Aniruddh Ghosal
Krittika Singh
Dipali Mathur
Sitting on the park benches of the South Campus cricket field, Aniruddh, Krittika, and I conversed with Debashish, Dhirendra and Annie, the founders of ‘Milaanâ€
DUB: When did you start Milaan?
Dhirendra: We registered on 18th October 2007.
DUB: At such a young age you have undertaken quite a commendable task. Where did you derive your inspiration?
Dhirendra: I got started with the ‘India Fellowship Programâ€
DUB: In order to start, what process did you have to follow?
A. 8 people from different states of India form the Governing Body. They have to provide their address proof. The procedure was pretty complicated- the office is in Patparganj. We had to go there and submit our forms, which were misplaced by the office. So we went with another set and filed again. There was quite a bit of shouting from our side (laughter) but finally they were filed.
DUB: Currently what are you working on?
A. Our main aim is to globalize human resources. Every organization needs funds and we had to go step by step. First we met up with Mr. P. Chitambram and discussed our project with him. He told us “Teach people how to create money and utilize itâ€?, which was very helpful. Our current rural project is called ‘Swarachna/ Shaping your own destinyâ€
DUB: Do you have separate working hours for the different age groups of children?
A. We have students aged between 1-5 years and at the moment they are all being taught at the same time. Suppose there is a Math class going on, then all the students are taught Math together. The teaching hours extend from 1-5 pm. We are working on getting these undergraduate teachers to Delhi and provide them with proper professional training for a period of 2 months. They should be thoroughly conversant with the basic school education and the functioning of a school so that by the time the building is established we have everything in place.
DUB: Collecting Funds is a real problem. Where do you manage to get your funds from?
A. Initially we pooled in money from our pockets. Anyone interested in volunteering had to pay a fee of Rs.100. W charged a fee of Rs.3000 for permanent membership. Then we also have Associate Member, which mostly consists of professionals who want to be a part of the organization and we charge them a fee of Rs.5000. From January onwards we have also started a Donor Card system in which the donor can contribute as much as he/she wants. We, volunteers take classes and we pay a certain amount of money to them. In the next 3-4 months we are planning on setting up a small office in Delhi. At the moment we are using Annieâ€
DUB: Are you working on any other projects at the moment?
A. We are going to start a Newsletter, which we have temporarily named ‘Vaaniâ€
DUB: How are planning on going about the distribution of the newsletter?
A. Members of the Vaani club will have direct access to it. We will patch up with college libraries and provide 10 mags per month to different schools, colleges and libraries. Distribution through media is also our target.
At the moment we have 2 finalized members and we are looking for more. The layout should be such that people donâ€
DUB: Are most of your memberâ€
A. 90% are students, then there are financial advisors, legal advisors but the majority is from DU. However, we donâ€
DUB: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
A. Rural development is our main object. The newsletter is another object. Hopefully we would have been able to establish our platform and our newsletter will be finished by then. (laughs)
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