Hand in Hand

Today we visited three rural villages near Chennai to see the work of Hand-in-Hand, a local NGO created in 1998 to end child labor in Kancheepuram District in Tamil Nadu. Their activities expanded to offer an integrated poverty reduction scheme aimed at building self-reliance of disadvantaged groups by alleviating poverty through sustained income generating programs. Their strategy is based on five pillars:

1. Child labor
2. SHG and microfinance
3. Governance - Citizen's Centers
4. Health
5. Environment

Given all the activities they promote and the nature of their microfinance activities (self-help groups) they require donations to maintain their operations, which make them completely different from the highly profitable microfinance-as-business type of MFIs. I believe both schemes have a place in the development arena and the discussion on how bad or good one is compared to the other doesn't make much sense (to me at least). I'd be happy to know what you think.


We visited a small community (900 people) where they offer microfinance products for income-generating activities. Most of the people in the village embroider and sell the fabric to an intermediary in the city who sews the fabric and sells the sarees or salwar kameezes. Needless to say the embroiderers get a very small fraction of the selling price of the final product. HiH helps them by giving them loans for working capital and is trying to help link them to the final seller so they will get a higher price for their work. They also offer an education loan at the beginning of the year to buy supplies and a sanitation loan so households can build an outhouse with a septic tank.

Then we visited some businesses run by self-help groups: a bicycle shop, a flower shop and a candy store. HiH helped them get very good storefronts next to the road provided by the government and gives them loans for working capital. I'm not clear if they are better off than before, but they seem happy with their businesses.

We had lunch at their headquarters and learned about their environmental activities. They promote solid waste management through compost development and community trash collection as well as trying to reduce plastic usage (BIG problem in India). In the villages where they operate these programs they have been very succesful since communities get very involved and take ownership of the programs HiH runs.

Afterwards we visited a training center where they teach women to cut patterns and sew. They offer the intensive 2-week course for free and they have partnered with a local enterprise that provides the materials. The women who take the course can later on start their own business or work in a factory. Since now it is the summer many young women were there and they were very excited about taking this training. At other times of the year it is mainly married women who take the course.


To finish the day we presenced a self-help-group meeting. First a financial literacy training and then their group meeting to sort out loans and payments. This was the best part of the day for me. In the training they commented on how before being in the group they would have not gotten together to discuss their issues, let alone talk to us about them. The women form their own groups (10-15 people) and decide on how often they will meet. HiH only acts as a facilitator for the group and as the link between them and a formal bank.

The group we visited (I obviously don't know if HiH took us to visit them expressly) was fantastic. The women had a very lively discussion on their loans and repayments, especially because one of the members has not repaid (and was not present). But they were very clear they did not want anyone meddling in the affair, least of all mothers-in-law and that they should have another meeting to see what this person has to say for herself. They later explained that the whole discussion was because they have been saving for a while to go visit a nearby temple as their group activity and were only missing that payment to have all the money they needed. They had already spoken to their husbands and mothers in law and they were going no matter what. It was so exciting to see how being in the group has brought them together and has created another feminine space* where they can express themselves and where an identity that goes beyond their husbands and their families can filter through.


This was a stark contrast to the SMILE groups we saw on Friday, where the groups discussed making repayments and little else. If you have a chance and are interested visit their homepage:
http://www.hihseed.org

*For more on this idea -in Spanish- http://caleidoscopeando.blogspot.com/2008/06/el-mundo-de-las-mujeres.html