Enabling Communities in Jharkhand in India to diversify in Economic Opportunities
Austrian couple Melanie Fritzer and Phillip Benedikt are on a very interesting year-long journey across the world. They wish to travel from country to another, trading their professions for life’s basic needs, and “basically reintroduce the barter system”. Melanie is a social worker and Benedikt is a photographer film-maker. In this journey, India was their fifth location where they decided to share their expertise with DEF before heading out to Nepal on April 5, 2017. The couple spent 15 days with the DEF family, working on several projects, including Chanderiyaan in Madhya Pradesh.
Through their endeavour Our World Experience, “We would love to show that life can be so much more. Based on the principles of ‘help, learn & share’, we are going to spend an entire year either helping with our capabilities, learning from each other or simply sharing our experiences along the way. Otherwise we will never know our full potential that inevitably takes us to the wildest places on earth. In exchange for our services, all we are asking from each of our companions is a roof to sleep under, food to keep the stomach happy and a lot of big smiles with a great experience on all sides.”
In Chanderi, Madhya Pradesh, the two contributed towards creating a catalogue for handloom products from various handloom clusters where DEF has intervened. The photograph will be published on various live and upcoming eCommerce websites of DEF handloom clusters, besides being published on its social media channels.
Philipp and Melanie also worked on a project to compare access to technology in urban areas with semi-urban areas. For this, they visited different slums in Delhi. To read their account of their stay in Delhi, visit their blog.
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