Walk up a flight of stairs next to Café Coffee Day in Khan Market and you may meet with the melodious sounds of a group of budding young musicians, a candle-making team, a class of math students, or a group heading out to conduct a two-week arts workshop at a Buddhist school in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh. Welcome to Manzil, home of the Gulati family and their team of energetic, friendly youth who will quickly embrace you into the day’s activities. Most of the children here come from working class migrant families that came to New Delhi in search of a better life.
From its inception in 1996, over 4,000 children and youth have benefited from Manzil’s programs. At Khan Market, Manzil runs academic tutorials seven days a week in basic subjects such as math, English, and basic computer skills, while also engaging youth to develop their critical thinking skills and nurture non-academic talents in theatre, music, and the arts. Manzil strives to make learning more interesting, focusing on a process-oriented and context-sensitive education linked with experiential understanding. At Manzil, students are given the opportunity to learn but also to share. In addition to its regular classes, the organization also arranges learning trips to enable its students to interact with different communities in the city and throughout the country. The goal of Manzil’s programs is to provide a space where education goes beyond academic learning to include a child’s motivations, aspirations, dreams, unique talents, and qualities.
Manzil was started by Mrs. Indira Gulati, a mother of a child with special needs and a teacher of 30 years, and her son Ravi, an MBA from IIM-Ahmedebad. In 1996, Ravi was approached by Hemant, a neighborhood child asking for help with his math homework. Ravi tutored him from the very basics, addressing the subject matter in ways that, for this government-school-educated boy, were novel and exciting. Soon Hemant’s friends began joining him, and the Gulati home quickly became a destination for the local ambitious and curious youth.
Manzil’s growth has been an organic process: Manzil retains a family culture and maintains sensitivity to the needs and interests of each of its students. While the organization currently has approximately 150 students in its programs, many of its former students come back to further their learning and are keen to volunteer with Manzil. Recently, Manzil has acquired two apartments in Sujan Singh Park -- a “government servant quarters” neighborhood nearby -- that is home to a large percentage of Manzil students; many classes have shifted or are in the process of shifting to these new spaces.
Need for Project:
The Gulatis have been planning a move to Uttarakhand for many years, but have been restrained by their ongoing commitments at Manzil. Ravi, in particular, is eager to launch new environment-focused programs in a rural setting, but would wish to see Manzil operating independently first.
In recent years, Ravi had begun transitioning decision-making authority to a youth-led administration in the hopes of Manzil ultimately being run entirely by students and former students with the Gulatis providing support from a distance. Manzil has created a strong framework of teacher and staff processes and also invested in individual leadership. Anish, a participant in Manzil activities for over ten years, had been groomed for the past three years to head a team of youth leaders for Manzil’s future.
In August 2009, Anish earned an excellent opportunity to follow his passion for theatre (begun and developed at Manzil) with an employment position at the reputed National School of Drama’s Theatre-in-Education company. While everyone at Manzil was thrilled with Anish’s success, this naturally provided a major setback for Manzil’s plans. It also prompted a re-evaluation for the way forward.
While its students will always be core to Manzil’s life and spirit, the organization needs to adapt to the reality that older students, who have certainly gained a lot from their association with Manzil and are suffused with a desire to give back, are also eager to explore and learn from new spaces as well. Hence, transition of leadership will involve both internal capacity building and an external search for management.
As an August 2010 Indicorps Fellow, you will be responsible for continuing to drive the internal leadership development process and for launching a collaborative search for a full-time managing director.
Your first task will be to develop a comprehensive understanding of the current leadership and decision-making structure at Manzil. Through observation, immersion and participation in Manzil’s management conversations and planning meetings, you will get a sense of the camaraderie and spirit of the organization. In the process, you will develop rapport with staff and students.
You will assist the current Manzil staff core group (Anju, Anil, Shalu, and Robin) to continue building their leadership. You will also encourage other youth leaders to manage responsibilities, set expectations, promote teamwork, enhance skills of and appreciation for documentation, and build individual and group confidence. Furthermore, you should assist Manzil to devise a flow where current student leaders identify and mentor potential new student leaders to lead classes and initiate new programs. You will have to invest more time in Shalu as she leads operations at Manzil and prepare her for teaming up effectively with a new external managing director.
Second, you will assist Manzil in a bold step forward: identifying and integrating someone from outside to head the organization’s student-run core group and teacher’s group. Designing a search campaign for a managing director that is organic and reflective of Manzil will mean unconventional media efforts and innovative outreach. You should involve the Manzil students in every way possible. While you will have considerable flexibility and autonomy in designing the processes for finding and recruiting a full-time director, final selection will necessarily be a Manzil decision. However, Manzil will need your help in creating a supportive, yet flexible internal organizational structure to allow for smooth transitioning of a new management style.
The fellow will work closely with the core group - Manzil’s teachers and students - and Ravi to prepare for these bold steps forward.
Target Community:
Almost all of the children who come to Manzil hail from the “government servant quarters” nearby; most of their parents serve as drivers, cooks, maids, domestic helpers etc. Many families of Manzil students have migrated from Garwhal, Uttranchal; extended family and elder grandparents often continue to reside in the villages.
The families generally value education as a stepping-stone to securing good jobs and better futures. Many of the older Manzil students, some while still in school, take on part-time jobs (such as office assistants and computer operators). School dropouts generally get menial jobs and contribute to the family financially. Most students associated with Manzil live in one-room tenements or servant quarters near the affluent colonies surrounding Khan Market.
The youth at Manzil are lively and fun: many have artistic abilities in music and drama; others have launched small-scale enterprises making candles, cards, and chocolates. Overall, the Manzil youth are confident, and willing to take responsibility. They will befriend you immediately, as they have with many volunteers from the city and from abroad.
Objectives:
• To strengthen capacity of Manzil student leadership
• To launch a collaborative executive director search
Challenges:
• Providing support and guidance to student leaders requires tremendous patience and understanding
• Living in a cosmopolitan city may present its own unique challenges – especially in terms of simple living and leading by example.
• Building your identity with the students outside of the legacy of previous volunteers
• Being flexible and adjusting to long days
Team-Based Model:
Each project is designed as a three-way partnership between you, Indicorps, and a partner organization. Each grassroots partner organization – in this case Manzil – will be hosting two to four fellows. Consequently, the August 2010 fellowship will have both an individual and a team component.
As a team of Indicorps fellows, your focus is to strengthen Manzil’s daily operations, and encourage youth leadership. Team members will focus on different areas including quality enhancement of Manzil classes and effectively managing a transition in leadership. Through all your activities, you should immerse yourself fully in Manzil’s dynamic community and embrace its core values of creativity, critical thinking, and sharing.
The Fellow will stay in one of the two apartments in Sujan Singh Park, both of which double up as a learning space/classroom during some hours of the day. The fellow will share three meals a day with the Gulatis at their home in Khan Market. Internet access will generally be available at Manzil, and international/local phone facilities are easily available in the city. Public transportation - including buses, auto-rickshaws, and the metro - is also easily accessible. The fellow should be prepared to ride as a passenger on motorcycles.
The language spoken at Manzil is Hindi. For this project, a basic knowledge of Hindi is required. If you do not have basic knowledge of Hindi, you can still apply if you can make a commitment to gain a basic understanding before the start of your Fellowship year.
Please explain the qualifications that make you a strong candidate for this project - be sure to elaborate on any experiences with organizational transitioning and building leadership capacity in youth.
2.
What are some of your favorite tools for personal conflict resolution and why?
3.
How might you involve Manzil students in a personnel decision of the magnitude of an executive director search? Why?
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