Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Creating a Legacy of Hope: Dr. Abraham George on Educating India’s Underrepresented | EP 550
24 Dec 2024
How does education break the cycle of poverty?
Well, I am on your show. That itself is a privilege.
So a lot of people don't have the wealth that you had built up to secure funding for something that they want to pursue, like you did with Shanti Bhavan. What advice would you give to others on how do you create a sustainable nonprofit? Meaning if you could go back in time and do this over again, would you approach it differently?
If you have the money, You must be willing to spend a good portion of it and create the infrastructure, create the base for it that others can appreciate. But if you don't have the money, you need to, right from the start, you need to partner with someone who has some money. Without money, it's a little hard. I'm not saying it's impossible. If you are a very highly motivating person, you can
maybe start fundraising even before you have anything to show. But that's a big challenge. You will have to work for some other NGO and be part of their organization. Starting something of your own with no money in your pocket or very little money in your pocket, it's a big challenge. I wouldn't advise anyone to do that.
Find a partnership organization or join a group of people who have deep pockets and say to them, listen, you have the money. I have the commitment. I will deliver what we both agree on. Help me and show from the start that you will do what you promised.
Okay. And another thing I wanted to talk about is, and we're going to get to your results here in a second, but when you started, having been to India many times, phenomenal infrastructure and Silicon Valley-like things and cars and wealth. And then on the other hand, complete and utter lack of infrastructure, poverty. I've never seen anything like India in all my travels. Wow.
maybe a few other countries, but there's such a huge difference between some of the big cities and the rural areas that you run this in. So as you were starting this out, you had to navigate huge systematic issues. We've talked about the caste discrimination issue. poverty, but also you were dealing with a lack of infrastructure.
How did you go about creating this when you were facing so many challenges?
I am amazed that you should know so much about India. that I don't have to tell you. But anyway, what you observed is correct. Once you come out of the major cities like Bangalore and hardly 20 kilometers, everything, there is no infrastructure at all. People are living in huts. The roads are full of potholes. and no real shops and so on.
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