Prayaas

About Prayaas

Introduction
Prayaas is a non-profit start-up initiated by a group of Indian expats in Hong Kong. It is intended to be a vehicle for organized social initiatives focused on India. The idea behind Prayaas is simple - to contribute in some small yet meaningful way by donating time and money to deserving causes. Prayaas is now looking to enlist like-minded people who are enthusiastic about contributing in whichever way they want to!

Why Prayaas
The realization that we seemed to be complaining about the general state of affairs in India, without being able to (or taking the effort to) do much about things, resonated amongst all of us. We decided to see if we could actually do something, and try and make a positive difference by channelling our resources (read time and money) into constructive activities. Prayaas was born to provide a conduit to these ideas

The Idea
We brainstormed about a lot of ideas initially, including trying to channel money into socially relevant causes, or identifying well-run NGOs who would make the best use of money given to them, or raising social awareness on issues that we feel passionately about. However, we face certain limitations as a result of not being based out of India. We tried to identify areas where we could contribute despite this constraint.

Funding projects/causes is the most easily implementable objective, but we thought of doing it a little differently. Funding high profile and well marketed NGOs is something perhaps all of us have been doing in our personal capacities- easy to do and sometimes just a click away. So where can we, as a group, bring something new to the table?

We realized in our discussions that each of us knew a few small NGOs/projects which are genuine, credible and address important issues. However, these organizations face funding shortfalls as they lack a marketing platform enjoyed by the bigger NGOs. This is where we thought we could help. Hence our broad objective:

Act as a conduit between projects on ground in India which need funding (and also volunteer support/publicity/ operational help) and people in Hong Kong and elsewhere having the time and/or money to contribute.

Implementing the Idea
This would involve the following steps:

Identifying projects of interest
Contacting the relevant person on the ground and understanding the project, its feasibility, need and amount of funding required and basic business plan
if required, drawing up a basic model/presentation for this project which will help us sell this to the larger group/Indian community in Hong Kong and
Monitoring these projects on the ground. If possible, at least once a year, every interested member should visit one such project while on an India visit.

It is important to note that the idea is not to just fund the projects, but rather get involved in these projects beyond initial funding. This involvement could include helping them in their accounting and management, providing ideas to market these projects to a wider audience (including corporate CSR cells), providing input on improving their operations, and (ultimately) making these initiatives self-sustaining.

What we're looking for
They are many other ideas/initiatives that we are thinking of, and would be discussing & debating about (over steaming cups of chai!). Right now, we're looking for people who are broadly in sync with the objectives above, for idea generation/volunteering to help out in projects and for cash donations. If you think any of these thoughts appeal to you, let’s get together and discuss: new ideas, views, etc are very welcome!

"Ek Prayaas Trust" was registered as a trust in Bangalore on 29'th Nov 2010; registration number BNG(U)BTM-121/2010-11 BK IV

Feel free to contact us in case you need more clarity on what we stand for and what we want to achieve. Better still, just drop by any of our weekly meetings in Hong Kong, more than happy to see you there...We are looking forward to your support!