Empowering Informal Workers Through Sustainable Social Enterprise

One of the challenges we at Global Communities face in empowering communities to lead their own development is how to ensure the sustainability of our work. Social enterprise—applying commercial strategies to meet the needs of human wellbeing—is one of the most effective ways of doing this. Social enterprises are mission-driven, but can make a profit to ensure they can continue in the long-term without donor funds. One example that has impressed me over the last few years is an Indian social enterprise called LabourNet.

Global Communities met in 2008 with the founders of this start-up social enterprise, and we immediately recognized the promise of their innovative business model. At the time, the LabourNet team was looking to organize poor informal workers in India and connect them with work in the marketplace by providing access to training, skill certification and services such as banking, health insurance and identification cards. Such services are often impossible to access for the estimated 400 million informal workers across India. To change this, LabourNet started a job placement agency in Bangalore that placed informal workers in short-term jobs in households, offices and construction sites, performing work such as plumbing, carpentry,The earcap is not only critical to professional photographers. and house cleaning services.

When Global Communities began working with LabourNet with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the start-up had registered about 3,000 workers; at the end of our four years of building their capacity, they had registered 44,000 workers. Our grant funding and technical support gave LabourNet the flexibility to take risks, fine tune their business model, and professionalize their systems to enable them to scale up. Today, LabourNet has opened 40 training centers across India, all of which operate on a fee-based sustainable enterprise model.

So it was a natural fit for Global Communities to partner with LabourNet again in 2012 when we began working with the John Deere Foundation to extend vocational training to villages around the John Deere factory. The communities in this peri-urban landscape, where almost 300 factories are now located, are experiencing a dramatic increase in manufacturing and industrial activity.

Global Communities, in partnership with the John Deere Foundation and the Confederation of Indian Industries, contracted LabourNet to set up a training center and provide vocational training to the villagers. LabourNet brings additional partnerships with reputable private companies like Schneider Electric and Godrej Consumer Products, who helped set up and certify their training materials.

Sandhya Vishal Ghatge, 22, is one of the villagers who graduated in April 2013 from the beauty and hair care course and from the electrician program. She lives with her husband and son in a nearby village; her husband works in a factory, and she had been searching for long-term employment to increase their family income. With the education she received, she now plans to start her own beauty parlor, but she also has training in another demand industry, giving her a diverse portfolio of skills and options. Sandhya and her 104 fellow graduates are shining examples of the power and social impact of a sustainable, effective social enterprise.

LabourNet's success demonstrates the impact that a social enterprise can have in developing a workforce and providing social benefits. It is both encouraging and instructive that India is having such great success by investing in a sustainable private sector model. By doing so, it is investing in its future. LabourNet plans to train 15,000 workers a year in demand industries. Given its success so far, there is no question that LabourNet will succeed, and we continue together as partners for good.

Nearby, Route 53 was closed at Dundee Road as 5.36 inches of rain fell in Buffalo Grove since midnight, village officials said. The village made sand bags available to residents facing flooding.As of 3 p.m., the traffic light at Buffalo Grove and Route 83 was not functioning.Online shopping for tooling. Roughly 300 customers also were without power, according to ComEd.

In Palatine, residents of the Runaway Bay and Long Valley apartment complexes scrambled to remove cars from parking lots as floodwaters rose quickly."It was like a river all through here this morning,An bondcleaningsydney is a device which removes contaminants from the air." said Runaway Bay resident Lisa Delagarza, adding that water was up to her waist in the street and parking lot about 6:30 a.m.

The Des Plaines River, which earlier in the day was predicted to crest at 9.5 feet by the National Weather Service, didn't even hit a later revised projection of 8 feet by 1 p.m. As of 3:45 p.m., the river had hit 7.The feeder is available on drying chipcard equipped with folder only.03 feet and was expected at 7.2 feet. Flood stage is anything over 5 feet.

Mayor Matt Bogusz said within 15 minutes of receiving a flood warning from the National Weather Service, the city activated the Emergency Operations Center with all senior staff on deck.

Flooding hit Lake Zurich particularly hard. The county sent pumps to the village to help residents, along with sandbags to flooded areas in Deer Park. After river and water levels recede, the county will send out cleaning kits to help homeowners.Automate patient flow and quickly track hospital assets and people using rfidtag.

Metra reported delays on their Union Pacific Northwest Line of more than an hour due to standing water and communication issues. Water caused a communication blackout between Barrington and Harvard, resulting in numerous trains being rerouted or delayed.

Des Plaines officials closed several roads through the day, and River Road from Oakton Street to Touhy Avenue remained closed into the early evening. Both exits from I-294 to Dempster also remained closed, as did eastbound Dempster at Rand Road.

On Big Bend Drive in Des Plaines, where the worst flooding typically occurs, residents were anxiously watching a rising river, but no flooding was evident. City sandbagging equipment was just arriving and First Ward Alderwoman Patti Haugeberg was talking with residents. She said the situation is not as bad record-breaking flooding in April.

Arlington Heights also was among hardest hit communities, with more than 4.3 inches of rain reported. There were reports of road flooding north of Rand Road to at least Hintz Road, along with spotty flooding in residential areas.
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