From one To 1 million
people out of poverty
2017-2019 Report
Sometimes you need to believe in miracles
and
sometimes you need
to make them happen
dream
Our work should equip the next generation of women to outdo us in every field. This is the legacy we’ll leave behind.
rupi kaur
May you always
be the one who
sees the light in
the little things
mission
Tiny Miracles stems from a deep-rooted belief that our generation must and has the power to help achieve United Nations SDG #1: “end poverty in all its manifestations by 2030 and ensure social protection for the poor and vulnerable and increase access to basic services”.
It is the mission of Tiny Miracles to help find a scalable, measurable solution for SDG #1.
Tiny Miracles’ 10 year on the ground research has shown that poverty can be solved sustainably by an in-depth understanding of the issues of the poor taking small steps, creating jobs to earn an income to stay out of poverty, creating a social security system and using technology.
It is our ambition to enable one million people out of poverty by 2030 and inspire others to do the same.
ambition
Our core beliefs
1. Empower the system instead of running it:
give people the right and tools to take charge of their own lives, and build on the local ecosystem to support where needed. We have for example asked Indian foundations to support community development for the communities in their cities.2. Put the beneficiary first:
we believe in pragmatic idealism.
A bottom-up understanding from on-the-ground work enables us to put the beneficiary first in every decision we take. We strongly believe in a community centric model, not focused solely on individuals.
3. Combine foundation and social enterprise -NGO 2.0:
Starting work with extremely poor communities needs at least 12
months of community
development work to get out of poverty then to stay out of poverty our social enterprise enables communities to work ‘the right way’ at 3-4x regular salaries. This generates income for the
foundation’s work and reduces dependence on donor funds (to 0 after 8 years).
4. Work the right way:
we inspire companies to stop working a-morally- going to countries like India and demanding the lowest price for their products and then buy off guilt by giving money to NGOs-. We show them how to work ‘the right way’: pay more for products so people can earn a decent income, so they can pay market prices for their daily needs and save for the long term5. Lean and mean
organization:
We work in lean teams (3 FTE in NL and 30 in India), and with only a handful strategic partners who provide work, expertise and in kind and in cash funding. This way we can keep costs low, don’t waste our time on politics and focus on getting the work done.2010-2019: building proof of Tiny Miracles approach to fight poverty
Tiny Miracles started in 2011 with the objective to find a way to sustainably empower people to lift themselves out of poverty. We found out (tried, failed, tested, improved) that a bottom-up, in- depth understanding of the issues of the poor, small incremental steps, jobs generating a decent income, and rights and own responsibilities are key ingredients to Get Out and Stay Out of poverty.
Many of the 2,400 people that we work with, living in the poorest
communities in Mumbai, are now self-confident people, earning middle income salaries, know how to stay out of poverty, and understand and make sure that the next generations can take their future in their own hands.
This empowered community approach has resulted in astounding results on key developmental metrics such as access to healthcare, education, financial protection, gender equality (e.g. child marriages).
Trial, error, improve 2010-2019
Get Out: Understanding the real issues of the communities and giving them the knowledge and tools to get out (holistically: awareness, healthcare, education, skills training, financial literacy, bank accounts, celebration).
Make people understand they have rights and responsibilities. After year 1, we start our Stay Out activities and provide people with work
Stay Out: Work towards independence and taking control (Annex III). We give people work 'the right way’ (3x average day wage). This work we source with companies (ao Rituals, Rijksmuseum) whose customers are willing to contribute to a better world by paying a fair price.
Beneficiaries have to distribute their income as follows :
1. 60% goes directly into their bank account as disposable
2. 20% is reserved for responsibilities (virtual wallet), such as awareness classes about sexual abuse, vaccinations, education expenses. The wallet shows how much things cost, so people understand everything has a value.
3. 20% is reserved for pensions and savings Trial, error, improve
2010-2019 2020: Ready for
scale
Salary distribution to be implemented
then ready for scale Note approach is under development- we will start abovementioned distribution as per new financial year 1 April 2020
Step I.
Get out Of poverty
Step II.
stay out Of poverty
Highlights of
Get out ACTIVITIES 2018 - 2019
Education
All children go to school and go to after school tuition provided by us. Youngest children go to Balwadi (pre school education) at
our centers and get
supplementary nutrition.
Computer facilities have been set up to teach large group of children.
Healthcare
Regularly we do a complete medical check-up: this includes blood analysis, immunization and follow up and further treatment if necessary. All children were immunized. All community members with emergency help and medicines.
Awareness
Over 150 awareness sessions have been conducted. Examples:
regular community clean-ups started in 2018, personal hygiene, importance of hemoglobin, spread of diseases like malaria and tuberculosis.
Skills training
Since September 2018 137 people of the communities have been trained for high quality
stitching and quality control.
14 small workplaces throughout all communities have been equipped with machinery to produce products for Rituals. A project was started to restore old traditional forms of art like Warli painting. Once these skills are widespread, older generation can earn income with this tradition.
Celebration
All major festivals were celebrated. Children of communities went on summer camps outside of Mumbai, women went on day picknicks as did the staff . Children made script of street plays and performed.
Khadakpada children are very talented in drum. They perform officially during festivals in the city and earn pocket money.
2017-2019
Capacity per month: 30k products Number of women working: 125 Number of men working: 12 Number of staff employed: 20
Number of Rituals bags made: 150,000 Number of vases made: 7,200
Highlights of
Stay out ACTIVITIES 2018 - 2019
The products we make
x
State visit ZKH and HKH of the Netherlands to Pardeshi community
On 16 October 2019 the King and Queen of the Netherlands visited the Pardeshi community and stayed for 1.5 hour to talk to the women and their daughters.
Maxima summarized her entire 5 day state visit with “what we have seen at Tiny Miracles is that they give perspective. Girls who have illiterate mothers who now have the ambition to become a banker.
And this in one generation. (..) and the use of technology. This is big…..”*translated from Dutch
15
16 October 2019
State visit
Stories of us
Simran Pardeshi
Simran is 19 years old and grew up in the slums of Mumbai with no bright future. Through the support of Tiny Miracles, she was one of the first kids to go to a proper school in 2010.
Ten years later, she feels confident and driven to try new things and create a different future. She is now in University and wants to become a banker. Her mother,
Rupa, handmakes the Rituals’
bags. She is now earning an income that allows her to save for her family’s future.
Jayshree Pardeshi
Jayshree, one of the first women to join Tiny Miracles, is a proud mother of 4 daughters. She was forced into marriage at a young age and dropped out of school in the 10thgrade.
Today, through the Tiny Miracles approach, she has learned new skills and has been working on all
create a future of possibilities for her children with her oldest attending college. She has recently bought an apartment outside of Mumbai that she sublets, getting her one step closer to her ultimate goal of buying a house for her whole family. Her husband Sarju has also joined our work project and makes
Laurien Meuter, founder
Laurien Meuter (1976) worked in banking for ABN AMRO in Amsterdam then transferred to Mumbai India for a year. Her encounter with children living on the streets changed everything. A boy young boy named Kiran planted the seed for what has become Tiny Miracles today. Kiran was a drug-addicted 7-year-old boy living on the streets of Mumbai. Laurien met him at a shelter where she volunteered on weekends. A bond grew between them until one day he was gone.
According to his friends, he took an overdose behind the train
station. She never saw him again.
The impact this had on her was significant. This child was not given a choice for a better future.
Today, her work focuses on the least fortunate in the world. She founded the Tiny Miracles Foundation in 2010 to develop an innovative approach to help people get out of poverty and later in 2015 a social enterprise to enable people to stay out of poverty. It is her mission to help find a scalable solution to solve SDG #1: no more poverty anywhere
financials 2015-2018
What’s ahead
The next step is to make this strong foundation ready for scale to enable many more communities to benefit in the next few years. Digitalizing our proven approach will allow us to accelerate: accelerate empowerment, learnings, efficiency and subsequently accelerate scale to reach more communities globally, whilst keeping in mind the dynamics of human behavior.
Our plan is to move from our proven ‘offline’ approach to a digital Tiny Miracles 2.0, which accelerates the following 3 essential drivers of the current success of Tiny Miracles.
1. Acceleration of Empowerment
2. Acceleration of Efficiency and Learning 3. Acceleration in Auditability
This digitalization will be tested in the coming 3-4 years among 28 communities (30,000 people) in the Aarey area of Mumbai, India. From 2023 we plan to open source all our findings for others to use and get inspired
It works in the marketplace
People love our products
India office Tiny Miracles Foundation India 10 floor, 1003 Om Sai Tower
Dahisar West, Mumbai, India
Amsterdam office Stichting Tiny Miracles
Aambeeldstraat 24-1 1021 KB Amsterdam Nederland
23
‘We’ve created designs that don’t have that “poverty” feel to it.
People buy it because they like it and not out of sympathy and that’s
the key to its success.’
Manifesto
1.We will be fearless and without limits.
Dream wild.
Being fearless does not mean the absence of fear. It is the total presence of fear with the courage to face it. Keep looking for this courage within yourself.
Expand the boundaries you have placed upon your life. Dream wild.
2. We will have faith that creativity will rebuild society.
Share your ideas, your enthusiasm and your skills. When you find joy, share it with the world. Not because of the result, simply for the action.
3. Improvise. Be flexible.
Keep your life simple. Keep it light.
Realize that when you are totally aware, direction comes naturally, and manoeuvring through it is easy. See what lays at your feet in the present and have faith that every step that you take on
your life’s path is in the right direction.
4. Respect every single thing. There is soul in everything.
Be innocent. Discover how all the noise in your head stops if you are looking at something absolutely beautiful and engaging. Appreciate how everything around you lives. Be devoted to quality.
Do not waste. Materials in themselves are not evil. We are just using them the wrong way. Treat them with respect.
5. Everything you seek in this world is within you.
Everything you seek in this world is within you. Supreme joy blazes inside.
But it is not enough merely to have an intellectual understanding of this. You have to go deep inside. The heart is your true house. It is the seat of happiness, the abode of unending love.
Go there. ~ Swami Muktananda
