Day 690: Milaap!

A few months ago, I had written here about having a brainwave and being quite excited about it. It was something I had been wanting to do for a very long time now but hadn't figured the details out for, until the day of the blog. I had not written much about what exactly this was all about then, but I will do so now.

I always had the question on how trustworthy several of these charitable institutions really are. I have heard so many horror stories of how money that goes into charities get swindled and it makes me wonder how much really benefits the ones it is supposed to benefit. I also used to feel that this is a reason why sometimes people hesitate to donate - because they don't really get see what changes their donations are truly making to someone else's life. They donate to a black box and don't know what exactly happens after that. They are simply far too cut off from the end beneficiary to feel a real connection.

The day of the "brainwave", I figured a process which could very simply solve both the issues. I wanted to start an online charitable portal where underprivileged individuals with very specific needs were chosen and were helped by those willing to donate. The key driving principle of this was to be Transparency. The individual's exact need would be identified (for e.g. a rickshaw for a family with no source of income, medical cost for an ailing earning member of an underprivileged family etc.) and will be put up for requests for donations with details on exact how much this would cost. On top, there would be a very real time tracking of how much money has been received so far via donations, how much still needs to be collected, where has a particular donation amount been spent exactly and also proof of the final outcome (in terms of pictures, videos, scanned official documents etc.). The idea was that unlike a lot of charitable causes around the world, every donor can keep track of his/her money and how exactly it is being used by the beneficiary. That way everyone knows how they are helping someone and by how much, which can be very satisfying. The idea was also to help underprivileged individuals to get the exact help they need, even if on a small scale, but that can make a world of difference.

That was the idea in a nutshell and I worked for a while to get details on how to go about this. I got feedback from a few people and also a few volunteers to make this happen!

However, it couldn't progress too much. I wanted to make the cause work in India where there are millions who don't even have enough to eat everyday, vs. Singapore. And that's exactly where it got stuck. The legal proceedings seemed far too complicated and beyond my comprehension. So after trying for a few months, my efforts took a backseat and I moved on with my life, not without a sense of failure.

And then came Milaap.

Milaap is a microfinancing organization based in India and I recently happened to go to its website. Interestingly, I had been hearing a lot about Milaap for months or even years, now...but it had never occurred to me to pay its site a visit! Given that a senior of mine from university is one of its lead organizers and given that he is also pretty active on Facebook when it comes to Milaap updates, it is rather shocking and embarrassing that I had not really bothered to find out more about it until now. (Let me just blame it all on Mausams work and save myself from any more embarrassment).

Anyway, coming to the point, when I finally went to the Milaap site, I was stunned to see how close it was to what I had dreamt about with my project! The individuals with their very specific individual needs, the amount needed, the tracking of the amount donated and their sources, how much of it has been paid back etc., were all there! It's transparent, simple and very empowering! The only difference is that I was thinking 100% charity, while Milaap is microfinancing. I actually feel the latter is far better - the beneficiaries also have a sense of achievement and responsibility this way because well... they are not taking "charity"!

Let me just say, I LOVED IT!!!

After going through all the profiles of borrowers, I finally decided to lend to a lady, Mariyayee, for the construction of a toilet for her family. She has two daughters and I thought a toilet would be a very basic requirement for a family with three ladies! So she was my chosen borrower.

What Milaap had also done was to check the family's average monthly savings and figure out whether they would be able to repay the monthly installments, the details of which were also up on her profile. When I made the loan, I was not really expecting to be paid back, but was still curious to see how the system works.

And am very happy to let you know that, Mariyayee has successfully made her first installment as of today! Her family's toilet should be on its way and she is being able to cope with her loan as of now! How nice is that?!

And Milaap is giving me a transparent update - just the way it should be!

What would be most fantastic is if they also update once the construction is done - am not sure whether that's being planned, but even otherwise the fact that the installments are coming in and my "account" is showing spare money that I can lend to others, is already a good enough signal of things working well so far.

Fantastic!

Milaap - take a bow!

P.S. For all those who are interested in knowing more about Milaap, you may visit www.milaap.org

310 more to go.