The Official Rang De Blog

[The Official Rang De Blog]

The Official Rang De Blog

---

Rang De Borrowers in the apparel sector! Posted: 21 Sep 2010 10:52 AM PDT By Diksha Belwal, Rang De Team Personally I am a big fan of crafts and apparel. Visiting Industree Crafts was thus a fantastic opportunity for me. The units that are currently incubated By ICF will eventually spin off as self-sustaining units. These units are basically into apparels and crafts (like river grass boxes, laundry box, table mats, etc). To reduce the number of middlemen, they have a leader for each and every unit for managing the production as per the orders received.Industreee crafts sources the raw materials like river grass, screw pine, cardboard, zari strips, fabrics, etc from different places all across the country and allocates it to the units as per their demands. The leaders of the units recruit interested people and provide them on job training for 3 months. They call them a Helper. The helpers are trained under the supervision of the leader as per their interest and skills. They also organise a monthly meeting to know if they have an inventory of raw materials to deliver the upcoming orders in real time. An inventory for one month’s production is always maintained. The production flow goes on from one person to other as per their specialisation. Eg.The river grass looms are sourced from the units based in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri which further goes for cutting, stitching and finishing for designing a table mat or a laundry box. After a final screening by the leader, once the product is ready, it has to be transferred to the Industree crafts warehouse. The designs given by the designers of Industree Crafts is the sole property of them. The artisans are not allowed to sell them to others. However, they are free to market the products through other marketing firms as long as the design is different. Presently these units have taken orders from Volvo (for velvet boxes) to market their products. As other SHG’s they too have a saving system in place. Every member of the unit saves some money (Rs.50 or 100) as per their capability which further can be used to provide an internal loan to the members. To see them happy after getting a loan from Rang De made my trip worthwhile. The leader pooled in the money and utilised it either for sourcing the raw materials, installing a new machine or for purchasing a generator depending upon the need of the groups. They all were grateful for getting just in time working capital loans and at affordable interest rates. The artisans from ICF are up on our site. View their profiles and invest in them (click the micro-ventures tab after opening the link).

You are subscribed to email updates from The Official Rang De Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

[The Official Rang De Blog]

The Official Rang De Blog

---

Behind the Scenes @ Rang De - Part 4 Posted: 25 Sep 2010 05:04 AM PDT By Preena Deepak, Rang De Team The weekly post on Rang De’s volunteer editors has so far been a special experience in knowing that Social Investors from all walks of life believe in making a change in someone’s life through non monetary contributions as well. It has proved that much more than money is needed to transform the Indian Society and the most interesting aspect in all this is the fact that people are interested in bringing out fellow countrymen from the clutches of poverty by walking the extra mile. Behind the scenes is a series that strives to showcase these committed individuals who have dared to make the difference and gone beyond the important social investment phase. This week we look at what drives a highly qualified Molecular Genetics Specialist, Deepa Sundararajan to edit profiles of borrowers from remote Indian villages. Creative pursuits always have a deadly attraction for Deepa, who can be seen exploring movies, music, art and books besides dabbling with writing and artwork. A graduate from the US, Deepa is a Scientist by profession and a Dreamer by nature. Deepa Sundarajan Microcredit was not an alien concept for Deepa who had already heard about small loans and their impact from friends. However, she remained sceptical of the effectiveness of such credit in the Indian scenario. Deepa chanced to read about Rang De in the Times of India and wasted no time in exploring the site. Social investing opposed to charity appealed to Deepa who made an instant decision to go beyond investments and contribute to make Rang De’s vision a reality. At just about the same time Rang De called for volunteers to edit content and Deepa saw the perfect opportunity to pitch in. “Editing borrower profiles has been challenging and enlightening at the same time. It is really humbling to read through the application details of the borrowers and realize the determination that they have to get ahead in life in the face of great adversity. The greatest challenge while editing the profiles has been in writing about multiple people involved in the same kind of business. I have been trying my best to differentiate each profile as each person is unique and their need is as great as the next person’s. I do hope the profiles interest potential investors and help in securing investments to cover the loan amounts”, says Deepa after spending the last 2 months, as an active volunteer editor, enriching borrower content and bringing in her own creativity. Rang De’s volunteer editors have been torch bearers of our cause and their contagious commitment ignites a ray of hope to keep the team pressing on to knock out poverty in India through micro loans.