Mahiti ™

Earlier called Joy of Giving, Daan Utsav  is India’s ‘Festival of Giving’. Launched in 2009, it is celebrated every year, in the week starting with Gandhi Jayanti (Mahatma Gandhi’s Birth Anniversary) on 02 October, till 08 October and brings together people from all walks of life to celebrate ‘Giving’.  Millions of people gift their time, skills, money and other resources to the society.

WishTree is one of the many concepts executed during the Joy of Giving Week(JGW) to raise support for the work of CSOs. The WishTree is a single dimensional image of a tree, set up in the premises of a corporate office or other institutions.  ‘Wish Cards’ are hung or stuck to the WishTree, by one or more CSOs supported by the corporate or institution. Each Wish Card  will bear the name of the item needed and its cost. Those who wish to contribute can choose any card and replace it with a JGW Smiley/Wish Fruit. Corporates can promote the idea among employees and encourage them to participate in the Festival of Giving.

Mahiti has been supporting the launch and execution of WishTree to support CSO members of ICFn. Know More

InterNews is an international non-profit organization set up in 1982, whose mission is to empower local media worldwide to give people the news and information they need, the ability to connect and the means to make their voices heard. Internews equips communities with resources to produce local news and information. Its programmes create platforms for dialogues and enable informed debate, which brings about social and economic progress. Internews Europe contracted Mahiti to design and deliver a couple of technology solutions to empower specific communities in India and  Mongolia.

Project (i) MySME News for microentrepreneurs

Mahiti was commissioned to build the MySME News Portal and mobile platform being used now by 150,000+ micro entrepreneurs in the slums of Kolkata, India, supported by the EC(European Commission). MySME News was a pioneering service that aimed to provide essential business news to the resource-poor communities in India. It  blends the power of technology with existing realities and social networks in India's slums and villages to build a 'Bottom of the Pyramid' media business, and new models of pro-poor media sustainable in the market place.

Duration: 01 November 2008 to 31 December 2009

Project (ii) : Business information service  for herders in Mangolia

A mobile phone based business information service was developed by Mahiti for the  Business Information Agency (BIA) project of Internews. Mahiti set up an IVRS across the nation of Mongolia to address the need of the herder community to send and receive information on weather conditions and other business related information. With an automated response, users could access the system by sending in a query.

The project works with 300,000 herders across rural Mongolia providing  information related to weather, health and markets. Know More

Duration: 01 April to 15 July 2009

NESA is a Bangalore-based CSO, working to ensure life with dignity among Dalit, Adivasi and other vulnerable communities, through a unique network of 42 development organisations and networks. Formalised in 1998,  NESA grew out of the network of Oxfam GB (Great Britain) partners in South India. As of 2015, NESA serves  a population of 5.5 million living in 6,600 villages in South India. Its focus is on restoration of rights through response to injustice, reclamation  of livelihoods and nurturing of leaders, covering issues of natural resources, micro-finance and HIV and AIDS. Emerging from this work is a people’s movement to secure rights, known as Nyaya Sangamam and WIND, a forum of development organisations headed by Dalit women to promote Dalit women's  leadership. 

Through a series of workshops, Mahiti  built the capacity of Dalit women leaders to use computers, basic FOSS(Free and Open Source Software) tools, internet and email. Consequently the women were able to strengthen advocacy efforts, connect to relevant activists and build public awareness of and support to their concerns.  Know More

http://www.karnataka.ngosindia.com/new-entity-for-social-action-bangalore.html

http://www.karmayog.org/nonmumbaiprofiles/nonmumprodis.asp?r=149&nonnpoproid=2997&state=Karnataka&city=Bangalore

'Set up in 1979, the Open Society Foundations (OSF) works to build vibrant and tolerant societies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people. The OSF is a US-origin family of offices and foundations created by philanthropist George Soros, and  located throughout the world. OSI is one of the many arms of the Open Society Foundations’ family of  institutions. The OSF  funds a range of programmes around the world, from public health to education to business development. 

Mahiti was assigned by OSI to provide IT training for CSOs in Myanmar (Burma) and  for digitisation of Paragu/Shanti Niketan library in Rangoon. The project was  supported - in part - by a grant from the OSI  Know More

Duration: 01 December 2009 to 15 June 2011