Tuesday, October 16, 2012

C2P - It's the journey that counts.

“When a business idea meets a community need, what you have is the power to empower!”

This was the basic idea behind the C2P Case Grant Competition, held by Enactus SRCC, in association with the Campus to Community Partnership Foundation.

But what exactly is this 'power to empower'?
YOU identify a community in need; someone whose life you want to change; someone on whose face you want to see a smile, you understand and analyse their problems, and what you, as an individual can do, to alleviate those problems, to make this community self sufficient, self reliant, and content with their lives.

WE provide you with a platform to present your own business model and if the model is practical self sufficient, sustainable, and if, above all, you truly believe in it, we give you a grant of Rs 30,000/- to implement your business model!

This year, the C2P Case Grant Competition rolled for the second time and it was BIGGER and BETTER than ever before!

From being open only to SRCC students last year, we invited applications from all undergraduate students in the Delhi NCR region this year. The two round format last year was changed to a three round one this year. We went on college to college promotion, telling students about the competition and putting up posters! Social entrepreneurship, once an elusive topic, was now being understood and attempted by students, who till sometime back, had not even heard of this concept. A desire to undertake to do something for the society, to not give donations but actually help empower people, a belief in this desire..is what these students identified with. When, for the first round we received a staggering 150 applications, our belief in social entrepreneurship was re-affirmed!

Next, the participants had to answer some basic questions about their community and how they intended to empower it! Teams that moved on to Round 2 were allotted an Enactus mentor to help and guide them through their business model. It was touching to see participants make community visits and build a bond with the people whose lives they were attempting to change.

Finally, it was The Big Day ! From 150 we were down to the 14 best and most promising business models, which would now contend in the final round for the coveted Rs 30,000/- grant. With Ms. Neelima Khaitan, the CSR and Sustainability Head of Coca Cola India & South West Asia; Mr.Ravi Sinha, Founder Chairperson, Centre for Social Innovation, BIMTECH, Greater NOIDA, and Mr. Guarav Mehndiratta Executive Director, Tax and Regulatory Services, KPMG India, judging the final round, the participants knew, it was going to be a tough one!

Finally, Practicality, Enforceability, and a Belief in your project were the things that mattered. The three teams declared winners were:

Project Annapurna - Aims to recover surplus perishable food and create a mechanism for efficient and self-sustaining distribution of this recovered food.

Project Angel shop - An online e-commerce portal which would tie up with a non-profit every month to raise awareness about their cause and help raise funds.

Project Black Revolution - Aims to empower subsistence farmers by facilitating a micro-credit system for them to enable them to produce a carbon-negative replacement of soil.

For the Projects that won, it is a new beginning. The end of the competition is metaphorical. A long journey lies ahead of them. A journey to change someone’s life, a journey to see their projects implemented, a journey to empower. The path ahead will not be easy but we hope and believe that it will be worth it.

For those projects which could not win; remember, making a difference to someone’s life does not depend on a competition, does not depend on whether you win or lose. You feel for the community, you want to make the world a better place for those who are not as privileged as us, BE THE CHANGE YOU WISH TO SEE!

With faith in our hearts and belief in ourselves, we will be back next year. The C2P Case Grant Competition, even bigger and better.


- Ipshita Agarwal

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