It all started with that smart hotel boy helping me to bring my luggage to the room. “Very special, room, Ma’m, very good one – everything new”. Ok, not too bad. Indeed when I entered I could see some interesting things and the hotel boy started to explain: “Look, Ma’m, good rocking chair, you stay…
Month: March 2015
A postponed international women day celebration in Karamadai, India
It was a really special day for more than thousand of women living in the rural and tribal area around and in Karamadai, a suburb of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. It was a special day to me, too. When we arrive around 10.30 am the women are all there, women who are going to celebrate…
Indian women, napkins and the dream of Europe
Today we stay at a huge and vivid “function” in a small town. It is one of the festivities where year per year thousands of women come together for celebrating the international women day. Some women sell self-made products: tailoring, jewelry, sweets and spices. In one corner there is an overloaded booth with sanitary napkins…
The Secret of a successful training for tribal women
Development means more than knowledge transfer At the learning center in the rural surroundings of Coimbatore the tribal women of the villages around join in large groups. Today there is a workshop on hygiene. I noticed it already some months ago. There is a huge interest in education. The interest in getting to know, in…
Coming back to India – Old problems, but new fascination
I’m back again. Back in India, back to Tamil Nadu. The ‘Indian feeling’ has re-started already on my way from Dubai to Chennai. Indian people, Indian respect, Induan friendliness and curiosity…An Indian business man sits besides and it takes just a few minutes to involve the people sitting around in some good, funny and interesting…
Social entrepreneurs, where are You going to? One man or woman shows are not enough!
The trend is obvious: social entrepreneurship is ‘hip’. The number of social business conferences, socent challenges, courses offered at universities and numbers of articles published in all kind of magazines is growing obviously. Not just in USA, U.K. and a few more countries, but all over the world. In tapped and untapped markets, countries…
Social Entrepreneurship has many faces
This week I participated in the Ashoka Social Entrepreneurship conference in Berlin. Besides the official workshops and speeches given in the big glass building of the Allianzforum I had the possibility to speak to many social entrepreneurs cooperating with investors, traditional NGOs and Corporate enterprises. It is fascinating to see how all are looking…
Street life in India
One of the most impressive, most colorful, most interesting and creative things to observe in India is the daily street life. But behind all the fascinating and sometimes even funny moments you will discover also a lot of poverty. I am always impressed how things can work without any shop, without a lorry, without…
Go India, go future! 