Project Jatropha

My Perspective on Project Jatropha

       July 2007, on a dark, stormy evening, Adarsha and I were ready to leave our farm near Hunsur. We were waiting for our van along with a few of the adult care takers of our farm, to pick us up to go back to Mysore after distributing clothing and toys to the nearby farmer's kids entrenched in poverty.  We saw a little figure running toward us in the rain. When it came closer, we got a better look, it was a three year old boy who was barely clothed.  He was panting and completely drenched in rain. He took a couple of minutes to catch his breath  as he had ran more than a mile to reach us in time from a nearby village. He came all the way running after hearing the news that it was happening again! The annual clothing distribution event!.  This event is quite famous  in the nearby villages as we do this annually on a regular basis. We distribute clothing and toys to the needy kids near our farm almost every year.  This tradition started ever since Adarsha turned one year old and has been going on until todate. The darkness or the rain did not bother him. He wanted a warm clothing. He ran all alone to reach us. Sadly, by the time he reached us, we had distributed all the clothing that we had. Our suitcase was empty and we were ready to leave.  The adult care takers of our farm who were with us were also helpless. We had nothing left but a wet towel.

       The thought of giving what Adarsha was wearing did cross our minds. Though we were tempted, The care takers firmly told us that it was not an option at that time as we were away from home. Traveling in the van without clothing was merely impossible for Adarsha. The little boy was very sad after coming to know that we had no more clothing left for him. Tears rolled down his face. I helplessly stared at his tear filled eyes. It appeared to me as though the heavy rains were comforting him by washing his tears off of his face as they trickled down his innocent grief stricken face. All we had was a small towel that we gave him which was also wet. The boy wanted a shirt. He did not get what he wanted.  I watched him walk away very slowly covering his head with the already wet towel. The rain did not bother him at all and he was not running this time. He walked away slowly with a heavy heart, bare footed, wondering what he would have gotten if he had reached in time. At that moment, we realized  that this was not enough. Annual distribution of clothing is just a meager way to help these kids. We needed a much bigger and better  plan. We were reminded of the Confucian saying "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a life time."  We realized that just giving clothing, books etc is not going to provide a long term benefit. We need to teach them to help themselves. This was the driving force behind the birth of Project Jatropha.  It is all about teaching people how to help themselves.

       We see many more kids like this in the villages near Hunsur if we walk down a couple of blocks from our farm. They are happily playing on the muddy roads unaware of their bleak future. Many of them have never owned a book or gone to school. Many of them are barely clothed and definitely bare footed. Don't they deserve a better chance at life?  This question pricks my heart almost every day. To help answer this question, I jumped in right away to be a  cofounder and leader of Project Jatropha when my brother Adarsha came up with this unique  idea.

       I am Apoorva Rangan, the co founder and one of the Financial  Directors of Project Jatropha.  I was twelve  years old when I  joined my brother Adarsha  in  an effort to co-found Project Jatropha.  Unlike my brother Adarsha, I was not  very knowledgeable about dangers of Global warming and importance of environmental protection at that time.  My  goals were quite different from Adarsha's, though both of us agreed on the same path to achieve our goals.  My primary goal was to help the needy kids, poor women  and their families to become independent . Project Jatropha works in two ways. It  not only is  a powerful tool to help the current global environmental crisis but also helps the rural poor with their long term economic problems and uncertainty.

My Role as a Co-founder

       Many of the small farmers grow tobacco in this area. This is not helping them improve their economic status as they spend most of their meager earnings on buying firewood to cure tobacco leaves. With the new rule of Indian government, the farmers are forced to cut back on tobacco cultivation by 50% by 2020. Project Jatropha's timing is so very perfect. It is giving an excellent alternative to the confused farmers.  As a cofounder , I have taken a leadership  role in convincing the small farmers to participate in this social experiment. Adarsha came up with the basic idea for the possible project in as early as Mar 2007. However, by the time we really started putting the words into action was in December 2007.  However, we met many villagers in the summer of 2007 in order to understand their lives, problems and ideas.

 

       When Adarsha took the leadership role in convincing the Labland Biotechs and Parivarthana staff  to be our collaborators, I took upon the task of convincing the small farmers to  participate in the project. That was by far the hardest task in our project.  I have spent countless number of days with the  small farmers and their families  in the villages of Thippalapura and Kirijaji. I have visited their individual homes for personal meetings, I have held meetings in small groups.  I have listened to the stories of rural women, the hardship they undergo for survival on a regular basis.  I have earned their trust.  They look at me as one among their group. They have taught me the rural language. I can confidently say that the entire population close to 2000 people from both villages know me by name.  I have touched each and every one of  them on some level in the past two years. Though the binding contract for farmers participation happened in the town hall meetings we held,  I was the sole inspiration to bring the villagers to townhall meetings. On many occasions,  Adarsha and I  have  laughed,  played and ate together with their children. We try to teach what we know and they teach us the language. We have an illustrative journey of our project  in the web site photo gallery. Honestly, I regret that they can't write their perspective about Project Jatropha,  as they could give you the exact picture with their first hand experience.

My Role as a Financial Director  

        As the Financial Director from day 1, I have brought in tremendous success to fund raising issues. When Adarsha and I  started this project, we underestimated the financial requirement. We were so enthusiastic about the farmers approval, we got swept away in success for the first phase.  We used the funds that Adarsha earned as cash prize to fund the first phase which was roughly $650. However, our second phase was on a much bigger scale. We needed a total of $15,000 to successfully meet the financial obligation (Please visit our press kit at  http://projectjatropha.presskit247.com/index.asp for our budget details).  We  divided the payments into two installments.

       I am very proud to say that we have successfully raised  close to $16,000 to-date.  Given the present economic crisis, it was a huge challenge.  I have contributed all the cash prize amounting to $1835  won by me via individual awards to the project. Thanks to the generosity of many donors whom I have reached out, believed in us. Given the circumstances,  no amount was less for us. We have humbly accepted donations as little as Rs. 50 equivalent to one US dollar  from an 85 year old rural woman near our farm who showed faith in us. In her own words " I am giving this with a ton of blessings which will help you succeed in your venture".  I felt her blessings lead me to many environmentally conscious Industrialists, scientists and  members of huge corporate management teams in India who generously donated up to  RS 100,000 equivalent to $2000.  I have  also connected with several individual  environmentalists  among our friends and families. I have collected $ 5000 from them. Totally,  the team has earned $9000 of the  total 16,000 under my leadership. In addition, as the financial advisor, I created   the budget plan from the day 1 with the help of Adarsha and Parivarthana staff.  I am  also responsible for making the regular budget updates .

My Role as an Educator

       When Adarsha and I began this project, we had not thought of including the local high school students in Hunsur area. However, as the project progressed, our work was featured in local TV programs and news papers. This media coverage gave the awareness to the youth population near the project site. In addition we also held several town hall meetings and presentations for public awareness.  A few of the rural high school students and teachers approached us soon after presentation and requested us to visit their school. That led to an unexpected collaborations with the nearby rural high schools  which has added a new dimension to the project.  We took the role of educators and reached out to rural youth. We are planning on working as an international team to simultaneously  tackle the global environmental and  local economic crisis.

       Adarsha, Callie and I  have made numerous presentations in  USA as a team. We have reached out to  nearby middle and high school student leaders, school officials, environmentalists like us from various walks of  life, private companies, public servants etc  to bring awareness of the project. We have given numerous presentations in Bay area,  given interviews on local TV stations, news papers and done a press release. We have established a partnership with Sirona Cares Foundation an NPO, which sponsored our project to attain nonprofit status.

What have I learned from my experience?

       Project Jatropha has taught me many valuable lessons. When I initially started working  with the villagers, I had no clue about the hardship faced by the rural working women. I thought that they were  very sheltered, dependent  and basically innocent home makers. However, very soon I realized that I was completely wrong. In fact they are the money managers for their homes. They not only earn  more than half of the total family income, they manage their limited  funds very responsibly. They were very open to our project ideas compared to the rural male population. They were willing to give us a chance to prove ourselves. I developed new found respect towards their  life. Project Jatropha has made me more responsible, caring and most importantly giving.  If I look back, I started off as a naive twelve year old. The whole experience working with the rural women and children  is not easy but now I know that if I try hard enough I am capable of achieving any goal I wish to. In addition, I learned that the global warming is a real threat to the present and future population. I am determined to work as hard as possible to spread our project in rural India and soon to other tropical countries to save the environment. I am glad that our community has already taken its step  through Project Jatropha to fight global warming and save the environment.      

       Fund raising remains to be a challenge. We promise to use  the funds obtained as cash prize  in its entirety towards funding of project Jatropha. Our project is never ending. I plan on working for as long as it takes  to improve the lives of the rural unfortunate kids entrenched  in poverty, helpless rural women across the globe.

---