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Spring Updates
Transitions and Reflections as Haiyya Turns Two
We hope 2015 has been off to a great start for you and your neighborhood! At Haiyya, we have kickstarted the new year with 20 Haiyya Fellows in our 6th cohort continuing to organize in their neighborhoods in Delhi and Mumbai on issues ranging from sanitation to safety to employment issues. They are building community, developing relationships with local government authorities and expanding their imagination on the kind of neighborhood they want to live in - scroll down to the end of the newsletter to see reflections of their experience. In the last quarter, we have also been expanding the reach of our grassroots organizing model to other organizations – we trained volunteers at CRY, lead sessions with Teach for India and conducted workshops for the Changemakers team of Adv. Vandana Chavan, a Member of Parliament for Rajya Sabha.
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The new year has also brought change to Haiyya. After leading Haiyya for the last two years, I am proud to be transitioning leadership of the organization into the hands and hearts of a local leadership team. While I will continue to chair the Board, Aprajita Pandey, who has been leading our Delhi team for last 1.5 years, will take leadership of day-to-day operations of Haiyya. She is a talented and committed organizer who has been fiercely organizing youth in Delhi and building the leadership of our team and other organizers through our Fellowship Program to build a large scale movement across the city.
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She recently was recently honored with the Asia Commonwealth Youth Worker Award 2014, and you can watch a video about her vision for Haiyya here. Under her leadership, our office and team will now be based in Delhi.
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As I reflect on the past two years, I am struck by how easily and intuitively the citizens we have worked with have applied the tools and practices of community organizing. We started Haiyya in February of 2013 as a project in my neighborhood, Bandra, where we worked on just a few streets with citizens and built their leadership across lines of difference in age, caste, education, and social economic background to engage with the local police department. The police’s responsiveness to the power of an organized citizenry gave us the confidence that citizens across urban areas in India were simply in need of a platform to organize – to discover shared challenges and aspirations – and tools to build their own leadership and the leadership of others to build power to work with local public officials.
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Today, we have become a movement of more than 10,000 people, lead by 98 Haiyya Fellows across Mumbai and Delhi, who have ensured that the BMC picks up garbage on time, that the police in Delhi file FIRs, and that citizens are working together in community programs such as neighborhood watchers. Organizations like TATA and Teach for India have worked with us to apply the methodology on issues ranging from voter registration to community education projects. And we know we are only at the beginning.
While the neighborhood will always remain one of our core organizing units, we are looking forward to 2015 as a year to amplify our community organizing efforts and deepen our impact through other organizations and stakeholders.
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Our partnership with 270 Strategies - a grassroots consulting firm in the US started by leaders of the Obama campaign, will provide us with technical expertise in managing large scale data and digital communications so we can lead impactful campaigns with organizations, non profits, and civil society leaders.
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The potential of an organized citizenry to ensure accountability and responsiveness from the government in this country is immeasurable and I am confident of our team’s ability to unlock it over the coming years. If you would like to know more about how our team can work with you, please get in touch: aprajita@haiyya.in.
My decision to transition leadership of the organization has been very personal. After years of living and working in India, my husband and I have decided to move closer to our families. I will be transitioning onto the Strategic Partnerships team at Facebook working primarily on its new initiative, internet.org, to make the internet accessible to underprivileged populations. Through Haiyya, I have experienced the power of connection and information in building citizen’s power and am excited to use this experience to contribute to how Facebook engages with low-income communities and also learn how large scale communication platforms can be leveraged to build political power for the otherwise unheard. I will be based in Paris, but in and out of India often, and hope that all of you will remain in touch – deepti.doshi@gmail.com.
In solidarity and with great hope and anticipation,
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Deepti Doshi
Founder, Haiyya
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REFLECTIONS FROM HAIYYA FELLOWS AND TRAINING CORPS LEADERS
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“I wanted to develop my skills as a trainer and Haiyya provides me that platform to share my experiences as fellow and coach them on real field challenges. It feels wonderful to inspire more and more people to become local leaders.”
-Anjali Prabhakar, Fellows Alumni, Current Delhi Training Corps
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"Never stop working towards what you truly believe in. Your passion and enthusiasm will be noticed and valued by your community. My journey with Haiyya started 15 months back in Delhi and it still continues....."
-Vishal Aggarwal, Fellows Alumni, Current Delhi Training Corps
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“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. That's how working with Haiyya helps you realize your leadership potential."
-Pratishtha Chaudhary, Intern Alumni, Current Delhi Training Corp
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"Haiyya has trained me with energy to strategize my campaign, build my team and seek commitments to act on our shared problems. I am enthusiastically dedicated towards my goal to reconstruct public toilet in Amar Colony area of South Delhi and have been engaging with the Mayor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
-Pooja Sharma, Fellow Cohort 6th, Amar Colony, Delhi
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"I feel a rush of adrenaline when I think of bringing the change that I want to see. Through the Fellowship I realized how I can use my professional skills and space to create a channel between youth of local communities in Dwarka and organizations who could provide employment provision and skill development to them. It's ultimately about being strategic and smart to take your campaign towards a win."
-Deepanshi Chopra, Fellow Cohort 6th, Dwarka, Delhi
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“The issue of uncollected garbage needs coordination and engagement with the BMC so that it’s picked up timely. We at Shivaji Park are building relationships with local BMC officials and make them responsive.”
-Mrin Chatterjee, Research Assistant at Indra Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Shivaji Park, Mumbai
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"My ideal neighborhood is one where people stop to say greet other and take civic responsibility of their neighborhood. They treat their neighborhood as their house. Fellowship helped me to build a team and structure in place to continue my work and apply basics of community organizing to other civic projects I plan to work on." -Tasneem Shukul, Fellow Cohort 6th, Shivaji Park, Mumbai
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We have opened opportunities under our Spring Internship Program 2015. The internships are on Social Media, Content Creation and Graphic Designing for a period of 8 weeks. Help us spread the word and connect us to interesting and creative people!
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