$fractured space pioneer build$

$fractured space pioneer build$

Later, as I grew up and started work with Caritas, I learned that you don’t give a person fish, you teach them to fish. So, we were encouraged to go and give food to people. As young people we were taught to eat all the food on our plates because somebody is hungry somewhere. Like my religious beliefs, my ideas on development have changed over the years. Working and living with people, especially the poor, during the droughts in Maharashtra (1973) and Ramnad (1973–74) brought new ideas and beliefs to my world view.

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This experience exposed me to a whole new world, making me question my thinking that was built on religion and tradition. Like my religious beliefs, my ideas on development have changed over time. In 1971, I was asked to move to Kolkata to manage the Bangladesh refugee programme as the deputy director of Caritas India, the official institution of the Catholic Church that responds to disasters and promotes development. Soon after, I was posted as the secretary to the Archbishop of Bangalore, where I dealt with files and accounts, and was close to the power structure. Traditionally, many in our family dedicated their lives to the Church. My grandparents were conservative, traditional Catholics, and my childhood revolved around my school and the Church. I was brought up by my maternal grandparents and grand-aunt while my parents were in Iran, because in those days-more than 80 years ago-they didn’t take kids everywhere. My father was sent directly to Abadan, Iran, and then to Assam, where he was the general manager of the Assam Oil Company. When World War II broke out, our family caught the last boat from Rangoon (now Yangon) to Kolkata with a small bundle of belongings, from where we proceeded to our ancestral home in Goa. He then got a job with the Burma Oil Company in 1904, which is also where my father ended up working as an apprentice engineer. My maternal grandfather left his home in Goa at a young age to study in Pune. Could you speak about your childhood and the early influences in your life?

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He explains why nonprofits need to help communities build their own institutions, elaborates on the fractured relationship between civil society institutions and the government, and tells us why the social sector needs to spend time with, and learn from, the informal sector. In this interview with IDR, Fernandez talks about the evolution of SHGs in India. In 2020, he was awarded the Padma Shri for his contributions towards social development. A firm believer in learning from communities in their own environments, Aloysius has spent the last seven decades dedicated to helping people build institutions. As the executive director of MYRADA, he introduced the concept of self-help groups (SHGs), which set the stage for microfinance and its exponential growth in the country. An economist by training and a social worker by practice, Aloysius Fernandez transformed the space of financial inclusion in India.

$fractured space pioneer build$

Fractured space pioneer build