CSR Annual Day
Very awaited by me for a number of reasons – the occasion has come. One the 28th of April Centre for Social Research, India where I work held its Annual Event. But the release of the Annual Report (which for me was already good enough) CSR was releasing its Manual for Police Trainers, such a colorful and playful book devoted to the serious issues of domestic violence and trafficking in women. You can get acquainted with the content of the event and the major points that the guests of honor touched upon here, but for some backstage material carry on with the reading ;o)
The last month I’ve been working so hard on the CSR’s annual report. On the contrary to the opinions of many, an annual report for an NGO has not much to do with various financial reconciliations and forms even though it includes basic financial information. Yet, an NGO’s annual report is mainly to document the major projects, accomplishments and initiatives of the year. So, my task (was about to write – the trick… believe me, it was one) was to get information from our 3 departments, to edit it and put into the format so to give it to the publisher who’s add some final touch and would nicely pack this baby. Needless to say, the report, while being quite important for the organization as such, appeared to be the lowest priority for the people working in it. And as many things like that (much wanted by the bosses, but attended least by the employees) it was on my sake to compile it. Think of it: on the sake of me – me being non-Indian, most junior in every sense and therefore having no authority or credit for it whatsoever, yet energetic and determined to accomplish stuff. So……I ended up with extracting information from whatever sources available and at times not available at all, writing most of the chapters myself, working out the format, upgrading the template, proof-reading after a number of proof-readers just to still find weird abstracts not making sense (that is what happens when 3 people, one after another, think they can make the text look better), working in PageMaker and CorelDraw to make the report look neat and the cover page appear nice… Many times I found myself in the desperate situation waiting for some information to come… as it is essentially people who possess the latter… unless documented it does not exist on its own… But I am happy I gave a life to this information in a way: now it does not belong to anyone and anyone can access it freely by going through the annual report.
Anyway….. the night before the Annual Event we got the first copies of the annual report - freshly printed and still warm…. Just to figure out two worst spelling mistakes on the last page (after every change made I requested the upgraded copy from the publisher to confirm…. But the last one made on phone… I would never think that “Amount spent on various sectors” would appear as “Amount spend on various sector”) and ugly dark-orange stripes on the whole cover (the color appeared very uneven with some vertical clots)….. The publisher got his “bahut, bahut acha”….Which he, very patiently making whatever and however many small changes captious me requested to make … But for me the “bahut, bahut acha” never came….
Anyway….. the report was released. … check it out here, the event was a success and the pictures turned out nice ;o)
Yep… me… me… again in my sari…
Again tons of surprised smiles and compliments… The funny thing was that at the tea break Pooja, the major contributor to the Manual, was approached by one lady who was praising her in the great work… la-la..la…. And you look beautiful in your sari, she added…. My dear Poodja, thank you so much for commenting on that this is our trainee with a number of impressive backgrounds etc. Otherwise I would feel ultimately….. beautiful… I believe the lady wished nothing but to appear nice… I hope so at least….
My two new colleagues: Piyali and Rindhu. We are already having fun…
Kavita, Pooja and me. They both used to work for CSR with Gender Training Institute. Ladies, I miss you both…
Women with flowers are beautiful
Our whole team
The last month I’ve been working so hard on the CSR’s annual report. On the contrary to the opinions of many, an annual report for an NGO has not much to do with various financial reconciliations and forms even though it includes basic financial information. Yet, an NGO’s annual report is mainly to document the major projects, accomplishments and initiatives of the year. So, my task (was about to write – the trick… believe me, it was one) was to get information from our 3 departments, to edit it and put into the format so to give it to the publisher who’s add some final touch and would nicely pack this baby. Needless to say, the report, while being quite important for the organization as such, appeared to be the lowest priority for the people working in it. And as many things like that (much wanted by the bosses, but attended least by the employees) it was on my sake to compile it. Think of it: on the sake of me – me being non-Indian, most junior in every sense and therefore having no authority or credit for it whatsoever, yet energetic and determined to accomplish stuff. So……I ended up with extracting information from whatever sources available and at times not available at all, writing most of the chapters myself, working out the format, upgrading the template, proof-reading after a number of proof-readers just to still find weird abstracts not making sense (that is what happens when 3 people, one after another, think they can make the text look better), working in PageMaker and CorelDraw to make the report look neat and the cover page appear nice… Many times I found myself in the desperate situation waiting for some information to come… as it is essentially people who possess the latter… unless documented it does not exist on its own… But I am happy I gave a life to this information in a way: now it does not belong to anyone and anyone can access it freely by going through the annual report.
Anyway….. the night before the Annual Event we got the first copies of the annual report - freshly printed and still warm…. Just to figure out two worst spelling mistakes on the last page (after every change made I requested the upgraded copy from the publisher to confirm…. But the last one made on phone… I would never think that “Amount spent on various sectors” would appear as “Amount spend on various sector”) and ugly dark-orange stripes on the whole cover (the color appeared very uneven with some vertical clots)….. The publisher got his “bahut, bahut acha”….Which he, very patiently making whatever and however many small changes captious me requested to make … But for me the “bahut, bahut acha” never came….
Anyway….. the report was released. … check it out here, the event was a success and the pictures turned out nice ;o)
Yep… me… me… again in my sari…
Again tons of surprised smiles and compliments… The funny thing was that at the tea break Pooja, the major contributor to the Manual, was approached by one lady who was praising her in the great work… la-la..la…. And you look beautiful in your sari, she added…. My dear Poodja, thank you so much for commenting on that this is our trainee with a number of impressive backgrounds etc. Otherwise I would feel ultimately….. beautiful… I believe the lady wished nothing but to appear nice… I hope so at least….
My two new colleagues: Piyali and Rindhu. We are already having fun…
Kavita, Pooja and me. They both used to work for CSR with Gender Training Institute. Ladies, I miss you both…
Women with flowers are beautiful
Our whole team
posted by Olga Tikhonova | 10:05 am
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