Shafkat Alam: Transforming Lives Through Education and Empowerment

Tasha: [00:00:00] Good afternoon. Can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your non profit origin story?

Shafkat: I am Shafkat Alam and I am one of the joint secretary of Tiljala SHED It’s Tiljala Society for Human and Educational Development.

Shafkat: So in short, it’s shed providing shelter to the people And, I’m from India, from Kolkata, from the city of Mother Teresa. So my father actually started this organization.

Shafkat: And he was the first law graduate. In the slum. So till July is actually the name of the slum, from where we started. And now we are spread out across seven areas in Kolkata. So realize is the first slum where we started and where my father started his journey. And that is the reason the organization name starts with.

Tasha: And he

Shafkat: was the, he was the first law graduate in the And, I’m talking about seventies, early seventies, eighties in those days, India’s, was a very much underdeveloped country, compared to now, and, education was not a very common thing in [00:01:00] India. So he felt that, just because he got out of poverty because of the career he made, he should not forget the people with whom he had spent half of his life. And that’s how the journey started for my father.

Shafkat: He decided to make a difference. And started this organization.

Tasha: Nice.

Shafkat: It’s no high five background or anything. When he talks from his heart and whatever few things I have learned from him. And since childhood, I’ve seen, foreigners coming to our place.

Shafkat: Working with us, even like when I was a toddler, foreigners to come and stay in my home, especially from America. So trickle up foundation was the first, foundation in New York, which supported our organization. And it continued for 25 years. It is based in New York. So it was a livelihood program, a hundred dollars, one business, one family fighting poverty.

Shafkat: So this was the slogan and this became a very popular program in the community because, in [00:02:00] those still, for the poor people. Access to cash access to loan is very difficult because the bank will ask you for so much collateral and all these things, this nobody can give, especially from these families who are coming from such vulnerable background.

Shafkat: So this, grant was a conditional grant. It was not a loan. So this grant would help these families, especially women headed businesses. And the condition was that the families cannot send the child to work.

Shafkat: Child never, there is no negotiation. on child labor. So you have, if you want this grant, you have to send your child to school where he belongs. Cause my father believed, below 18, there is no other place for a child other than school. He has, they have to go to school. We rescued the children from waste picking and landfills and we put them into schools and we provide their parents with livelihood opportunities.

Shafkat: What we do, where we come is we have educational learning centers across all these areas. All [00:03:00] these children come after school. They come to our place. We give them holistic education, joyful learning. We help them with, with the studies through games.

Shafkat: We have taekwondo classes. You have seen the videos. You have taekwondo classes. We have performing arts. We have guitar classes. We have a special drawing classes where they learn fine arts. We have digital learning. We take the children to scouts camp, summer camp, winter camp, excursion tours, all these things, which is a privilege in India for the rich.

Shafkat: So we wanted to bring the services of the rich to the services of the poor. Poor can also access the whole quality holistic education, which rich children. Experience, and we also have counseling sessions. We have motivation sessions where a civil service services, servants like bureaucrats, Indian administrative services from IAS IPS, top class civil servants come.

Shafkat: And talk with the students [00:04:00] to motivate them. Even people from the army have also come in the past. They talk with the students, to motivate them because the, environment is they are living in itself is a very big challenge. So continuous motivation is required because I still remember my father told me, the first 10 years of intervention, more than 50 percent was dropout.

Shafkat: And, many said, that you should not. Continue this work. This is very difficult work, but the things which you’re trying to, solve will not be solved. Many people demotivated him, but after 37 years, the dropout rate in our, target area is not 2%.

Tasha: Yeah. More than

Shafkat: 50%. So it is a time consuming thing.

Shafkat: And, you have to. Just get on with this. You have to just, it is a continuous process.

Shafkat: We have English teachers in our class. Each and every class where we have a specialized English teachers specialize. So English and computers is very important. And that is the reason we have started, for the, I think three years ago, we [00:05:00] started this English classes. When we saw that without English, whatever we do.

Shafkat: We are going nowhere. So we started this, English classes and I think that has helped a lot of students and now many of the students are getting jobs. So it is actually working. So Tasha, we started working actually on first initially with the primary section. So the primary school children were the primary target for us.

Shafkat: And that is, and then, slowly we saw after class five, massive dropouts. Child marriages, 12 years, five, six, seven, 12 child marriages. After that, we, started, after a few years of study, we started the evening classes, which was for classes six to classes 12. And that was a time we could get hold of the adolescent, students, the adolescent period, which is the most delicate.

Shafkat: time of anybody of any child. So the adolescent child, when we started this intervention and that was the time, the [00:06:00] dropout started coming down. So this is what we are doing. And, livelihood, we give, we are giving business grants, to start the businesses. We also have an open shelter home where some children are staying.

Shafkat: It’s run by, it’s supported by one of the government of West Bengal. So it’s an open shelter home where the boys can stay as those who are single parent, mother, or sometimes, both the parents are working. There’s nobody at home to look at, so they can drop their children in our homes. Yes, because if you don’t drop and if the children goes around in the area, there’s a, as the time evening comes down, there is a alcoholic drugs.

Shafkat: Crime, all these things are happening. And that is the reason, the adolescent class, we start at 6pm and we end at 9pm. And that was intentionally we did in the evening because we don’t want these children who was going around and getting into wrong circles. Because I strongly feel, if you want to close the jail door, you have [00:07:00] to, open the school door.

Shafkat: Once, if these children are not being catered, they will become criminals, Tasha, no doubt, majority of them will become criminals. So the, as I said, in the beast video also, as I said, I’m repeating the same. When somebody asked my father, why you are doing this? So he answered it.

Shafkat: I am because I am selfish in the audience. Everybody was shocked. What, what is selling? I’m selfish. He said, I am doing it for my selfish reasons, because if I don’t do crime, we’ll only go up and my family will also suffer. So it is for the selfish interest of my family. I’m doing this. If I do this, crime will be in control and my family will be safe.

Shafkat: So he’s told everybody in the audience. So you should always selfish do something. For your community, for your society, and that is the only reason if you’re seeing a child, in bad company, bad circles, act accordingly. So that, [00:08:00] yeah, because you just can’t say, oh, I cannot say, because Mother Teresa said, if you can’t feed a hundred children, just feed only one.

Shafkat: So there is no excuse. There is no excuse. You have to start somewhere. You can have to start small. Many people give you alibi. We can’t start because a lot of resources are required. You can start with just one, the rest, what we take care of it.

Tasha: Starting with one is really important for sure. And so what in your work so far, working in nonprofit, what’s your favorite part about being part of the sector?

Shafkat: Favorite part is interacting with the students, young students. So we have a child club members, where all this, 13 to 18 years, all that 13 to 18 years, high energy, high voltage children are there. So we have a regular child club meetings, child parliaments. Where they come and discuss about the children, child related issues.

Shafkat: They make puppet shows, they make their own puppet show. The puppet show, yes, they make puppet shows and the puppet show they have, [00:09:00] successfully did. I will upload one videos on that, successfully, shown the evils of child marriages. With the through a puppet show, because if you just say a normal speech, nobody’s interested to hear, a boring speech anywhere in the world, I believe.

Shafkat: So a pet show and with music, with acting, people get the message that you don’t do, your daughters or son, marry at a very early age. You should marry at the legal age which the government has prescribed for you.

Tasha: Well, storytelling is one of, it’s the oldest form of art, right, is storytelling.

Tasha: And I think it just, it connects with people. And that’s also even, I mean, you have some beautiful videos. I’m going to put the link in afterwards to some of the videos you’ve created. But, video storytelling in non profit is an incredible way to reach not only your current audience and showcase the amazing work you’re doing, but reach new audiences and explain what you do.

Tasha: Like you said, without it being in a report, people don’t read [00:10:00] reports. Not that many people read reports, right? They want to see the people and they want to see the stories. And I think your team is doing an amazing job of doing that.

Shafkat: Yes, we are a very small nonprofit in India and it’s only after Mr.

Shafkat: Beast, we are getting all this highlight all over the world.

Tasha: But it shows you, goes to show you sometimes you only have to meet the right people, right?

Tasha: Like it’s all about, yes, you need to meet. A lot of people to find the right people. But I truly believe when we have conversations, when we meet people, that’s when opportunities come up, which is part of why the nonprofit hive came into being in the first place.

Shafkat: Yes, I’m, I’m a very big believer of destiny.

Shafkat: I was destined to meet with Tasha Van Black. I was destined to be a member of the non profit hive. So it happened late, but it happened and I’m very thankful to God that it actually happened and I’m meeting with the right kind of people with, I, not just people are talking, people are actually trying to help.

Shafkat: I know, all this, Mr. Dan Drucker, I will, I have to mention him, Mr. Dan Drucker, Matthew Gans, [00:11:00] Kale, Dominic Albuquerque, Karen, all these names, yeah, these people are trying to help me a lot. Yes, still, we have not got any result, they are staying, they are, staying 12, 000 kilometers away, if I’m not mistaken, 12, 000 kilometers away from my city.

Shafkat: It’s

Tasha: a long

Shafkat: ways, yeah. Well, yes, and People, from, India, in India, charity is not seen the way it is seen in West. I have seen West very closely. I’ve been to many conferences, so I’ve been a part, I was also on New York, delegate in the UN delegate in 2015.

Tasha: Amazing.

Tasha: That’s awesome. So

Shafkat: I have seen people in the West, the orientation is very social, even somebody is having a very modest salary, they will. Give some amount of donation in India. It’s not like that. Still, we have a long way to learn from the best regarding to philanthropy. That’s my personal belief

Tasha: beyond that, beyond maybe this is this leads perfectly into my next question.

Tasha: What are some of the challenges you’re [00:12:00] experiencing? In building your nonprofit, you just mentioned one right there, that there’s like this cultural context in India. What else do you have as challenges?

Shafkat: Tasha, the biggest challenge is, somebody, when I went to Germany, I was, I went to Germany and Missouri had a big program with us in 2012, so somebody in Germany asked me.

Shafkat: Why are India is a booming country? So many rich people are India, in the, it’s already in the news. So many people are rich and all these things. Why somebody sitting in Germany or sitting in the West will have to care and bother about you? Why not Indians? That was the question. I still remember very fresh in my mind.

Shafkat: And I had no answer actually, honestly, I had no answer, but the answer which I gave was, because of the orientation now things are coming up, with the CSR policy with the corporate social responsibility policy in 2013, by the previous government and which the current government is also following, there are some corporates which are coming [00:13:00] up and helping us, but still they have a long way to go.

Shafkat: It’s not the way, many times corporate don’t want to pay admin cost. They don’t want to pay salaries. So without salaries, you can’t run the programs. So we believe, CSR is the future. Definitely. I definitely am very hopeful that in India, CSR, will come up and help more organizations like us who are not so big.

Shafkat: And we are totally not dependent on foreign funds, foreign resources. So I believe CSR is the way out, but I think, the orientation, maybe sometimes, in the CSR, somebody sitting there in the CSR department in the company department, which is called corporate social responsibility. So somebody sitting who is not so social, who is no, who doesn’t know so much, somebody just pointed them.

Shafkat: So I met with so many, companies, CSR head. Some are very good. Some do understand the pain, like they understand what we go through mobilizing resources for [00:14:00] the very small amount of money, can make a big difference in their lives.

Tasha: I would say that is the one challenge that’s very similar here in North American too, is that, um,  corporate.

Tasha: Is not very interested usually in sponsoring nonprofits or supporting them. And if they do, they want to support a program, but not the staff to run a program. Right.

Tasha: And so my last question that I always have for these, um, these interviews is, you’ve been a member of the nonprofit high for a little while now, you’ve met some of these people who are part of our membership.

Tasha: How does peer support kind of factor into your success? What does it mean to meet other people who are in the sector?

Shafkat: You’re talking about, those who are already in from nonprofits. I’m meeting a lot of nonprofits. Yeah. Yeah. I think exchange of ideas. I met with somebody who was a sports coach long time back.

Shafkat: I think she was a lady from Nigeria or Kenya, something like that. So I got some ideas, which I would like to implement it in my nonprofit profit. So in our nonprofit [00:15:00] Tasha, we have been promoting sports a lot because we believe for these children, they have a lot of aggression. Because they see domestic violence in India.

Shafkat: You also have to understand in the community where we work, domestic violence is very common. So women are beaten up very, it’s a very common affair. So these children have a lot of aggression, because children learn what they see, what they see.

Tasha: So

Shafkat: these children has a lot of aggression.

Shafkat: So we want to, with sports, we want to, control their aggression through sports. So life skills training through sports. So a lot of things we do with sports So with other non profits, sometimes I am giving their ideas. Sometimes they are giving access So this exchange is very helpful.

Shafkat: I think even though I don’t know we can also share the resources as well. Like I shared some of my past donors, details Somebody, you must have heard about my last nonprofit hype with that, African guy. I don’t remember his name. I think it was

Tasha: P Pius. I think maybe you met Yes.

Shafkat: Pius. Yes.

Shafkat: Pius. So I shared whatever I had, because I think that was the correct thing to do and I just did it, [00:16:00] because I don’t think we should take it. I, oh, it is my competitor or I don’t think he’s my competitor or anybody’s my competitor. You should be your competitor and that’s how you should, yes.

Shafkat: That’s how you should work. And I believe, in God. So if I believe if I pay it forward, something will come in, coming home, big opportunities will come in. Like I believe, non nonprofit hype is a big opportunity and I think it’s, underrated.

Tasha: I think this is the thing that’s so special is that. I couldn’t be in every conversation and that’s what I was doing before I started the non profit Hive. I talk with lots of people, but I can only make that so big. I can only have so many conversations. So instead, if we gather together all of these brilliant people who can bring what they can to the table, then it lifts all of us, right?

Tasha: There’s the idea of the rising boats, right? So when the tide comes in, everyone can come up together and I really believe in that. I, or at least I thought it was an idea worth pursuing. And it’s proven to be true.[00:17:00]

Shafkat: Yes. And believe me, it’ll go a long way and the best thing about non profit if you ask me is, there are many, such hives who claim to be like hives in LinkedIn. I will not name them, in Facebook, in social media, and they are charging subscription, other things, yeah.

Shafkat: Organizations, basic small organizations like us, if the charges is maybe very minimum also, if we have to think, whether we should pay, so I think for conversations we should not charge and that is the best thing about nonprofit highways and that shows your, your idea, you are not after money, you are after building communities, you’re after.

Shafkat: Seeing you want to see the real impact. What does nonprofit hype has brought the impact in the world? That is what actually I believe nonprofit hype real objective is to see the impact because you, there was no space. I don’t think because I’m a tech savvy person and I am spending a lot of time [00:18:00] online.

Shafkat: I have not seen any such platform in India or abroad. The way nonprofit have has helped build connections, with small organizations, with a person like Dan Drucker, with a person like Matthew Hans, with a person like, Mario Hernandez, all these connections, so I have not seen such a community where it is free of cost and, you can speak your heart out and people are coming forward to help each other.

Shafkat: Hats off to you, but you did, I, I cannot, if I become, if my nonprofit really gains a lot of things, in the coming years, I would be very happy to share all the resources with all the members of the nonprofit. I’m happy. I believe in paying forward because I believe my father says the moment you pay for forward, a better thing will come, bigger thing will come.

Tasha: Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. So this has been incredible. I’ve loved learning so many things. Your nonprofit is doing [00:19:00] so many beautiful things out in the world. After this is done, we’re going to make a lovely article. We’re going to share this video, but how can people best get in touch with you? How can they follow along with your nonprofit journey?

Shafkat: You can share my email, you can share my website and you can share the beast video. That’s the only thing I’ll say because the, the thing is, Mr. B’s philanthropy has a policy of supporting for one year. I’m still in talks to request them to extend. So the one year in India, the financial year starts from April and it ends in March.

Shafkat: So this is the last month of support actually for this philanthropy until now.

Tasha: That’s a wonderful support, right? That’s such a big support for a year.

Shafkat: Actually, and that is the reason, it’s very difficult to replace an, foundation like so big as, Mr.

Shafkat: B’s philanthropy. If more donors come in with a small ticket, I think, there are options, if you can fund a child’s education, you can just feed somebody, you can help them with computer education.

Shafkat: So a lot of options are there and donors can go there and, they can  donate with the way. [00:20:00] And if I believe, if somebody really wants to help us connect us with the right person, as you said, connect us with some foundations. With smaller foundations, like maybe five foundations coming in 10 foundations coming in.

Shafkat: That is how we can survive because for an organization like us who are coming from the grassroot, it’s really very difficult. Tasha, I cannot tell you in words, how much time I have to dedicate, in mobilizing resources. And, this acts on us is always on the staff because 57 staff members and these are the biggest strength of the organization is most of the staff are where the ex beneficiary is.

Shafkat: It’s a very difficult job on earth I believe NGO people the non profit people have been underrated all over the world and people should come forward Corporate should come forward instead of complaining about crimes You know all the big companies and all the big leaders said oh ho crime has gone up crime has gone up I don’t know when you don’t know Please check if [00:21:00] what the non profit is doing and whether are you contributing enough to the non profit so that they can do the work.

Shafkat: Whenever somebody complains, especially somebody who is very rich, so we should all from the non profit people, I hope you’re contributing enough to make the society a safer place because you are just contributing contributed.

Shafkat: Contribution is just a very small amount. I would just finish Tasha with a small quote with mother Teresa when she started missionaries of charity. I was not even born, but my father had the opportunity to work with her a few times. So when she started missionaries of charity, you must have heard a lot of support came from all over the world.

Shafkat: A lot of checks come came in a lot of cameras and everything. People’s ask the reporter asked her, you should be so thankful to the donors. You got so much support from across the globe. She said, not at all. They should be thankful to me. Everybody was shocked. Why? Because he said, I am giving [00:22:00] them an opportunity to serve the people.

Shafkat: Otherwise they would not have that opportunity to serve the people. So I am giving, so the nonprofit hype is giving you a platform for so many nonprofits to come. And I think more companies should come. And join this nonprofit hype where they can find the nonprofits and they can support Then I think the real objective of the nonprofit hype would be fulfilled with this.

Shafkat: I complete

Tasha: Okay. Well, hey, I love the idea and we will continue to evolve and I think that’s one of the exciting things We haven’t been around that long and so many amazing humans already have joined us And thank you so much for doing this interview with me. It’s been a joy to meet you today

Shafkat: Thank you, Tasha.