Since the beginning of my time here at Samaj Pragati Sahayog, I’ve had flashbacks to working with the Agaston Urban Nutrition Initiative* at Penn.  Both organizations have the ultimate goal of making sustainable change in the communities they serve.  By sustainability, I mean setting up a system where people can self-advocate, teach each other, and […]

Well we all knew someone had to write it—the blog post about how a Penn student describes yet another way in which she’s privileged after witnessing rural life in a developing country.  So to my fellow CASI interns, now you’re off the hook.  The privilege—out of an infinite list—that I’ll cover in this post is that […]

The Honey Hunters of Juladhar Two days ago, we went to speak to the honey hunters.  The day before, while looking through past SPS intern blog posts, we found one in which the honey hunters were mentioned.  According to Julie from 2011, the honey hunters were unreliable and drunk! “When we reached the village I […]

As of yesterday, we have officially finished the orientation stage of our internship at Samaj Pragati Sahayog.  We’ve spent the past nine days learning about the many initiatives SPS works on here in the Dewas District.  Most days have been a combination of orientation sessions in the lecture hall, Q&A with point people from each […]

In my first blog entry from India, I’ve decided to relay my experiences in Delhi because the next six posts about Samaj Pragati Sahayog will probably get a little repetitive.  For my first few days in India, I spent time sightseeing while staying at the India Habitat Center in Delhi, where Penn’s Institute for the […]

Hi everyone!  My name is Bevan and I am a rising junior from Philadelphia. I am majoring in Environmental Science in the college. I’ll be working with Samaj Pragati Sahayog in the Dewas District of Madhya Pradesh this summer.  SPS is an organization that aims to improve rural livelihoods by: managing the local watershed, helping […]