Today I visited some projects in rural/ tribal areas in Maharashtra driven by the Social Impact foundation which started its activities 30 years back supported by the UN and the government. They run a bundle of different activities with women and adolescents in tribal areas – from fighting against mal- and undernutrition, women health awareness programs, digital support projects for anganwadi teachers…

It was an interesting dialogue with kindergarten/ anganwadi teachers, Asha workers and trained staff members about their work with adolescents, challenges when it comes to women health and topics such as how to handle menstruation and prevention in general. Learning about iron flowers which are cooked with food to fight against anemia, understanding that some challenges are very similar to those in rural Southern India and exchanging ideas and solutions was very fruitful.

The digital knowledge and access gap, missing self-confidence, mental health topics, how to implement sustainable kitchen gardens in the villages, the role arts as dancing and drumming could have in developing communities… it were so many topics we discussed and where we developed some ideas on how we could combine easily and short term- wise solutions we have in place. So , why not doing it? 

One of the most important steps to make more social impact happen and to come closer to the sustainable development goals might result from connecting already existing solutions and to develop people, markets and communities much more in a hub system approach than as isolated actors/organizations. Private public partnerships are one way to do so, but all stakeholders involved in NGOs or business or governments can start easily to network and to do things together. The world need „doers and network builders”! Are you one?