First Impression of Mr. Ansh Malik MBA intern from the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research

First Impression of Mr. Ansh Malik MBA intern from the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research When we were allotted our project and locations by the college, I was both nervous and excited. Nervous because I was going to spend one full month in a South Indian city and I did not know the language they spoke (Tamil) – the feeling was scary. But excited because the city lies on the southeast coast of India and is a famous tourist destination for its serene beaches. It was a bittersweet feeling but I decided to make the most out of it. Fast forward to nearly a month and it was time for the internship to begin. I left my home in Delhi and boarded a flight to Chennai. From Chennai, I had booked a cab in advance to take me to Pondicherry. We took the most popular driving route – the Eastern Coast Road (ECR). The road lies parallel to the Bay of Bengal coastline and one could witness the scenic views throughout the three and a half hour ride. Once I reported at the NGO, I was surprised to see the actual location. It was a small office situated in a residential area (Rainbow Nagar – fancy name I thought to myself). It was a colorful building. The NGO has 3 full-time employees – Arasu Sir (the founder), Mrs. Mary Slessor (Program Manager) and Mrs. Nathali Raja (Secretary). All three of them were quite friendly and onboarded us smoothly. Arasu sir began briefing us about various activities that Prime Trust looks into and this officially kicked off DoCC for us. Through their dedicated efforts, they covered a plethora of SDGs namely – No Poverty, Zero Hunger, Good Health & Well Being, Quality Education, Decent Work, and Economic Growth. He essentially runs three charity organisations – • Prime Educational and Social Trust(TRUST) • India Volunteer Care(TRUST) • Akshaya Self Help Group Confederation(SOCIETY) Prime Trust is the parent organisation that works on various causes whereas IVC and Akshaya SHG Confederation were setup for supporting purposes. Our internship was to be done with Prime Trust. During the first half of our stint, we were supposed to work on a crowd funding campaign and its related social media activities. So for past several years, Prime Trust has been renting a building to house an orphanage they run. However, they face the perils of increasing rent every year and when they shift addresses; they need to get the records updated for all the children in the government's books. To avoid these issues, they are now looking to purchase the building and provide a permanent home for these children where they can thrive. To arrange funds for this, they are running a crowd funding campaign. To get a first-hand idea of the situation they’re dealing with, we went to the field and saw the orphanage – When we decided to visit the orphanage, I did not give it much thought. I did not realize that it would be such an emotionally challenging field visit. Meeting children without parents and a stable home made me gloomy and, on some level, I felt helpless. After returning, we made a point to give our 200% to make this crowd funding campaign a success.