By Preena Deepak, Rang De Team

Rang De’s growing volunteer base has many a time been a source of immense inspiration to the team and a beacon to keep us going. When volunteers voice out their beliefs in our mission and pitch in to help beyond money, Rang De receives a second confirmation that all this effort is worthwhile and lives can be transformed by microcredit. Volunteers have diversified our talent pool and are now constantly taking Rang De to greater heights. In this edition of Behind the Scenes, we feature Lakshmi Poorna, a very unassuming yet ardent believer in Rang De’s cause and Micro-credit.

While volunteering may not be a preferred hobby for the masses, Lakshmi chooses to be different. She desires to spend her time away from work, promoting social causes and using her diverse education in varied fields like Journalism, Mass Communication, Political Science and Information Technology to propagate transformation in society. Lakshmi has learnt volunteering from her mother’s knees and has certainly put it to good use. She has also done article writing and editing with few other NGOs and this experience certainly proved a bonus in helping Lakshmi grasp Rang De’s specific editorial requirements.

A promotional book mark was the starting point of Lakshmi’s interest in Rang De. Even before this, Lakshmi has been an enthusiastic supporter of microcredit, but thought it to be a concept beyond reach. However, this outlook changed completely when Rang De brought her in close contact with small entrepreneurs in need of micro loans across India. Lakshmi strongly voices her experience with micro credit and Rang De, “Rang De has definitely taken microfinance to the next level…expanding its horizons by giving a platform for everyone to get involved. I was inspired by the concept of Rang De in the first read and wanted to get involved in some way”. Lakshmi’s eagerness to go beyond money shaped into a highly valuable volunteering effort. In spite of having undergone an eye surgery soon after enrolling as a volunteer, she was quick to bounce back, editing borrower profiles on recovery.

Lakshmi is employed with the Knowledge Resource Division of CSIR, Chennai. She is passionate about public information and enjoys working in her field of interest. Though a native of Madurai, Lakshmi has settled in Chennai after marriage. She is a music lover and enjoys watching movies besides volunteering.

Lakshmi summarizes her brief yet meritorious association with Rang De in these few words, “I have to thank Rang De for giving me this opportunity to utilize my free time for a social cause and introducing me to a new world to explore and work with. I really enjoy this assignment…volunteering in the area of my interest that too with great flexibility to work in the available free time. Such opportunities are very rare and I would like to get associated with you for a long time possible.”

Rang De’s relations with volunteers is indeed long standing and Lakshmi is among the many others who make Rang De’s mission possible!

By Preena Deepak, Rang De Team

With newer and better profiles being uploaded on the Rang De site each day, it is time again to take a peek behind the screen to know the minds behind these creative recounts. The editing team has been enriched by contributions from ardent Social Investors who volunteer their time and talent to describe borrower content with passion. Rang De’s featured volunteer editor of this week is Raghav Parthasarathy.
Raghav’s involvement with Rang De started from January 2010. Led by his belief that micro-finance helps create strong village economies and communities in rural India, Raghav began to actively participate in the Bangalore Chapter. Raghav opines when asked about Rang De “I believe that Rang De, a vibrant team with a non-profit motto is determined to provide better livelihood to rural India and has met with stupendous success. Working with an amazing set of people at the Bangalore chapter further strengthened my belief in the organization.”

A short while ago, Raghav decided to pull the brakes and pursue his dream after working for 3 years with semiconductor giant, Texas Instruments, Bangalore and has enrolled with Kelley School of Business for its MBA program. He has just relocated to the US and is remotely (yet closely) connected with Rang De. In a sense Raghav keeps Rang De working, 24 X 7 by editing from a different time zone. A sports enthusiast, Raghav loves a match of tennis any day besides listening to music and making his own on the guitar. He loves the world of words and is a regular blogger.

A month into editing, this is what Raghav has to say about borrower profiles, “The guidelines and the several feedbacks provided by the Rang De team was crucial to really understand how borrower profile editing is done and it did take some time. I am thoroughly enjoying contributing to the team and since I enjoying writing, it doesn’t seem like work at all! The team has helped us understand that is important to feel the borrower’s pulse, the sense of urgency and need and their dream for a better life while recreating the profiles. In Bangalore, I volunteered in a teaching program during weekends and this was the time when I learnt to manage my work along with volunteering with social cause groups. It is certainly helping now since managing my activities to quickly edit the borrower profiles creatively has been challenging and at the same time most crucial.”

Raghav’s enthusiasm to edit from across the seas peps up the Rang De Team. His passion to reach out to the poorest communities in India stands out as the clear motive behind all the strenuous effort in balancing studies along with volunteering. Rang De appreciates Raghav and all the volunteer editors who have taken the extra step in reaching out to our borrowers across India in spite of their own commitments.

Look out for yet another enterprising volunteer profile in the next blog post!

By Smita Ram, Rang De Team

I cannot think of a better way a Bangalorean could have spent the eve of Independence Day. For all those who attended the Rang De Freedom Concert on 14th August in Bangalore, it was a musical treat with a social twist. Presented by the Rang De Bangalore Chapter, the event was a perfect blend of music and social awareness and I will find it very difficult to sum up my experience of the evening in just one single blog post. I will do my best to summarise the highlights of the evening. We will have more blog posts from the chapter members to follow.

The music: If one is not too much into Carnatic classical music and did not attend the concert because of this, I must tell you it was a wrong decision after all. That is the power of Ranjani and Gayathri’s music. You do not need to understand the intricacies of the genre to enjoy their music. The specially created series ‘Rang’ is especially meant for novices like us while carefully reaching out to those who know the genre well. The blend was perfect and the jugalbandhi with a blend of hindustani and carnatic styles was a treat to the listener. Ranjani and Gayathri are maestros in communicating with their audiences through the music.

For their fantastic support and for the wonderful concert, we will remain eternally grateful!

The team work: When the team believes in what they are doing and why they are doing, magic unfolds. The Bangalore chapter members who got together to support the event worked selflessly and paid minute attention to every detail.  Every single chapter member who was at the event went about silently carrying out his or her responsibility and  saw to it that the entire event went ahead without any hitches. I am really proud of the way everyone got together to accomplish this.

Microcredit: When NABARD sanctioned our sponsorship amount, they asked me one single thing, how are Rang De and microcredit associated with the concert. I think this was achieved very well, without making it too much of a heavy dose for the audience. A short film, a really short talk about Rang De with a grand intro did the job of sending a strong message about the event.  The audience were also given Rang De gift vouchers worth Rs.100 that they can redeem by funding a micro-entrepreneur on the website.

The audience: The concert was to begin at 6.00 pm and people started trickling in at around 5.00 pm. At one point, we had to stop people from coming in because the mike testing was going on in the auditorium and soon we realised that it will be impossible for us to contain the crowd who were eager to enter the Hall. I must say the audience was very receptive to the concept. A couple of emails that I have got after the concert stand in testimony of this.

The execution of the event was flawless and the Bangalore chapter has set some very  high standards for the other chapters and for their own future events. A full house at the Rang De Freedom Concert was truly inspiring!

By Smita Ram, Rang De Team

This Independence day (Sunday, 15 August), you can join us for a special screening of Peepli Live at Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai. Organised by the Rang De Chennai Chapter, the event aims to weave Rang De and Peepli Live together. Peepli Live (produced by UTV Motion Pictures) is a satire and focuses on the plight of rural farmers and their inability to get access to credit. We believe that Rang De offers a solution to this problem by offering cost-effective loans to low income households in rural India.

With all the buzz happening in Bangalore about the Rang De Freedom concert, our Chennai Friends too can participate in Rang De’s freedom campaign by attending the screening.

The screening will be held at 3:30pm on Sunday August 15th.We thank Sathyam Cinemas for their wonderful support and the Chennai Chapter for all their enthusiasm.

Oh and not to forget! Along with the ticket, you would also get a Rs.100 gift voucher that you can redeem on Rang De.

Sounds like a good deal? Just call Paayal at +91 - 9962080099 or Rohit at +91-9840811383 for donor passes. Very few passes are available, so do hurry up. Its ok if you cannot attend - just invite your friends in Chennai to the facebook event - we’re sure they would love to attend it.

By Smita Ram, Rang De Team

This is what NABARD says and we cannot agree more. Ask someone who has no access to finance to understand the significance of this slogan and they will tell us how left out they are. Having a bank account and getting access to finance is as crucial as any of the fundamental rights that we as Indian citizens enjoy. Thousands of individuals across India do not have access to any of this along with a lack of access to education and health care. Perhaps, the word Freedom, which we all have begun to celebrate, has a totally different meaning to the people left out.

The Rang De Freedom Concert (on 14th August) is a carnatic classical music concert that is being organised by the Rang De Bangalore Chapter with an overwhelming support from celebrity artistes Ranjani and Gayathri.  Through some soulful carnatic music we hope to create  a stage for us to share some on the ground insights from our work with rural entrpreneurs across India and about how you can be a part of this mission. With support from NABARD, Geodesic, The Hindu, Corner stone Properties, Printo and Common floor, the Bangalore chapter presents to you an evening you will cherish.

Donor passes are priced at Rs.250 and Rs.500 and are available on Indianstage.  You can also call Sreekanth on  9739142852 or Smita on 09790967648 for tickets and information on discounts for bulk booking.

So what are you waiting for? Mark your calendars on Facebook and come enjoy a musical evening.  Or at least, spread the word to your friends and colleagues that would be interested by sharing this blogpost!

By Preena Deepak, Rang De Team

The month of July saw a buzz in Rang De’s vivacious volunteer community. It all began with an ad in the Newsletter calling for volunteers to edit content for borrower profiling. The immediate and quick responses from our Social Investors overwhelmed and charged up team Rang De and from then on began a frenzy of screening, orienting and training volunteers for editing. The end of all this is a dynamic group of fully committed individuals who edit content and describe borrower text with passion. Rang De wishes to appreciate all volunteers who have pitched in beyond investments to serve the poor through their time and talent. We will from now on have a weekly blog post featuring our volunteers behind the scenes who have added value to our cause through their magic touch. In this edition we introduce Mahazareen Dastur from Mumbai.

While balancing work and family could prove a struggle to most women, Mahazareen has proved by example that much more is possible. Besides bringing up two incredibly energetic children – 10-year old Mahafreen and 5-year old Behzad; fulfilling family commitments and working as Principal Environmental Specialist, she sets aside time to volunteer with Rang De! A multi talented achiever with several accolades in the field of Environmental Engineering, Mahazareen has a special knack for research. She is an excellent writer and communicator, proficient at presenting and/or restructuring complicated scientific reports into simpler layman terms. She is able to work independently and performs impressively under pressure. Amidst her several roles, Mahazareen even finds time to unwind by reading, cooking and exploring the world of critically acclaimed cinema.

Knowing Mahazareen’s scientific genius certainly makes one wonder what she does at Rang De? The answer to this can be found in the 30 borrower profiles that have been tailored and created according to Rang De’s specifications by Mahazareen’s expertise. She combines her flair for language and experience in multi tasking to create authentic and appealing borrower profiles. Her interest in Rang De began 8 months ago when she made her first social investment after being immensely drawn to the idea of being able to actually do something for the economically weaker sections of society, instead of paying lip-service to “India’s countless poor”. Subsequently when Rang De’s newsletter calling volunteers reached Mahazareen’s inbox, she immediately decided to offer her services. When asked about her impulsive response, Mahazareen replies “When I read that Rang De was looking for editing volunteers, I thought this is one way I can help beyond contributing monetarily. The stories we read about these people on the site are moving and make you want to click that mouse and contribute. These people are go-getters; they want to help themselves and they deserve a leg-up. If I can be a small part of it through my writing, then I would consider it a privilege.”

As much as Mahazareen enjoys volunteering, the team cherishes her work and the excellent time lines she maintains in editing. Mahazareen recounts her experience over the last month, editing borrower content for Rang De in these few words, “Editing at Rang De has been a great experience so far. Each one of the stories behind the borrowers is touching. Their aspirations are human – a better education for their children, a home of their own, being financially sustainable… It hardly takes any effort to type in those few lines describing the borrowers’ profiles and hitting the update button.”

By Smita Ram, Rang De Team

Having people talk about your organisation and creating goodwill is every organisation’s dream. At Rang De we moved on from being our own brand ambassadors to friends becoming our brand ambassadors and then it was our social investors. And now we have someone very special who has agreed to become our good will brand ambassador - it is none other than the legendary actress Ms. Waheeda Rehman.

Ms. Rehman began to get  associated with Rang De in the month of December last year. The first thing Waheedaji said to us when we met her was- “I do not want to lend my name without doing anything. First let me get involved.” And get involved she did - in every way possible. Ms. Rehman graciously joined us on a field trip to Nagpur. She interacted with micro-entrepreneurs who had taken a Rang De loan. The next event she participated in was the Swarathma Concert in Chennai. Waheedaji has also been spending time with us over phone calls to understand more about what we do. And now she has graciously agreed to become Rang De’s good will brand ambassador!

There is a lot more to Rang De - than just the word colour. It goes back to the days of India’s struggle for freedom. Rang De is a call for action - poverty needs to become history in India and we need to work with a sense of urgency. Waheedaji herself has joined us, so what are you waiting for? Invest as little as Rs. 100 with RangDe.Org and spread the word.

By Smita Ram, Rang De Team

Rohit (President of the Chennai Chapter) and I were literally crossing our fingers. The Rang De Chennai Google Group had suddenly grown in membership in the past couple of weeks and we wanted to see the same action at the meet too.

On the day of the meet, there were 10 of us and we were thrilled with the attendance. After a quick round of introductions and some general introduction about Rang De, the group began to discuss potential initiatives. Some suggestions that came out from the meeting were reaching out to the Cognizant Foundation and other corporates, running a Rang De vehicle sticker campaign
Design contest for college students to participate in, Going on over night field trips to meet Rang De borrowers, and Participating in on-line campaigns.

The group will now decide on a couple of activities that they can focus on. You will soon see a lot more of our Chennai Chapter Members on all our social media and of course you are welcome to join the group on Facebook. Please write to rohit[at]rangde[dot]org or smita[at]rangde[dot]org if you want to be part of the budding Chennai chapter.

Special thanks to Paul, Payaal and Rajaraman for coming down to our office after work over three consecutive days last week to discuss and give feedback on the requirements for the revamp of our website.

By Arvind Sridharan, Rang De Team

While we blog about everything else that is happening at Rang De, it would be unjust if we let the work that Vernalis Systems (our Technology Partner) go by without a mention on our blog.  The team at Vernalis systems has helped us out while our site was down in the beginning of May and has made significant improvement in the performance of our site, especially with the investment process.  This improvement has taken effect from Saturday June 26, just before Rang De was featured on The Economic Times and the Times of India. We at Rang De would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to them and take this opportunity to recognize the phenomenal effort that has gone behind the site on their end.

Meanwhile, Vernalis Systems is hiring for the position of ASP .NET Programmer. The Job description and requirements are mentioned below. Should you be interested in the profile below, send your CV to tech[at]rangde[dot]org with subject “Application - ASP .NET programmer”.

QUALIFICATIONS/REQUIRED EXPERIENCE:

1. Bachelor degree in Computer Science, BE / BTech / MCA
2. 1 to 2 years of industry experience on Web based Applications using ASP.Net, C#, .Net Framework, Ajax, XML/XSLT and Java Script.
3. 1 to 2 years of solid industry experience on TSQL Programming, Stored Procedures, Cursors and Triggers using MS SQL Server 2000.

Skills/Requirement:

• Should have experience in Designing, Developing and deploying client server applications.
• Good development skills in .NET Framework, C#, ASP.NET, XML, OOAD is required.
• Excellent technical expertise in SQL Server 2000.
• Very Good in Object Oriented Concepts.
• Hands on experience are must in Analysis, Design and .Net Design Patterns
• Should have very good knowledge on SDLC.
• Participate in implementation design.
• Strong knowledge of C#, ASP.NET, JavaScript, HTML, XML, CSS, SQL Server 2000 and 2005, VB Script, Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Source Safe.
• Hands Knowledge of application development & web based development is must.
• Designing relational databases, writing efficient stored procedures.
• Exposure to web services concepts desired.
• General understanding of software development principles and best practices (e.g. 3 tiered architecture, when to use ASP.NET User Controls, etc).
• Good communication and analytical skills, proactive attitude and desire to learn.

Job Description

• performing software development on a .NET based web application.
• Develop, maintain and provide support for PayDirect Web and Intranet applications
• Implement coding and development standards
• Meet project deadlines
• Work with team(s) to implement requirements and business process.
• End-to-end work on assigned modules (i.e. design, implementation, unit testing and bug fixing).
• Perform programming in ASP.NET C# VB.NET
• Review Technical Architecture

As part of the Rang De loan process, we evaluate our borrowers on a periodic basis to see how the Rang De loan is helping the borrower. You can read some of our evaluation stories on RangDe.Org

You can get notified if one of the borrowers you have invested in have been evaluated by following the simple steps below.