Last Saturday the participants of the leadership week in rural India did a basic business and communications training for Selfhelp group members who are interested in generating more income. The Selfhelp group members are mostly women, but also some men who live close to the poverty line. It’s part of the week challenge for the managers to engage actively with the people around and to provide some training. While skills are trained the managers learn a lot about culture, about life and its challenges onsite. They learn even doing more with less, starting with good enough ideas instead “the best ever” solutions, they are asked to interact directly.

“It seems to be easy to teach what we do. But understanding what is really needed, finding the right format, listening to the people and their interests and also doing the training ourselves is challenging. It is something very meaningful to me”, says one of the managers.

Both parties – be it the managers be it the Selfhelp groups – benefit from these skill based modules and they both like it a lot.