Tribes for Good

Words can’t describe how much I’ve not only learned but how much I’ve enjoyed myself doing something I love while contributing to something much bigger than myself by interning at Tribes for Good. Thank you to Mandeep and Kashyap for giving me the opportunity to enact positive social change while learning so much about a community I care so much about. This definitely won’t be the last time I will work at TFG and I am definitely looking forward to hopefully working and maybe having a bigger role at TFG for a longer duration, for sure! As a TribesforGOOD intern, I visited various suburbs of Mumbai to collect stories of change in Dharavi (showcasing enterprise and business), Malwani (a slum in Malad) and Bandra and worked on various themes related to Business/Tourism, Women & Livelihood, Adolescents and Street kids for Aftertaste, Bethelocal, The Gender Lab, Angel Xpress. To express these stores, I produced high-impact visual narratives that fuel awareness and inspire action, in which my focus was to capture the essence of the cause in a manner that represents the mission or vision of the organization through visual media - to create a consistent visual identity in the form of videos that will be used to garner attention and awareness.

I’ve been pursuing my Undergraduate degree from Pune University, India. Given my course is in Information Technology & I’ve been studying about it for 5 years now, I usually have a few hours every week that can be used for volunteering for organisations supporting livelihood for women.

I was looking for internships that were available & stumbled upon TribesforGOOD’s Social Media & Brand Strategist Internship.
It looked like a unique opportunity to me as it was about making a lasting impact on the communities that I shall be working with through this internship. And also, cause I could work remotely from my home.

After applying for it, the founder Mandeep got in touch with me to understand what I was looking to giveback through this internship which was a unique take for me as most of the positions I had applied earlier asked me what I wanted to gain from the internship.
So it wasn’t just about me but about the beneficiaries too.

I worked as a content creator & writer for a period of 4-weeks with TribesforGOOD & loved the work I had to do. Through my work at TribesforGOOD I was able to learn a lot of skills in terms of social media & got insights into the social enterprise space.

Now I truly dream to apply this knowledge & become a social entrepreneur myself.

I was in my gap year and was looking to travel & volunteer. I’d known from my circles that choosing a volunteer program is tricky as I need to ensure that my impact reaches to communities.

After a meticulous research for a week I came across TribesforGOOD’s Summer Internship program. It was a 3 week program operating out of a co-working space in Mumbai. This struck cords with me as it not only provided a chance to volunteer but also work with 3 different enterprises one in travel, second in education and third in women empowerment.

After reaching in Mumbai, I took an accommodation in a hostel near to our office and met my mentor for an Induction about social enterprises in India & Health & Safety briefing that proved to be a boon in the weeks to come.

Over the course of 3-weeks, I got an opportunity to work on multiple projects such as research projects, online fundraising, social media marketing, etc. Each with a different enterprises & focus on various sectors viz.
-Women empowerment & livelihood
-Education
-Climate
-Clean Energy
-Urban poverty

The best part about the program was the on-field visits where I met the actual beneficiaries of the program I was working on & could see how I’d be making a difference. During the off-days we went on to explore the hidden treasures of the city of Mumbai: city-walks, cafe’s a couple of touristy locations as well.

Reflecting back on what I gained through this program I’d say the philosophy of learning by doing stuck with me and helped me develop a global outlook when it comes to innovations and bring about lasting change.

Being a 17 year old kid I am always wanting to contribute my part to the most pressing issues of our society. But my efforts usually fall short as I have no clear vision on where to begin.
I figured the best way to start is apply for internships, gain new skills & then look for relevant sectors to help out. Here’s the interesting part, to work as an intern you need to have relevant skills already. Another day, another setback. But this time I decided to turn the tables.

That is how I enrolled for the Young changemakers program of TribesforGOOD. It was a 3 month virtual internship program with a focus on hands-on experience & helping youngsters like me be ready for the world.It was centered around sectors & skills that I wanted to learn about & explore. Since, I wanted to focus on Women empowerment & livelihood I chose that as my potential project.

I was very well introduced to the social impact space and given a few insights on the project I chose to help me come forward with a design plan.
During the first 2 weeks we had a weekly discussion session on the research I conducted & my mentor would give me feedback & resources to work upon.

By the time we entered the fourth week I had a pretty clear idea of what was I working on and could now start understanding the problems of underprivileged women in Mumbai to design possible solutions for it.

By the end of this program TribesforGOOD & I were able to help me develop an
ability to think like an entrepreneur and consider issues from a variety of perspectives & learnt to use my skills effectively & work in a complex environment. The solutions I recommended to tackle Poverty are being considered as an actual setup which felt great.

I was definitely able to achieve my goal of interning, gaining new skills and working for the upliftment of communities around me.This program really helped me gain a perspective of the outside world apart from classroom learning & provided me a confidence boost that with the right amount of dedication your age doesn’t matter in creating an impact.

Young Changemakers Program -

I enrolled with TribesforGOOD for a 3 month virtual internship program called the Young Changemakers program. Since, I have been pursuing a full time undergrad program visiting India was not possible. TribesforGOOD solved this problem by offering me a solution to work remotely.

The program had a combination of workshops, curated readings, training and hands on experience working closely with organisations (education,gender,etc.) in India.
A meticulous planning was firstly done through one-to-one mentor-ship session to design an action plan according to my interests & skills. Next part was to work on Design Thinking & implementing my Action plan.
The Action Plan I chose to work on - Poverty alleviation.
Throughout the internship, I had a facilitator from TribesforGOOD to help with the designing of solutions & to clear my queries.

By the end of this program TribesforGOOD & I were able to help me develop an
ability to think like an entrepreneur and consider issues from a variety of perspectives, learning to use my skills effectively & work in a complex environment.
The solutions I recommended to tackle Poverty were implemented in an actual setup which felt great to me.

I’d recommend this program to anyone planning their travel to India or looking to contribute remotely!