Last weekend, Amy and I accompanied the CMF interns to Madurai. We got a chance to visit a microfinance institution (MFI) and a non-gonvernmental organization (NGO) that works with self-help groups (SHG). How’s that for a slew of acronyms?
Madurai seemed like a pretty nice place, although we were only there for a very short time. I’m not sure how much smaller it is than Chennai, but it felt smaller while still having stuff to do. The main attractions there are the temples and the one we visited was pretty impressive—but check out the photos yourself.
Of course, there was no relief from the weather…. Madurai was equally as hot as Chennai, and because we went to the temple in the middle of the day we almost gave ourselves blisters from walking around on the heated stone walkways (you have to remove all your footware before entering the temple). My leathery, calloused soles came in handy that day….
As for the groups we visited, the NGO, DHAN Foundation, really came off as an impressive organization that really had success empowering the people that they worked with. Everything seemed really community oriented and seemed to be done very selflessly…. It was really great to visit a group that obviously believed strongly in what they were doing. It really reminded me of the strong sense of commitment that I got from working with Peoples’ Self-Help Housing….
Oh, by the way, I’ve also decided to try out some more of Google’s web-hosting services including Googlepages and Picasaweb. Both seem pretty cool—very user-friendly of course…. I’m looking forward to whatever Google ends up doing with the online word-processing program that they are planning to offer some time in the near future….
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