In phase two, we start with the community development program which focuses on 5 areas:

1. Ensure people develop life skills and are aware of their rights. We host 150+ sessions; ranging from how the government of India works, human rights and mother-in-law & daughter in law sessions, etc etc.
2. Gets kids into the proper educational system. This goes beyond free government schools and it includes tuition, tailored lessons, etc. For the adolescents who never attended school we have created a talent program – to keep them away from drinking alcohol and playing cards, we identify their (musical) talent and start working with them on expanding that talent.
3. Ensure they are healthy physically. We take care of their nutrition as most of them are malnutritioned. We get everybody’s blood tested frequently. We have specialist doctors come in (gyns, eye doctors, dentists). We teach people how to have a healthy lifestyle. And even take care of their mental health throughout the programme.
4. Skills training – parents need to be skilled so they can get proper jobs! In order to make sufficient money independently, these people need 2-3 hour sessions to master the skill. At the moment the primary skill we train is tailoring. We train them for the highest quality production only. Once they have passed the tailoring exam, they are ready to work with Tiny Miracles Social Enterprise and earn a decent income.
5. Celebration – we strongly believe in the ‘here and now’. We are not an initiative promising joy and happiness after a few bleak years. No, we live our lives. We celebrate festivals, we go for picnics, we play music, we dance and we celebrate every minute of this life.

 This community development programme is all about forming a connection with them, we talk, listen and understand them on a day-to day basis.  We need to check everyone, for health and educational capacity. People need to get used to us. So, they become more focused and eventually let us find a solution for them.

Phase three is the road to independence. The moment they join the community they start to walk on this road with us. They continue their journey independently the moment a women earns her first salary. A salary which now will shape the future of their family and get them outof the vicious circle of poverty.

We partner with companies who also want to contribute directly to a better world. Who understand the need for such products. Partners who understand that they can use their business to solve a problem and contribute in making a more equal world.

We don’t ask anyone for sympathy, we only ask for opportunity. 

We only want to make high-quality well-designed products that people actually want to buy.

We don’t believe in making grand plans, we are all about learning by doing. We still remember how it all started, with picking up one street kid from the roads of Mumbai more than 10 years ago. There was no big plan, only a sincere dream. The next step was to figure out how the poorest people could start contributing to society and use their contributions to live a better life. We were always certain that charity, while commendable, could not sustain a person as well as independence. 

We were told many times we were crazy and we will hit several dead ends. But we kept going. And in all our decisions there was always one question, “does it benefit the poor?” Its been something of an adventure with ups and downs. As we all know, there is no fast route to material wealth. But this mission is bigger than us all. Which is what kept our egos in check and kept us continually challenging the status quo 

Now we know these communities were literally waiting for us to come and help them and there are absolutely no dead ends, just a bright white light, at the end of the road, that we have to follow constantly 

We constantly look at our communities and see what they need. Then we act and solve. If half the women turn out to be scared of the noise of the sewing machine, we create other jobs for them. Inculcating empowerment and independence is key. A shy mother with an epileptic child used to bring the doctors’ bills for refunds every week. It turned out she put an extra ‘0’ at the end of the total amount. We took all the bills and calculated how much we paid her extra. Then we had her payback every single cent. Was it about the money for us? No of course not. It was for herself. Her self-worth. Now she strides with confidence again, she works, she radiates energy. She feels worthy of herself, and we work together from a basis of equality now.

That’s how we operate. We stand with the poor in building a better world. And we keep to it. We push the boundaries of outdated ideas about charitable work and chanelize the power every human has inside of them. 

When we partner, we define the terms, not because we want some kind of profit out of it, but because we have the experience. We know, see and feel what our communities need. 

Tiny Miracles is not for everyone. It takes a courageous partner to join in on this fantastic adventure and to truly strive for a better world.

It takes guts to come aboard, but once you’re aboard, we’ve got all the miracles in the world to keep you aboard. 🙂