:Title: Destiny Program – A significant new program at TEN :Author: John Berger :Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:48:13 PST :Modified: Sun, 20 Jan 2008 09:23:57 PST :URL: http://www.ned.com/group/ten/news/4/ This is a quick overview of a program that will be one of our top two priorities for 2008. To set the stage for this: back when TEN was only an idea and we were brainstorming about what we wanted to accomplish, one of our long term goals was to help the shelters move from simple handicraft programs into programs that are true businesses that employ, and ideally are managed and owned by survivors. We were not really sure how all the NGOs would take this idea of IGP (income generation programs) ultimately being separate from the NGOs. Essentially, it means less NGO control and a redirection of revenues. Nonetheless this is one of our core goals and we bring it up every time we plan with our NGO partners. Last year, (Dec 06) when we visited Sanlaap in Kolkata, India we again brought up this goal with them. They were very supportive, in fact it is fair to say they were excited about the idea and wanted to move faster than we were prepared to at the time. They saw in this idea the ability to increase their capacity to help more survivors. One of their biggest problems, they told us, was that older girls who had been through their education and therapy programs but could not be reintegrated to their communities were taking up rooms they could be using to help more survivors. To them, a separate IGP program would directly increase their ability to serve more survivors. Furthermore, they said that they thought the success of a successful IGP program would provide motivation for new survivors as they saw the success their older peers were having. In the fall of 07 we sent Becky Bavinger to Kolkata to live there and work on this program as well as some programs for TEN Charities. (full credit to Becky – we are not paying her anything for this – just covering expenses). Sanlaap has been amazing and have worked with us to create a new program, that the survivors have chosen to call “Destiny”. The Destiny program is a separate IGP program that allows survivors to leave the Sanlaap shelters, live independently and earn a living making Made By Survivors products. The Destiny program is a multi phase program – the first phase of which has already begun. In this first phase, 6 survivors are leaving the Sanlaap shelter and moving into a new apartment/workshop that is connected to the home of Sanlaap’s IGP manager Chan (an amazing person who has dedicated his live to survivors). Becky and Chan have been furnishing the facility and they will be moving in within days. There will be a few sewing machines in their apartment, but for the first phase they will travel to the production facilities at the Sanlaap shelter to work on our orders. In the next phase, we will hope to rent a separate production facility, find more apartments and move another dozen or so survivors into the program. We have other partners in the area that we hope will join us in this so this may very well end up being a multi NGO program. Our goal is to, over the next several years, train some of the survivors in management and begin a process of moving to employee ownership There lot more involved than but I think I have explained enough of the basic idea of Destiny. We are also making changes in the products they are making for us. We have found an amazing source of t-shirt and light clothing blanks in the area and we are developing Destiny as a rapid turnaround design and manufacturing group – starting with logo t-shirts and moving to higher end logo clothing items. Every US based NGO we talk to buys t-shirts and would love to have a source that has the double impact of supporting survivors, so I think we are developing a potentially large new product line with the capacity we will build with Destiny. There is one other new line they are working on, but I don’t want to publicly talk about that yet. As amazing as Destiny is to TEN, its actually not our first foray into this structure. We have a partner in England that has supported one of NGO partner in Nepal for along time. A year ago the government in Nepal told them that under the law the charity could not run a business (major selective enforcement as that is common). Our partner in England bought the business from the charity and we have been working with them over the past year to help in the transition. Soon, TEN Inc. will almost certainly be purchasing 50% interest in this business, but more important for us it has been a good testing ground where we can learn about the kinds of unexpected social issues that can come up from this kind of transition. Ok- that’s the short version. I will be doing a lot to try to fund and promote Destiny over the next few months so expect more soon! John Berger http://www.madebysurvivors.com/