XL Pioneer Club - Hunger Project India

What was my biggest takeaway from the inaugural XL Pioneer Club?

For me, it was my experience with the Hunger Project. The Hunger Project in India is about Indians for India. The program is about empowering women, so that they can take the first step empower themselves and their village. It is about giving them a political voice in their constituencies. The intention is to empower 3,000 women leaders which will favorably impact 3 million people in the next three years.

The controversy of the name was discussed at length during the 12 day adventure through India, which saw our group of 60, including 14 wonderful children, travel through some of the wealth and riches of Mumbai, Delhi and Rajestan, through to the city of romance in Agra and the Taj Mahal, onto some of the poorer rural areas near Satna. Hunger, as explained by our two alliance partner, Jim and Cathy, is not soley about physical hunger, it is in fact, about hunger for opportunities, hunger for a voice, and hunger for rights for food, clean water, education.

This Hunger was clearly shared in the village around Satna and the surrounding communities that the inaugural Pioneer Club visited. Physical hunger which one of our honorable guest, the minister of transportation, correctly noted, is something that india has comfortable surpassed at and around the turn of the century.

In fact, the minister proudly stated that India has over two years supply of food in its reserves, two years of food stuff are stored, and india is beyond having to worry about hunger. This lead to a healthy debate to having these foodstuffs delivered, logistics enhanced and to enable the poorest of the poor access to these foodstuffs.

The Hunger Projects Initiative, which is supported by the XL Results Foundation, as a component of the Social Entrepreneur Accreditation program (www.resultsfoundation.com) and in collabortion with the Clinton Global Initiative is about educating women about available resources, training women about stepping up, and assisting women leaders to allow their voice to be heard. For XL, we use the mantra show up, step up, and give back. For the women in the villages, it is about access, access to food, access to clean water, access to education, and access to infrastructure that will connect their village to other villages so that trade, commerce and development can flourish.

In Esther Hicks wonderful book, “ASK AND IT IS GIVEN”, one of Esther main message is to simply ask and it will happen. Esther along with Abraham brilliantly share the the power of intention, the power of words, and the power of attraction. In India, it dawned on me that a similar book could be written for women leaders though perhaps it would be called “DEMAND AND IT MIGHT HAPPEN”

When I heard the women leaders from the Team India Hunger Project urge the new batch of inspiring women to DEMAND improved access to water, to DEMAND local education and to DEMAND road access for the village. My mind, body, and inner voice immediately pulled back from this very powerful directive. How combative?, i thought to myself. After years of studying words and in fact curiousily exploring, practising, and sharing the wisdom and application of “Word Medicine” as a real and practical tool of personal empowerment and transformation, it did not settle well with me for the leaders to be encouraging the new aspiring leaders to use such a word as DEMAND, especially with power and force that they were encouraging them to use. I wondered what would happen if they employed Esther’s principal and techniques of of “ASK and It Is Given” and whether this approach would be more effective in actually getting what they ask for.

As I listened and pondered my internal dialogue, I heard story after story of verbal abuse, sexual abuse, suppression, and torment that ladies leaders of this movement were faced with on a daily, weekly, and monthly. The response to these newly empowered women was not always positive. In fact, quite often the male villages would respond to loud voices, the demands and the open confrontational with the only thing that they knew and that is violence. Violence was their core response to the challenge and fear that was being triggered in them. Many men lashed out and the receipient of their violence were women. The dynamics fascinated me, as the women who were making demands, demands that they were willing to voice and demands that they knew would make a positive difference for the village, for the families, for the children, for them, and even for the men that they were now sending a sense of fear, alienation, and in some cases de-masculination of their male counterparts.

As I pondered the situation in the villages, something popped, and I wondered what in our lives, what in our western lives are we actually willing to demand? Is there anything that we care about enough to actually step up and demand? Have we been so insensitive to our surrounding that we have become so acclimatized to the injustices of our societies that we no longer have the power, the drive, and VOICE to make demands? Demand of society, of our government of ourselves?

As I stepped back, and opened my eyes, I smiled and looked up and thanked my maker. Thanked her for the learning, thanked her for the lesson and thanked her for the opportunity to reconnect with a beautiful work – a WORD that can DEMAND me to step up, DEMAND me to speak up and DEMAND me to make a difference, especially when DEMANDING is the right action to take!

As for our teachers in the villages of Satna, the women are finding their voice and USING IT. They are demanding change and they are experiencing some of the benefits and costs to change. Change will continue and i have a feeling that a louder voice by women will lead to positive changes in rural india. As they move forward, they will include men in the conversation, they will walk a middle road, and they will make strides to improve the quality of life for all indians in rurual areas, men, women and childre.

From my short experience in Satna, i am optimistic and it left me wondering, are we witnessing the end of the caste system in India?

Ladies and Gentlemen, shall we ask or demand?

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Bravo - Singapore Airlines
Top Kudos to MY Favorite Airline in the World!  Singapore Airlines
1)    Our flight from Mumbai to Singapore on Monday SQ423 was delayed due to congestion on the runaway, within minutes the pilot was on the public announcing system to inform passengers of the slight delay. After a few minutes, we were moving again and the pilot was back on the microphone with a polite apology and additional information about our flight time and expected arrival time. Contrast this to earlier in the week and I was in Delhi traveling on a domestic plan. The flight from Delhi to Poona exposed me to a eye opening experience. Unexpected fog in Delhi led to delays in flights and the departure terminal was very busy and most of us were directed to sit on the floor. Our Jet Value flight was boarded about 20 minutes late and then the real wait was to start. After 45 minutes sitting on the plane, some passenger started to ask what was going on with the flight, we were getting rather hot and the lack of water, information, and increasing temperature in the cabin started to heat up passengers. Another 30 minutes and the  pilot informed us that our flight was delayed, big surprise, and that we would be leaving in 15 minutes. An hour later, he came back on line to inform us that we would be leaving shortly. In the end, the flight ended up taking off 150 minutes late and many of the passengers spent the final 30 minutes frantically rearranging or cancelling their scheduled  meetings from the aircraft.
Lessons – Proactive Communication leads to Superior Service

Mumbai – India – February 16-27, 2008 

India is booming and the XL entrepreneurs who gathered in Mumbai to attend the Entrepreneur Life Shift weekend with Dave Rogers are entrenched and engaged in some of the most intriguing and lucrative markets in the world.
 
With the easing of investment rules and regulations in India, foreign direct investment into India is becoming clearer and easier.  Foreign investors and Non- Resident Indians are being courted around the world for hotel projects, condominium investments as well as securities and education related real estate projects. 

Listen to www.xl-radio.net to hear about real estate opportunities in Delhi, Goa and Mumbai.

Opportunities are EVERYWHERE

For international entrepreneurs looking to expand operations to India either through strategic alliances, franchising, licensing, or business development, contact XL life members Suresh Nair or Uday Hegde or Mr Athaide, or country manager Alex to connect with some informed people with a wealth of local market knowledge.

Social entrepreneur Richard Alderson has recently moved from UK to set up unlimited india, an organization committed to working with young social entrepreneurs in Mumbai.  Richard has attracted incredible exposure since arriving in India and has received wonderful support from XL members including Sage Foundation Founder Maya Shahani, two of India creative stars Mukesh Manik and Devika, as well as a host of inspiring life members.

Maya continues to attract opportunities for her projects to helps assist underpriveledged children and families in India. Specifically, Maya is looking for domestic and international distribution channels for her products.
 
Helping out Maya was Vijay Amin and his corporate gift firm, Paramount. Vijay handles more that more than 5000 corporate gifts and is looking for additional products for distribution throughout India.

It was a great honor to have a number of India’s leading speakers, trainers, and personal development experts in the room. SMM-art Consulting Founder Santosh Nair, Dr Ashok, Joe, and XL’s First Master Practitioner Donald shared and illuminated us are with their wealth of experience, expertise and humility.

Thanks to all life members who attended the weekend and a special thanks to Akhil Shahani, from smart entrepreneur, for the support and assistance in conducting the XL Entrepreneur Life Shift in Mumbai.

Make Magic Happen,
Dave
“inspiring the spirit of enterprise”
www.daverogers.net

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