, we identified the qualities

we wish to build in our fellows to help them on their way ahead. We use this as our framework, stating

these qualities explicitly in our fellowship sanction letters. The monthly progress reports are studied from

this perspective and we offer inputs and suggestions around these qualities. Mentors are briefed on these

aspects and requested to guide the fellows from this perspective. We also see these as important to

demonstrate in our practices in Plustrust.

Figure 1 PLUSTRUST QUALITIES

I.IV. Changemaker Fellowship Outcomes

We deem a fellowship successful when the fellow has been able to continue the work initiated with local

or other contributions and resource mobilization and eventually set up an NGO, enterprises or social

enterprises which continues to address the issue identified for the fellowship. The fellow also continues to

engage with us and share updates, offer us ideas and push us to do more. We term a fellowship

satisfactory when the project is completed with sincerity and dedication as planned, though further

growth or expansion is limited. There are also instances when the fellow takes up a job (either NGO or

mainstream) and is therefore not able to enlarge this work. A few fellowships have been unsatisfactory

because work done is not sustainable and we have no reliable updates on further developments. We

summarize the details below:


Figure 2: CLASSIFICATION OF FELLOWSHIPS (2009-2015) Figure 3: OVERALL ASSESSMENT (2009 -2015)

I.V. Impact of Changemaker Fellowships (2009-2015)

Most importantly we count impact when we are able to intensify our activities in a particular location and

build on the experiences of existing fellows. For example, Sandeep Mehto of Bharath Calling and Girish

Mahale of Pratyaya haveintroduced several fellows based in MP, making it a hub for our efforts. 17 out of

the 31 changemaker fellowships offered between 2009 and 2015 went to individuals located in Madhya

Pradesh.

We consider the work impactful when they have been able to develop support systems for schools,

children and youth both directly and through demonstration, advocacy, enterprise etc. We may cite

examples like Bharath Calling, New Voice Foundation, Rela Platforms, Pratyaya EduResearch Labs, and

Bodhitree Skills, Choti si Khushi, Life Lab, Freedesign, and Project DEFY for their expanding engagement

with children, teachers, schools and colleges.

We could consider our fellowship impactful when the work done by our fellow brings them recognition

and long term viability. For example, our fellows have gone on to win more laurels and recognitions such

as Ashokafellowship , the Ashoka Youth Venture fellowships and Acumen Fellowships, Kanthari fellowship,

DBS fellowship and CSIM fellowships, Wipro Seed Funding. We hesitate to claim this as our impact because

it is based much more on all the life experiences including factors like good educational qualifications from

reputed institutions like TISS, IIT, Ashoka University, APU, and exposure to development sector or

corporate careers that they bring with them.

Annexure I offers details of the Changemaker fellowships from 2009-2015

I.VI. Important Partnerships Around 2015

In this period we tried to develop our own areas of work in Inclusive education. Between 2009 and 2012,

we could in fact generate funds for fellowships mostly through our projects. We seemed to have a

sustainable model! This comfort was short-lived because this could not be kept up once our scale picked

up and we were touching 8 fellowships or more at a time. We therefore tried to identify themes we could

work on to build a source of income for professional services.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

187

6

Successful

satisfactory

Unsatisfactory


The first theme was strengthening SDMCs and the next was improving supply chain management in mid-

day meal schemes. However we were unable to raise any funds for either of these efforts and we had to

drop it. Similarly we tried to raise some crowd funding a couple of times but without much success.

Institutions like Kilikili, Makkala Jagrathi were early collaborators and we were involved in some of their

activities as volunteers and resource persons. We gained more insights when one of us was actively

involved in organizing Jagriti Yatra and another had the opportunity to be part of the selection process and

jury for Ashoka Foundation. All these experiences brought us contacts with changemakers looking for

support.

In retrospect, some relationships stand out as those which brought us major collaborators and shaped our

path. When Sandeep Mehto introduced us to Caring Friends and Mr. Nimesh Sumati in 2012, we were

thrilled to meet someone thinking along our lines. It gave us hope that we can grow. Since then, Caring

Friends has stood by us staunchly, to support our work. We could move up from the rate of two or three

fellowships running at a time to our batch approach in 2014 with their support. We have worked with

batches of 10 to 12 fellowships at a time since then. Caring Friends also considers our request to help our

changemakers after the fellowship duration f they have a viable proposition

In 2015, we sought an IDEX fellow and Ms. Ranjita Sapkota of Nepal, who joined us for six months. We

entrusted her with the task of taking our fellowship programme, closer to the ground. She worked to raise

the batch of 2015 finding a local collaborator in Samvada, to identify young people from small towns and

villages eager to stabilize their own lives and contribute to the educational ecosystem. The batch of 2015

was a composite batch with a mix of the more elite fellows and fellows from rural areas speaking the local

language and working in their own neighborhood. This gave us the hope that there are many such people

we can find. We also found many new options for incubation support available in 2015 for those already

networked and linked to institutions in the field like TISS. All this pushed us to reconsider our model.

Another key experience was when one of our trustees had the opportunity to assess the working of the

Nanhi Kali programme of the Naandi Foundation, supported by Mahindras in 2015. The visits to their field

centers proved beyond doubt that there are many smart young people in rural areas eager to improve

local schools and educational opportunities. The Rural Women Edupreneur (RWE) idea was developed

based on what we saw in innumerable villages.

Part II

FINDING OUR NICHE

II.I. Rural Women Edupreneurs (RWEs) (2016-2018)

When we completed the batch of 2015, we observed that our fellows from small towns were able to shift to a

social enterprise which they could sustain without grants or other handholding. We identified three major

strengths of our approach:

The Pre Incubation Workshop,

Focus on rural and small-town youth especially women,

A ‘light touch’ and low overheads


Our trustee based in Udaipur, SMRITI KEDIA found a part time associate CHARU BHATI and worked with

tremendous enthusiasm and an innovative approach to find potential women candidates for not just one but

two Workshops! They leveraged their association with local NGOs and met grassroots teams to explain the

Plustrust fellowship model, differentiating it carefully from a job or a volunteering opportunity.

For the first batch, we were thrilled when we received 70 applications from across the country within 15 days

of the announcement of our fellowships in July 2016. Most candidates came to know of us through NGO staff

or volunteers or former Plustrust Fellows. Online sharing through networks like Jagriti Yatra proved useful too.

Thanks to our alumni network we found good response from MP, UP and later Bihar and Maharashtra. We got

a range of applicants, some of them with experience and some foot print on the ground. We felt deeply

honored when two women made the journey from Bhopal, M.P and Faizabad, U.P with toddlers in tow! One

of the major benefits of this diversity is the opportunity for cross learning. The pattern has been steady since

inception of the RWE Programme.

Table 2: RESPONSE TO RWE ANNOUNCEMENTS

RWEI RWE II RWE III

LOCATION OF

WORKSHOP

UDAIPUR

Aug 2016

UDAIPUR

February 2017

BHOPAL

March 2018

NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS 70 120 135

NUMBER INVITED FOR WORKSHOPS 19 20 22

NUMBER OFFERED FELLOWSHIPS 9 14 12

Selection is based on the project ideas submitted and the preference is for those who want to actually deliver a

service, going beyond creating awareness or mobilizing public opinion. The Pre Incubation workshop we offer

for RWEs is also of four day duration. It is often the first such experience for the participants and many of them

travel outside their homes and villages for the first time. The design follows the process stabilized in the

Changemakers Pre incubation Workshop and includes interesting field trips.

Participants use the inputs to develop their initial ideas into micro incubation projects. The selected fellows

include very young beginners as well as the more experienced women, already doing something on their own.

This mix of enthusiasm and experience has helped in cross learning and peer support.

II.II. Edupreneur Profiles

We are proud to present an overview of the work of the 35 young women from our first three RWE batches.

The third batch is midway through the fellowship process. The opportunity to walk with RWEs since 2016 has

been an eye opener, inspiring us to strengthen our program. We have ample evidence to substantiate our

belief that a little bit of support at the right time motivates young women to develop their self- confidence and

skills. They are able to develop innovative approaches and solutions to local issues, especially in education,

accessing their innate grit. We learnt about the importance of trusting their intentions, understanding their

context by visiting them and offering appropriate mentoring support.

All of them hail from rural communities or small towns and draw motivation from their personal experiences

of challenges and barriers. They are optimistic, eager to establish their individual identity and tackle local

issues effectively. Beyond this attitude of making a difference, there is a great deal of diversity within the

batches. While the youngest are around 18 years of age, there are many in their mid-twenties and early


thirties and some in their early sixties as well! Though most of them have completed school and many are

graduates, we have some who are self-taught with no formal schooling. The maturity of their project proposal

is also very varied with some having established a foot print already which they want to expand while others

are still at the ideation stage. With all of them coming together, there are many opportunities for cross

learning.

Team Plustrust has worked closely with them, helping them develop a six monthly action plan, reviewing

progress every month and visiting them besides encouraging them through phone conversations and

introductions for networking. Fellowship amounts ranged from Rs 3500 to Rs 11000 per month and were

based on the estimates furnished by the fellows. In most cases the duration of 6 months proved adequate to

identify the sustainability of the model and performance of the fellow.

Table 3: OVERVIEW OF RWE BATCHES

RWE 1 RWE 2 RWE 3

Number of fellowships 9 14 12

Average fellowship Value (Rs) 42000 39600 56100

Cost of Pre incubation Workshop 200000 252000 296000

II.III. Project Themes

There were a few major themes for projects which emerged, reflecting the gaps and needs observable in the

education ecosystem in rural areas. Within each theme we found quite a variation in the chosen strategies,

confirming to us the importance of respecting the diversity in the context as well as the skills and ideas of the

Edupreneurs. Broadly we have categorized the work into four major themes.

Academic Support for children

25 of the 35 fellowships went to support work around school education, improving learning outcomes,

enrolment retention, teacher development, parent engagement and school administration. The majority of the

projects were around holistic education, schooling and academic support for children –often by changing the

methods used to teach children in school. The issues addressed ranged from re-enrolling drop outs, helping

bridge gap between Hindi and colloquial or tribal languages and encouraging parents especially mothers to

support schooling.

Women’s Education and Awareness The next most popular theme was to work with women on literacy, general awareness, information and

knowledge sharing on benefits available under government schemes, guidance to access these benefits, and

the importance of education. Six projects were focused on women for improving their awareness, education

and livelihood skills.

Awareness and Life skills for Adolescents There were three projects aimed at adolescents, especially adolescent girls. Themes were quite differentiated and included menstrual health and hygiene, governance and participation, besides Science and Maths education.

Sports Academy One project aimed to set up a sports academy especially for girls interested in athletics and other sports in a

district town.


Figure 4: THEMES CHOSEN BY RWES

II.IV. And Some Stories Of Change

Our model is best explained through the stories of some of our RWEs.

71%

17%

9% 3% School Education

Awareness for Women

Life Skills for Adolescent

Sports Education

Sports Academy for girls

Poonam Parate, (Pandhurna, M.P) enjoyed playing cricket with boys as a child, but she had not seen women’s

cricket. When she read some news about a girl from Bhopal playing cricket for the country, she felt inspired. She

began playing in college and her talent was soon recognized. She played for district, state, and university and

went on to win best player awards and captaincy for the national open tournament. During this period she often

missed access to training facilities in Pandhurna. As a volunteer in Pratyaya she began coaching girls in cricket.

She applied for a Plustrust fellowship to develop a space in Pandhurna for women sports. She has now set up

Pahal Women’s Sports Learning Academy with access to the police training grounds in the morning and evening.

She coaches girls in cricket and trains boys too and charges a small fee to cover her expenses.

For Poonam, the biggest turning point, came when she registered a mixed gender (girls and boys) team to

compete in the cricket tournament organized in Pandhurna. The opening match of the tournament was between

Poonam’s team and all boys team. She wishes to further develop her academy even as she continues with her

own training. She has gained greatly in self-confidence and now handles discussions with local administration for

negotiating space and permission for her academy.


School Education

Dipika Kunwar, (Kherwada, Rajasthan)

When she attended the Plustrust workshop in 2016, she enjoyed the many new elements and understood the

progress made by others.

She identified the need to work with the government schools. She persevered despite initial resistance, and

gained in confidence and understanding. To gain entry in a government school, she approached the BEO.

Quizzing her on what she planned to do, he grudgingly allowed access, declaring that class V students cannot be

spared. She found herself in class 1, with 70 children. She clearly saw the problems children face, but could not

explain these to the authorities. She taught them mainly through activities.

She reactivated the SMC explaining the role of SMC members to get them to participate fully. Visiting the

families, she asked them to share their problems and concerns. When a meeting was organized, 120 people

participated! The teachers too began to appreciate Dipika's initiative.

She continues her work with schools and is mentoring some of the Plustrust RWEs from the next batch, asking

the right questions without pushing her mentees to do things her way.

Dipika was able to complete her MA, enroll for her B.Ed and learn the basics of computers, besides qualifying as

an LIC agent. She now dreams of opening a child friendly school, drawing inspiration and support from her

husband.

Simmi, (Faizabad,U. P)

Simmi worked with the children in the primary section of the school run by her husband AfaqUllah near their

village in Faizabad. The Plustrust workshop was her first trip outside her state and she was very excited by the

learning activities, discussions and field trips.

She began using these activities, though nervous at first. Children greatly enjoyed it all and learnt quickly with

enthusiasm. However they lost interest when the same activities were repeated. She therefore registered for a

teacher training course on preparation of teaching and learning materials (TLM).She is able to spread her

learning’s to young teaches of the school now. She overcame her hesitation to speak English even though she

understood the language quite well. She began using what she learnt and sharing it with other teachers too. She

now works with children of laborers and migrants taking volunteer support from MSW students.

Simmi’s example has inspired young women, and families have begum permitting daughters and daughters-in-

law, to join her to work with children. Taking up a topic, she teaches maths, science, art, history, English through

a holistic approach. The children learn on their own, using wood blocks, creating new games with leaves, toys

with mud and using material presented in their own ways.

Simmi and AfaqUllah, her spouse, applied for the WIPRO Seeding Programme for Educational CSOs. The Plustrust

team worked closely with them. to sharpen focus, develop overall vision and improve their presentation. They

have been selected for this fellowship and will be supported by WIPRO foundation for three years.

Please see Annexure II for more stories


II.V. Anchoring and Mentoring

The RWE batches have been closely nurtured by our Trustee Smriti Kedia with coordination support from

Charu Bhati initially and subsequently Hardeep Kaur.

Besides the team from within Plustrust, we are developing the role of a batch anchor. This role is crucial for us

to spread the model. We envision that anchors will be able to bring together participants for the pre

incubation workshop, handle the arrangements and facilitate the pre-incubation workshop. Thereafter they

will work with the participants closely for the duration of the fellowship, keeping track of the progress and

following up with mentors and so on. So far this has been an organic process. Girish Mahale has been the first

person to step forward to take the anchoring role. His relationship with Plustrust began in 2015 when he

attended our pre-incubation workshop. He stayed in close touch, putting us in contact with others interested

in our fellowship. He agreed to facilitate learning session for the RWE batch of 2017. With these opportunities

to fully grasp our model, he was ready to anchor the RWE batch of 2018. He has been working closely with the

Plustrust team, the fellows and their mentors. He is now ready to replicate RWE model independently. We

hope that we can launch a process to develop more anchors very soon.

The other crucial role in the model is that of the mentor. We expect the mentor to be available to the RWE

offering guidance but nor forcing any ideas on them. We have had enthusiastic support from the Plustrust

Alumni for mentoring. Girish Mahale and Sandeep Mehto were mentors to fellows in MP and Dipika from the

first batch of RWEs mentored the fellows from Kherwada. Similarly other Plustrust fellows like Lewitt

Somarajan from Pune took up mentoring roles in Mahrashtra and Simmi in U.P. Based on the experiences of

the first two batches we have identified two levels of mentoring and we are experimenting with this approach

currently.

We find that RWEs need closer contact and encouragement as they struggle to find their feet given the

attitude they have to contend with and the misogyny that comes their way. We have therefore developed a

Awareness for Women

Sunita Rao (Dungarpur, Rajasthan)

Sunita of Aspur, Dungarpur district, is a B.A. student; she battles the mindset of parents who do not send their

children to school, as her village has a high dropout ratio. She runs an education center for the children and

their mothers. She encourages mothers to relate closely with their children and enjoy learning together. She

operates from a rented a space where 20 children and 15 women have registered. She uses different activities

and methods to kindle their interest..

Her father supports her work and her family motivates her; as a result of which she was able to challenge the

strong caste divide and open her center to all the members of the society. This was a great learning and she set

an example for other community members.

During her fellowship she was very flexible to learn new things and gained confidence and established a good

rapport with the community. She gained the trust of women and they are all now interested to learn to read

and write to support their children at home.

BhartiJinger and RatanKumari Salvi (Rajsamand, Rajasthan)

Hailing from different villages in the Railmargablock they worked together to develop and run resource centers

for women offering basic literacy, awareness on government schemes, mobile phone usage skills and financial

literacy. Based on the interest from women they offer guidance on where they can study, government

schemes, law related to women and so on. They offer a safe space for women to come together and talk about

different issues related to gender and violence they are facing and how to overcome them as a group.

Bharti began the fellowship as a very shy person, feeling low about her own lack of education. She decided to

work for the women like herself, who are not formally educated but are interested to learn new things. She

herself has zeal to learn new technology and is fond of attending different meetings conducted by local NGOs.

She worked as volunteer in an NGO, with support from her husband who is a social worker, and had built a

good rapport with the community. During the fellowship she taught women to handle mobile phones. She also

arranged sessions for women about health, government schemes etc., where she invited other recourse

persons. She gained a lot of confidence and her eagerness of learning was the remarkable quality she displayed

during her fellowship.

Similarly RatanKumari, an experienced social worker mobilized a group of 20 women of her own village. She

supported them to avail different government schemes. With her support and encouragement 4 girls who

had dropped out appeared in 10th

exam and cleared it

Life Skills for Adolescents

Shama Parveen (Roorkee, Uttarakhand)

She runs a center in Math and Science for girls in high school and secondary school. Starting with 10 girls she

now had 45 girls enrolled. She helps the girls to understand these subjects and motivates parents and

community to support education for girls. She arranges exposure visits to college campuses and other places

of interest. She was interested in education and her family supported her in spite of belonging to a Muslim

community where girls are not educated. When her father died she had to assert herself and continue with

education. Her own experience prompted her to reach out to other girls especially for maths and science. Her

coordination, networking and communication skills were very strong. She is now working full time and

continuing her science classes.


two layered mentoring model. The level 1 mentor is a person who meets the RWE twice a month, and offers

specific ideas and inputs to solve local challenges. This mentoring is aimed and enhancing self-confidence and

project management skills in the 3PS model (see Figure 6 and Section III below)

The Level 2 mentor has a broader perspective and works to enhance the professionalism (the third aspect of

the 3PS model) of the RWE. There is close interaction between the Plustrust team the anchor and mentor to

ensure the Edupreneur’s progress. We are now ready with our pre assessment process and mentor

development path so that many of our fellows and current level 1 mentors can progress in this direction too.

In due course we see that a good platform of mentors anchors and Edupreneurs can be a major resource to

improve the education ecosystem in remote locations

Trustees visited the fellows in their place of work to better understand the local challenges and the

opportunities. This was found to be very useful and we have planned a visit in the early stages of the

fellowship to gauge the local context. We therefore plan to continue this practice in the future.

Expected roles and responsibilities of mentors

Level 1 mentor A level 1 mentor is someone who is located/ associated in close contact with fellow on a regular basis. S/he must have a passion to do this work and grass root level work experience. The expected roles and responsibilities are as follows

1. Stay in regular touch with fellow and offer support as needed. 2. Make a minimum of 2 visits / month to the fellow. 3. Write a monthly review email to Plustrust focusing on fellow progress /activities/ how can the fellow be

supported better. 4. Keep in touch with the Plustrust coordinator. 5. Support level 2 mentor in understanding progress of fellow on a monthly basis through a phone call. 6. Inform program coordinator at Plustrust about any concern/challenge related to fellow. 7. Support skill building/networking for fellow. 8. Level 1 mentor will be paid an honorarium for the overall support during the fellowship tenure and skill

building support will be considered as identified.

Level 2 mentor A level 2 mentor is someone who may/may not be located in close vicinity of the fellow. S/he must have a passion for individual mentoring and have a fair technical/enterprise level understanding on relevant subject of the fellow. The expected roles and responsibilities are as follows-

1. Support fellow through guidance as and when needed. 2. Meet the fellow at least twice during the fellowship tenure of which at least one visit is at the fellows

work location. Costs related to this visit will be borne by Plustrust. The current fellowships were initiated in June and will continue until November 2018.

3. Write a monthly review email to Plustrust focusing on how the fellow can be supported better. 4. At least one phone call in the month with the fellow and the level one mentor of the fellow (if any) is

ideally recommended. 5. Support identification of skill building/networking opportunities for fellow in coordination with Plustrust

contact.


Part III

THE EMERGING RWE MODEL, OUTCOME FRAMEWORK AND THEORY OF CHANGE

III.I. Background

Increased female literacy rate has not transformed into workforce participation in India. Illiterate young

women have higher employment than literate women, with an exception of women with technical education.

The lowest employability is noted amongst the primary to higher secondary education category. It is observed

that project based employment with NGOs and government in rural areas, often leaves a large section of

capacitated women unemployed at project end. This scenario emerges from a trend that young women are

expected to take up wage employment for ‘security’ while entrepreneurial work is a part of male domain. A

survey ranked India 49 among 54 global economies for low Women Business Ownership ratios. We believe

that Edupreneurship is a pathway for women who are gaining access to school and education to pursue their

dreams. The aspirations may seem limited to their immediate concerns initially, but were confident that these

seeds of change will germinate over time and significantly alter the position of women entrepreneurs in rural

settings.

III.II. The Emerging RWE Model

Sophia Akash Foundation (SAF) offered its advisory support to Plustrust. Mr.Shailendra Patel and Ms. Harriet

Ingall observed the Plustrust Workshop for from 14th- 17th March 2018 at Bhopal to understand the

Figure 5: THREE PHASESOF RWE

Fellowship model and offered their overview. We have been able to conceptualize our decision making steps

with greater clarity thanks to their inputs. We find that this model is applicable both for the RWE and the

Changemaker fellowships we have offered. We now have a sorting system for applications and an assessment

framework for capturing and understanding the progress of each fellow. We can develop a handbook for

anchors and mentor and develop a group of these resource persons over time.

The short span of our engagement seemed to keep up the pressure to achieve their objective and has spurred

innovations. Phase IV (Post Fellowship Support) is slowly emerging – and this could include aspects like

Ph

ase

I

Selection

Attracting applications

Shortlisting

Ph

ase

II Pre Incubation Workshop

Exploring personal dreams,

Project ideas,

Pedagogy.

Ph

ase

III Fellowship

Planning pilot,

testing methods,

financial viability,

networking,

skill development ,

way forward


guidance and mentoring after the fellowship, support for efforts to find other fellowships and funding and

developing the alumni as anchors and mentors for new RWEs.

III.III. Outcomes for RWEs

To gauge the effectiveness of the fellowship process, we have developed the 3 PS framework (Person- Project-

Profession Strengths). Based on our experience with the first two batches we have charted indicators of

progress usually visible during the fellowship process on various dimensions for each of these strengths. For

example we notice that RWEs have gained in self-confidence, networking and the skills to learn from

experience, by taking some initiative. They also gain from skills of planning and implementing their project and

building their professional capacities as they progress. The stories narrated earlier are illustrative of such shifts.

Figure 6: THE PLUSTRUST 3PS MODEL

This model emerged from a reflective process with RWEs during the Bhopal Workshop. The RWEs of 2016 and

2017 who had joined the fresh group on the second day spent some time together identifying the changes and

shifts in their life and in their work and the model took shape from their sharing.

Professional Strengths

Skill Building Goals

Problem Solving

Relationship with Mentor

Project Strengths

Clarity about target population

Ideas for change Understanding target groups needs

Vision for change Financial Sustainability

Personal Strengths Confidence

Willingness to learn Participation in Group

Access to networks and local linkages


This output was then used by the trustees to shape the model and develop indicators and an overall index and

scoring sheet. The index developed captures the changes or shifts observed over the fellowship period; it does

not set any absolute standards. To assess the progress of the RWEs of 2016 and 2017, two trustees

independently used the P3 scoring sheet to measure the change we noticed in our fellows over the fellowship

period.

Table 4 ASSESSEMENT OF STENGTHS IMPROVEMENT

Year No of

Fellowships No of RWEs

Strengths Improvement Index ( % to maximum score in the category )

Personal Project Professional Overall

2016 8 9 17.3 21.5 22.2 20.3

2017 12 13 18.2 20.4 24.3 20.6

Figure 7 : Strengths Improvement Index – Frequency Distribution

The analysis is being used for process improvements and certainly not to rank or judge the performance of a

fellow. For example, we found a clear link between the gap in mentoring arrangement in situations where the

fellows did not fare well (Index below 15). We are now addressing this more consciously than we did with the

earlier batches.

III.IV. Result framework

This model gives us a clear results framework which can be used to judge our work. On the quantitative side

we are currently using the following

1. Number of fellowships per annum 2. Cost per fellowship 3. Achievements of fellows like larger fellowships, recognition etc.

As our model matures, we can also track the following:

4. Number of anchors developed during the year 5. Number of stable SEs

024681012

above 3025-2920-2415-19below 14

Strengths Improvement Index

Strengths Improvement Index

Range No of RWEs

2016 2017 Total

above 30 1 1 2

25-29 3

3

20-24 3 7 10

15-19

5 5

below 14 2

2

9 13 22


On the qualitative side, we have the Strengths Improvement Index and it appears that we are can observe an

improvement of 20% or more with this model. Thus the qualitative result framework can be set at ‘minimum

20% improvement in Strengths Improvement index for all RWEs’

III.V. Our Theory of Change

This analysis of inputs from external observers and the RWEs who are our direct clients has helped us in

building our theory of change.

Figure 8: The Plustrust Theory of Change

Current Situation

• Youth aspire to follow their inner voice for social transformation

• Seek sponsors and support for testing ideas

Strategies

• Find Rural Women with aspiration to make a difference in education

• Take them towards their dream through the Plustrust Edupreneurship path

Actions

• 35 RWEs identifed and two batched of feleowships completed

• Third batch in progress

• One anchor has come forward

Impact

• Fellowship has positively contributed to all the RWEs - as indicated by the Stregths Improvemnt Index

• Mentoring, anchoring roles taken up by Plusturst Alumni

Vision

• Wide spread availability of good quality microincunbation support for edupreneurship


Table 5: KEY STEPS IN DEVELOPING OUR THEORY OF CHANGE

Description Key Assumptions

The Problem

Plustrust is trying to

solve

Young changemakers eager to follow their inner voice find are stopped by challenges and constraints.

We enable them to overcome these blocks.

The cost to reach this group can be prohibitive because it requires intense engagement for a period.

i. Constraints are more severe in villages and small towns and more for women

ii. Donors/ philanthropists find it costly/ unviable to reach out the grassroots micro incubation

Our key audience Young change makers interested in Inclusive education or animal welfare

iii. Many such individuals are looking for micro incubation support. We have to define our scope clearly.

Our entry point for

reaching key

audience

Word of mouth , Referrals from former fellows, sharing fellowship announcements with various networks

iv. We can handle 10-20 fellows per annum. The channels for sharing about our fellowship are adequate.

Steps needed to

bring about change v. Building self-confidence and

entrepreneurial skills vi. Clarifying the micro incubation idea, vii. field testing, and building local viability viii. Improving professional knowledge and

skills in the domain of work

This can be achieved through our ‘retreat + fellowship+ mentoring + progress review’ process

Measurable effect of

our work

The shifts noticed in the Person, the Project and professional skills of the Change maker

Our process (monthly reporting, mentor feedback and end project assessment) captures changes and indicates emerging requirements.

Wider benefits

Edupreneurship- Change makers ready to start enterprises with a tested idea in Education.

Local initiatives to address context specific needs, not global solutions.

Awareness on quality in education among key stakeholders

Links with larger fellowship programmes

More confident and empowered changemakers with a tested idea and learning.

Plustrust will be able to develop Anchors and leverage on their alumni network. Funds for this work will be available

The long-term

change we see as our

goal

10 or more anchors who support micro incubation for social change.

3-5 years) Intensification of the Edupreneur and Kidpreneur programmes (2 or more batches i.e. 20 to 40 RWEs per annum).

Good networks for quality and innovation around our themes

Stakeholders:

Children parents, teachers, school management.

Animals and animal welfare activists and animal care givers.

Individual donors and strategic philanthropists


To achieve scale and replicate our model, we would like to anchor batches directly and through our former

fellows or new contacts, these batches can be localized and issue focused also. The local partner will be the

mentor and hand holds the batch. We have already initiated in this direction with our third batch in Bhopal

anchored by our former fellows.

Another track we wish to develop is to identify viable/ sustainable enterprises emerging from these batches

which we can support further to help hem stabilize. (Both through programme support and knowledge and

material resource support of other kinds)

III.VI. Challenges and Issues

We are amazed to see how the women and girls have been able to grasp at the small support for a short

duration and progress towards their dreams. What has been helpful is the availability of coordinators, usually

part time working under close supervision from trustees. In our assessment, 4 or 5 of the fellowships will

evolve into stable local initiatives in a batch of 10-12, with some handholding. Of course it is too early to judge

A major challenge we faced is the ‘charity’ mind set. For example, fellows who clearly indicated a fee or

contribution from users have found it easier to stabilize. This is the advice that the batch offered to the next

group when they met each other recently. Yet it is very hard to convince idealist young women that they

should begin with a fee.

Often the young women also shared how difficult it was for them to muster the courage to talk to the

Sarpanch and other men in the village about their idea. All of them found that once they took the bold step of

actually talking to the village leaders, they received help. After some initial doubts the men in the village

began to appreciate the efforts.

Similarly school authorities seemed very welcoming of all the extra support they received, but could not offer

any financial support to the fellows. To achieve financial viability by working with government schools during

their working hours becomes difficult.

All our RWEs need exposure and orientation to activity based and experiential learning and other

opportunities for skill development. It is easier for Plustrust to work closely with a cluster, because the cost of

organizing skill development interventions becomes very high otherwise

We hope to use these insights in working with the upcoming batch.

III.VII. Conclusion

Writing our story has been a great experience helping us capture our journey so far. We look forward to

further dialogue on the model we have evolved.

(Written by the Trustees of Plustrust)


Annexure I- Plustrust Change Maker Fellowships 2009-2015

The details of organizations established by our 18 fellows to take forward their work:

Year Name Organization name Location

Fellowship theme Current interest

2009 M Padmavathamma New Voice Foundation 2016 Hyderabad

Film on railway children, with Sathi

Padma worked for NGOS and has now set up a vocational skills NGO

2010 Bhuvaneshware B G Let’s talk (online forum) Chennai

Chennai. Now Hyd

Art based therapy with children from dysfunctional families

Works as counselor in schools

2010 Sandeep Mehto Bharath Calling, www.bhathcalling.in Itarsi

Summer camps for youth for higher education

Has stabilized as an NGO and is well regarded

2010 Sandesh Raju Samabhava, www.samabhava.org Bengaluru

Farrier training and shelter for pony

Samabhava his NGO is well known now

2012 Abhishek Neel, Bagini Nivedita Educational Society

Muzzafarpur Bihar

Education for children of Mushar community

Work continues...scale is still small, not in touch with us

2012 Tejaswini M, Hyderabad for Feminism

Hyderabad/ Paderu

Peace education with Gandhi an approach

Works on gender and feminist initiatives

2014 Lewitt Somarajan Life-labs Pune Science education

His company has stabilized. Acumen fellow and Ashoka fellow

2014 Angela Davis Benny Prerana Mahabubnagar Study centre for children of Joginis

Has helped Joginis children continue and finish school

2015 Kausheik Pranoo and Shruti Tharayil, Rela Rela Platforms

Paderu and Parvathipuram

Inclusive education for tribal children

Now innovating with Rela Mela a moving learning exhibition

2015 Ashweetha Shetty Bodhitreee skills Tirunelveli English and life skills for rural youth

Stable courses and offerings. Young India fellow, Acumen fellow, and Ashoka youth venture fellow

2015 Abhijit Sinha Project Defy Banjarpalya Community managed maker space

HundrEd.org identified DEFY as top 100 innovations in education, Kanthari fellow

2015 Sajid Ali Rotte Kalburgi , Karnataka

Computers &vocational education for disadvantaged youth.

His small business has stabilized

2015 Siddiah Computer centre Mulbagal Computers &life skills for secondary school youth

Continues the work and balances agri. income from to covers costs

2015 Girish Mahale Pratyaya Eduresearch labs Ltd Pandhurna MP

Activity based learning modules in science and civics

Is well set to grow and expand with increased volunteers


2015 Navendu Misra Agrini Seoni

Quality education, civic awareness and local governance

Agrini offers integrated education and outreach with many partners

2015 Seema Joshi ChotisiKushi New Delhi

Education and lifeskills for girls and women in urban slums

Expanded to three centers as a Volunteer driven community based NGO

2015 Dr.Chetan Nerkar Own clinic Thane

Spled materials developed and tested in Marathi

Continues work with CSR support

And the following are some of the 7 satisfactory fellowships though they did not stay on in the same activity

2011 John D Basumatary , Meher , Thulunga Kokrejhar Assam

Skill development and post conflict livelihood revival

Has moved to mainstream job (AO,LIC)

2012 Ayesha Pathan, Vasundhara Itarsi Stray dogs in Itarsi Has moved to Goa now

2013 Shweta Choubey, Vikalp

Vikalp (Bharath calling) Itarsi Livelihood development

Initiated livelihood work in Bharath Calling and successfully implemented her project

2013 Pragyan Mohanty Bhopal Women's self-esteem and self defense

Many young women inspired to learn self defense

2014 Manoj Rathore Itarsi Welfare of birds Has his own business

2014 Caring Hands for Animals

Caring Hands for Animals Hyderabad

Working with dogs in municipal pound Not in touch

2015 Brajesh Patel Itarsi resource centre for slum children Not in touch

Annexure II

Brief details of the academic service centers established by RWEs

Rajasthan (South Rajasthan)

1. SONAL PATEL of Modiwasa B,Kherwara, Rajasthan is an undergraduate student and enjoys going to college.

She wants to improve attendance and retention of children in her village primary school so that all of them

can eventually go to college. She approached the schools authorities and gathered details of children who

need additional academic support .She then approached the families of these children and talked to them

about her ideas. She opened her center in the verandah of her home and was delighted to see 85 children

on the first day! She formed two groups of school children based on age. The families could observe the

benefits within a month. They began making small payments to Sonal and her fee collections have

stabilized. Sonal is happy that she can support her own education from this eduprise. For the Plustrust team

her center is indeed a proof of concept.


2. MANISHA PATEL is a qualified teacher with a B.A. and B.Ed. and runs a Centre “ Kaliyonkikilkari” in her

village. Manisha was eager to study and completed her formal education encouraged by her father. She

began teaching in a local private school, with children mostly from the agricultural community. Children

who could not attend regularly because of the family situation, fell behind. As she understood this, she

became more interested in teaching such children who were irregular and who needed it most. She gave up

her school job to work with an NGO on menstrual health and hygiene for adolescent girls. The girls were

not sent to school because they had to manage the household when the parents were away. She took up a

survey to understand the situation in the village. However she could not do much, because of own financial

constraints.

At the Plustrust workshop she gathered more ideas on how to engage with children. She tried to

understand children’s expectations and offered craft work, art and related activities form the very

beginning. Starting with 10 children she now has 27 regulars. Children who hesitated to speak are the ones

who now come eagerly to learn. Gradually children have developed a taste for academics as well.

Parents now make the effort to bring children to her center. She discusses the challenges faced by the child

to come up with ways to help.. She has now been able to enroll these dropout children in school and

continues to help by explaining what is taught in the local dialect. She is eager to continue this work.

3. MONIKA PATEL AND JAYNA PATEL work as a team in the school, to improve enrollment and retention

of 6-14 years in school, by talking to their parents, liaising with the school, meeting teachers, forming a

children council, and teaching them with fun-learning methods. Jayna recalls that she found it difficult to

study in a government school due to lack of teachers and staff. She sees that children face the same

difficulties today.

They both want to provide a better environment to children in school and to make learning a fun by

different learning techniques. Together they introduced games, craft work, art, and theater, songs which fit

in with the present school curriculum, and gave special attention to children having difficulty in

understanding the lessons because they use the local dialect at home.

During the fellowship they established a good rapport in UplaThuriya village school with 85 children from

class 1 to 8. Thanks to their efforts, children who used to miss the school are now regular and take an

interest in studies. Community mobilization played a crucial role. To improve quality of education they

started tuition classes in the evening especially for those children who need more attention. Parents are

now supporting their children for studies.

4. MANJU PATEL is a B.A student who runs tuition Centre for the school going children and learning

center for the out-of school children. During her fellowship she established a good rapport in Primary

school and with community of Mokarwara village, where children from class 1 to 5 are managed by one

teacher. Therefore children were not getting quality education. She decided to work with these children

through new activities games and poems, focused specially on Hindi, English and Maths. She also helped

children to learn values and life skills such as mutual respect, not cheating any one and cleanliness. She

regularly met parents to discuss the importance of education.

Thought very shy initially, she was very motivated and became confident during her fellowship. She applied

many new techniques of learning, which children found very exciting. Parents and community appreciated

her efforts. The school staff also supported her by providing material for different activities.


5. POOJA DULAWAT from Shiv Singh KaGuda, Nedach, Nathadwara, Rajasthan fondly recalls her carefree

childhood. Her aspirations were rudely shattered when her father died in an accident. Despite her own

situation she was concerned about the children in her village. With her fellowship she has been able to set

up a center for academic support. She approached the Sarpanch who organized space for her center and

gradually children started coming in. Through a variety of activities she has mobilized both tribal and upper

caste girls to come together and created an effective learning environment. The tide turned when parents

found that their children did very well in the 8th class exam. She hopes she will be able to eventually charge

a small fee and is also exploring how she can begin teaching in the school. She is delighted that the

fellowship has helped her resume her own college education. Her determination and persistence are

indeed inspiring.

Madhya Pradesh

1. ASHWINI (18) and DEEPIKA SAMBARE (18) of Pandhurna, Madhya Pradeshare inspired and influenced by

the work of Pratyaya. Deepika’s education suffered because of her father’s alcoholism and she is

determined to prevent similar difficulties for children. Both of them have missed the opportunity to pursue

higher learning despite their interest and ability. Undeterred, they would like to reach out to children in

such circumstances in their neighborhood .They have set up a small center and they work under the close

guidance of GirishMahale, founder Pratyaya and a former Plustrust fellow. They focus on activity based

learning, especially for science and mathematics and draw on the resources developed by Pratyaya. The

fellowship has helped them buy models, sports kits and lab equipment to make learning more fun. They

have been charging a nominal fee from those who can afford it; they hope to gradually build up the

revenue and decrease dependence on Pratyaya.

2. ASTHA and KIRTI, from Bhopal began their work for out-of-school children aged 4-15 years from migrant

families in a Bhopal slum through their learning center “Aakar” with community support. They identified a

temporary habitation with no NGO presence, which is home to many children who missed out on

schooling both in the city and in the village. Initially, children would run away and refuse to talk to them.

They persevered, using activities and games rather than directly talking about academics. Gradually the

children themselves showed interest in learning to read and write. This gave the girls confidence - they

would gather the children under a tree or in open spaces and work with them. At the moment there is a lull

because Kirti is blessed with a baby and Aastha is just married and settling into her new family. They plan

open their own center and offer good quality education.

3. VARSHA MALVIYA, Itarsi, a school teacher from Itarsi who noticed that children in private schools do face

many challenges. She felt that it is important to work with the family and caregivers. And this is what she

tried, after the exposure she gained from the Plustrust workshop. She began with some activities with a

group of 11 women from a nearby village, who sent children to school, but were blind to their responsibility

to encourage and support children to learn.

Varsha soon realized that the Mohalla she was working in was split into two camps and women from one

side would not go to the other. To make a difference she set up a sewing centre for the women. Despite

initial hesitation, they began to come to learn sewing and are now working closely together to earn more.

They are also going across invisible lines to visit each other and the hostility has decreased. In the activities

that she initiated, she introduced themes related to children’s education as well, getting the women to

realize their responsibilities towards children’s education and homework.


Though Varsha found the initial responses very discouraging, she maintained her faith in herself and her

idea and continued working on it. She also had to face some criticism for going beyond regular school

hours. She persevered despite such voices, because of her concern for children. The importance of her work

became evident, when parents began coming to the school for meetings. Varsha plans to conduct

workshops and activities for parents in the school and offer activities and workshops for children and

parents beyond school hours.

4. LAKSHMI EVNE, Hoshangabad District, hails from a tribal hamlet and girls from her village dropped out of

school at class 8 because they had to go some distance for the high school. She was very keen to continue

her own schooling. Neighbors discouraged her family from sending her beyond the village. Her family too

was influenced by this talk and her father thought that it was dangerous. However Lakshmi was able to

convince her family about her seriousness and she could study up to MA.

Unfortunately her father passed away and she has returned to live in the village and take up family

responsibilities. She observed that many girls had dropped out of school after 8thclass and took up a survey

in her village. She found that there were 65 such children. She started to teach them using creative

methods and making it enjoyable. She also emphasized that education is a very important thing in life. She

shared with them her own struggles and encouraged them to take responsibility for their own education

and make demands on the family, ignoring negative voices from the community. With the Plustrust

fellowship, she worked with the children using non formal methods. Gradually children began to get

interested in learning. The families noticed the improvements and approached Lakshmi with offers to pay

for her efforts since they were well aware of her financial situation.

Lakshmi admits that she felt fear when talking to children initially. She had to build her own self-confidence

and consciously choose to move ahead beyond her fears. She has been working now for over a year with 25

children and using activities and games. She is keen to learn more about such alternate approaches to

improve her center and motivate every child in the village to learn.

Note: Details about work in Progress with the RWE 3 batch of 2018 are not included because the

fellowship is in progress now.

Documents

DISCOVERIES IN MICRO INCUBATION - Plustrustplustrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Plustrust-case-study-final-… · involved in organizing Jagriti Yatra and another had the opportunity