This Diwali, bring some colour into someone’s life…
...NOT by giving to charity – or donating. But by investing in and helping, a hard-working woman earn a livelihood, live with dignity and get prosperous.
This is a brief story about RangDe…Some – perhaps quite a few – of you may have already heard of RangDe.org, a great social investment initiative that was launched more than 2 years back…Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Ram and Smita – the husband-wife team who conceived “Rang De” and who are the main energy behind this amazing effort.
Rang De’s mission is simple: To make Poverty History. It hopes to do this by reaching out to underserved communities through microcredit…and by helping micro-entrepeneurs and tiny businesses to grow and become more stable using “investments” by people like you and me for amounts that are as little as Rs 100/-
I fell in love with the idea of RangDe the minute I heard about it – which was not actually last week but almost 18 months ago – on a hot summer afternoon in Goa…Unfortunately it took me quite a while to reach out to Ram and Smita…but last week, I finally did.
Ram and Smita’s passion is infectious – and their idea ambitious…but the problem they are tackling needs bold vision, ambition and passion...RangDe might just be the answer to tackle poverty – not by government-mandated schemes – or by special sessions of Parliament, but by individuals …by people like you and me…and by the hard-working souls who borrow the money. By helping them get prosperous, we are helping ourselves – and helping India.
Make this Diwali special for Rang De – and its partners.. Bring some colour into someone’s life…and don’t forget to share the joy of investing!
This venture requires the encouragement and support of all Indians. This is not charity. It is a small loan, so even if there is a tiny chance that you end up disappointed, at most you ‘lose’ a micro-amount. Basically, the bar is set low enough for ordinary people to invest. It is certainly worth a try. I went into this with very low expectations, and so far, i havent been disappointed, and in fact, my experience has been rewarding.
You choose whom to invest in and how much. It makes a HUGE difference because you are investing in the mental toughness, budget-balancing creativity, smartness, and hard-working nature of the women of (rural) India. All that the MBA-CEOs of MNCs and political leaders TALK about in theory, but have little clue about how to go about it, these women actually DO, because their survival and that of their children depends on them being financially efficient.
There is little red tape and the internet is making this venture not just feasible, but practical and powerful enough that u can invest from virtually anywhere in the world. In most cases, the alternative for such poor, hardworking people is the local money lender whose loans pretty much enslave them.