Project Overview: 

During the six week CraftHER 2026 programme, myself and five other Laidlaw scholars consulted at four different social impact organisations in Kerala, India. The central mission of each of these organisations, and indeed that of the CraftHER programme, is women empowerment. In particular, these institutions focus on achieving this through promoting and facilitating gainful employment for women. Two of the organisations were social enterprises which employed only women; another was a trade union, which also funds many employment initiatives for women; the fourth was an NGO concerned with funding individual female entrepreneurs and all-women entrepreneurial groups. Depending on the needs of each organisation, we offered tailored consulting services and produced deliverables which were relevant, tangible, and would have long-term positive impacts. 

Project Approach: 

At each organisation we collaborated with the women who worked there to produce useful and meaningful deliverables. At the beginning of each mini-consulting project we had a meeting with various members of the organisation to discuss the consulting brief, making adjustments to the planned outputs as per their requests. We also continued this process of adaptation and collaboration based on what we observed and heard throughout our time while working alongside and speaking with women at many levels and in many areas of each organisation. Our collaborative approach to consultancy was aligned with the intention set at the beginning of the programme, and the stipulation of all LiAs, which is that Laidlaw scholars should not set out to ‘help’ others or impose solutions but to engage in cross-cultural learning to ensure the best outcomes for partner organisations. Moreover, this collaboration, including with women whose language we could not speak, resulted in my acquisition of advanced communication skills which fall under the Laidlaw capacity of 'People'. 

Additionally, the project required not only collaboration with the women of the various organisations but also with my fellow scholars. It was necessary for us to be clear and completely aligned on: what our goals and tasks for each organisation were; how these would be allocated amongst ourselves; what we should do if we faced hiccups or setbacks. Thus, by being part of a team which had to deliver outputs by a deadline, I developed skills such as co-operation, time-management, organisation and adaptability, which all come under the 'Process' Laidlaw capacity. Moreover, the development of my project management skills and strategic planning skills, which are two of the most prominent within this capacity, was most evident within my time as team leader at Forest Post. Aside from the general awareness and utilisation of said skills by every member of the team, as team leader I was tasked with the overall responsibility for making decisions and ensuring that we were on track at every stage of the process.   

Furthermore, for me personally, guided by my completion of the Oxford Character Project, I always intended to undertake the programme and each individual task with humility. Upon entering each organisation, I accepted that I knew little-to-nothing about its structures and members nor anything about the context within which it operated. I vowed to listen and observe the women around me to inform the outputs and deliverables which myself and my team created throughout the week. This humility, paired with the Change-Maker Values of curiosity and bravery, which incited me to ask questions about things I was unsure of, proved highly conducive to producing useful and relevant deliverables.

Project Outcomes:

Marketing outputs, plentiful and varied in nature, were created for each organisation. This included Instagram reels, Instagram carousel posts, Whatsapp posters and blog posts for use on websites. All of which was created with the intention of promoting: products sold by the organisation; recruitment for new employment initiatives; recognition of the brave and brilliant women which make up each organisation; support for the overarching mission of the organisation itself. Creating these outputs most prominently required implementation of the Change-Maker Values of being determined and fast because we often had to work in translation (i.e. interviews being taken Malayalam not English meant extra time and effort required to create the final blog, carousel or reel outputs) yet we were still required to meet the fixed deadlines. 

For two of the organisations, a business proposal, complete with a quantitative financial analysis and a multi-step implementation plan, was created. For the first, this was completed for the potential creation of an online shop through which products could be sold, in tandem with the conventional sales stream of in-person exhibitions. For the other organisation, the business proposal concerned the feasibility and funding strategy for a fellowship for local university students to gain professional skills. 

For one of the organisations, we devised a fundraising strategy. This included conducting comprehensive research into potential future funders, both regional and international, and creating bespoke email templates to be sent to said funders. Creating this outcome required significant development of the virtue of Judgement, one of the key virtues highlighted as being to important in a leader by the Oxford Character Project. When conducting research to find potential future funders, it was necessary to take into consideration the various criteria that had been established by the organisation, in order to discern the likelihood of the creation of a successful funding partnership. 

As part of the CraftHER LiA programme, I also completed a personal project. The outputs for this were the foundational resources for a social impact campaign entitled 'Women Can'. When completing this project I had to engage critical thinking skills and problem solving skills to create a successful final outcome, which was judged as such by my programme leaders and my peers - therefore, I developed the Laidlaw capacity of 'Performance'. Moreover, I developed a range of virtues within the Oxford Character Project/Virtuosity 'Character Wheel'. Firstly, since it was a solo project, I had to show accountability for creating the idea and pursuing it through every stage and adaptation all the way to fruition. I also had to develop the virtue of transcendence, in order to have the vision which would carry my theoretical idea into reality. And, in addition to these, just in the nature of my project being a feminist campaign, which I picked because this is something I am exceedingly passionate about, I displayed a strong sense and understanding of Justice, Integrity and Humanity.    

Contribution to UN Sustainable Development Goals:

The work that we completed over the six weeks of the CraftHER programme contributed to SDG 5: Gender equality and SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth. This is due to the fact that empowering women, by offering them gainful employment is the core focus of each of the four organisations we consulted at. Thus, all the work that we did at these organisations (i.e. providing materials for them to gain more visibility and support online; researching and suggesting additional funders so that they could run more initiatives which could employ more women; suggesting ways they could diversify or improve certain elements of the organisations) was all in aid of and contributed to the achievement of these two goals.