At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. This week we invited yet another passionate women entrepreneur Elca Grobler for an exclusive interview with us. Elca is a Leader, Entrepreneur and Founder and CEO of My Choices Foundation. Let’s read more about her incredible journey so far and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Elca:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a women entrepreneur, please;
I hold honour in Econometrics and Mathematical Statistics, as well as a CFA and received my MBA at the Australian Graduate School of Management. My expertise is in finance and banking. After completing my MBA in Sydney, Australia, I made the decision to leave the Financial Services sector after 7 years and use my skills and experience to empower developing communities, joining Opportunity International Australia – a world leader in micro-finance in the developing world.
After spending 3 years as part of the organisation, our family decided to move to India in 2011, with my husband and three young children. This was as a result of a call and desire that I felt to serve women in India by working for their education and empowerment. I knew that to really serve the women in India, I needed to start by listening to them, spend time with them and allow them to share their stories with me. My idea was to use my expertise in Finance to strengthen women to become economically independent.
To my surprise, the women, women’s groups and NGOs that I met with kept reiterating that they needed help solving one issue that few were acknowledging, let alone addressing: Domestic violence. Financial empowerment or education, I realised, is not effective if women are subject to violence at home. I continued meeting with women almost everywhere across India to further understand women’s needs. It was clear that we first had to address domestic violence in the lives of women and children in India before we can move onto any other services to them.
It was out of this need that Operation PeaceMaker, the first initiative of My Choices Foundation, was born. I worked with local women, passionate about their own communities to develop a program that would meet the challenge of domestic violence in a way that would not disrupt family, cultural and religious values. One thing was sure; I, together with my small team at that stage, wanted to create a solution that would work for women, it would have to work for their families too.
Operation PeaceMaker focused its efforts on counselling and solving violence through mediation and including every member of the family – including the perpetrator – in the process of establishing peace. Although this was our first initiative, we grew and established Operation Red Alert, addressing sex trafficking and the exploitation of women and girls in India.
Operation Red Alert commissioned an 18-month research paper (that won the ESOMAR Best Paper of the Year Award 2015-16), doing landscape analysis and studying the behavioural aspects on both the supply and demand side of trafficking, you can learn more about our Good Father campaign that resulted from the research, The Good Father.
I was honoured when I was invited by TedxHyderabad to share my story and how we started My Choices Foundation, you can view the video here, TedxHyderabad. Later in the interview, we will discuss more about the two operations.
My Choices Foundation is now 10 years into its journey of creating choices for women, choices to live a life free from abuse and sexual exploitation.
What attracts you towards entrepreneurship instead of a corporate career?
While residing in Australia I completed my MBA (Australian Graduate School of Management), after completing my CFA (Chartered Financial Analyst) in South Africa. We lived and worked in Sydney and I worked in Consulting. It was clear that working in the finance sector was my passion and in this lies my expertise.
Once I completed my MBA whilst working, I realised that I did not want to return to the corporate sector and wanted to leverage my MBA experience, with my finance expertise for social good, becoming a social Entrepreneur. I started working for a leading provider and pioneer in a socially-focused microfinance group, for the remaining 3 years in Australia.
My deep desire to speak for those that are most oppressed, and for those that cannot speak for themselves was fueled by my experiences working in microfinance. This desire for social justice, specifically for women and girls is a seed that had grown in my heart for many, many years. When we arrived in India my desire for social justice and working for the women and girls in India, resulted in starting My Choices Foundation.
‘My Choices Foundation’ is such a unique name; talk us through more about it, please. Our audience would also love to know what kind of problem you are solving?
The name is a reflection of what we want to give each and every woman and girl in India – a CHOICE to live a life free of abuse and sexual exploitation, and a CHOICE to live their lives freely. To offer them this life of freedom.
My Choices Foundation aims to see the transformation of India into a safe, peaceful, and flourishing place for women and girls, by empowering women and girls with the awareness, education, and support they need to become their own change agents. We address two of the most pervasive and intractable human rights abuses, domestic violence and anti-sex- trafficking, through our two initiatives. Operation PeaceMaker and Operation Red Alert.
Operation PeaceMaker of My Choices Foundation aims to stop domestic violence while promoting gender equality through sustainable grassroots programmes that empower girls and women to be agents of change. We address the issue of domestic violence by providing free counselling, legal and safe home services through our 5 counselling centres and 11 regional partners across India. We also conduct customized awareness programmes based on the demographic we are addressing to help reduce violence against women and girls.
Operation Red Alert created the Safe Village Program, aimed at sensitizing at-risk community members about sex trafficking risk factors and child marriages, creating awareness about ways to prevent trafficking, sustaining the awareness, and empowering the community through Rakshaks, Nodal Teachers and Gram Mitra concepts.
Focused on rural India, the Safe Village Program includes innovative tools such as comic books and a national helpline and is tailor-made with special messaging for each of the stakeholders to speak to their particular situation and provide powerfully relevant information and motivation to be safe. The Safe Village Program uses an innovative technology called the Village Mapping Tool that helps identify villages that are at high risk for being on the radar of traffickers. Learn more about the importance of Operation Red Alert here, Meet Bhavani.
Nine years have passed since the establishment of My Choices Foundation and we are humbled by the honour that we have to have reached thousands of people through our Operations. Working alongside my team, partners and the women and girls in India, through Operation Peacemaker we have established 5 Counselling centres in the state of Telangana and 11 regional partners across India that have worked to resolve over 11,000 cases of domestic violence and educated 144,961 women and girls about abuse.
Through Operation Red Alert we have conducted over 5,000 Safe Village Programs and educated over 2.5 million people on the dangers of trafficking. We have received over 50,000 calls on India’s only national trafficking helpline to date. And this is just the start.
During this Covid-19 Crisis, what drove you and your team to continue reaching vulnerable communities in India?
To be fearless for the women and girls that we serve – that was what drove our team at My Choices Foundation more than ever during COVID-19. Each one of us had to be fearless. 2020 was a deeply painful year. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed one of the deepest cracks in our society: our continued failure to protect women and girls. All crimes against women and girls showed a sharp rise, from domestic violence, child sexual exploitation, child labour, sexual harassment, to trafficking.
COVID-19 created a pandemic within a pandemic. Women had to choose between going out on the streets and being killed by the virus or staying at home and being destroyed by abuse. The unprecedented protective measures to contain the spread of pandemic has made home a dangerous place for thousands of women and children. They are fighting for their survival from their perpetrators in the prisons of their homes.
In parallel, human traffickers got creative, tweaked their ‘business models’ and abused technology to recruit and exploit victims. School closures led to increased crimes against children such as cyber-trafficking, grooming and live streaming of child sexual abuse.
We understand that the stride towards ending violence against women and girls is a long-winding road with many stumbling blocks. Honouring the words of Dr King, we continued to march on, armed with resilience and hope amidst all adversities. Along the way, COVID-19 has taught us many life-changing lessons as well.
We have learnt how to be stronger, wiser and kinder. More than ever our team had to see through the eyes of the women and girls we serve to understand how better to help in these challenging times. As a team, we knew that the women were counting on us to continue our work and we were counting on them. Uplifting women and girls is the greatest gift we can give them, the gift of providing them with choices to live a life free from abuse.
During the pandemic, We distributed essential supplies to more than 13,000 people, charted out new digital strategies and harnessed the power of technology. We discovered new ways to reach vulnerable populations, we launched an additional domestic violence helpline, we strengthened our Implementing Partners (grassroots NGOs) that are based in eight states of India and we kept going.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
Persistence, patience, perseverance and prayer (in whichever form this may be) is one mantra we live by at My Choices Foundation and what I instil in my team. We do not give up and not one life is left behind or not important.
Every 3 minutes in India a girl gets trafficked into sexual slavery – so for us, every minute of our work counts, every girl counts.
For us, success looks slightly different and is in the number of lives we reach and people we educate on the danger of abuse and exploitation. One person educated is a success for us, because that means one person can choose to live a life free of abuse. But this ‘success’ would not have been possible without persistence and a belief in our work and that it can transform lives.
Secondly, just as important to reach success is to surround yourself with people that share your passion and that can grow with you. Success, as well as failures, only work this if shared with people with the same vision that you have.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
Firstly – I will echo the words of C.S Lewis: “Do not dare not to dare” – If you don’t dare, you will never achieve. By being relentlessly brave, we grew to be one of India’s fastest growing NGO’s and the leader in prevention and awareness work.
Secondly – Be sure to have a strong purpose and unwavering vision of what you want to create and achieve. If this is not clear to you and the team, we will not be able to reach the women and girls in India and give them a life free of abuse and exploitation.
Lastly – Embrace the grieve that comes with the journey. Grieving with the injustices and pain these women and girls are facing is not a weakness. It can become a strength if it is channelled correctly.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
I believe in life-long learning and that there is not such a time as “you know enough” or “you are now done with learning”. Being a leader, it is vital to listen and learn from the people around you. I am an eager learner and reader and have done this since the day I arrived in India and will continue to learn from the phenomenal women that have gone before me.
The work that we do entails new ideas and constant revisit of our vision. By continually enabling myself and learning, one can adapt and even be ahead of the changing environment around us. This entails acquiring knowledge through online courses, familiarizing myself with the issues that we deal with – Law protecting women in India, The psychological habits and thoughts of perpetrators. Being familiar with a subject matter, also make one confident to operate and build your organisation.
Lastly, one cannot adapt to the changing world and environment if you do not adapt technologically, and at a rapid pace. My Choices Foundation is proud of the technological advancements it has incorporated as part of the organisation, that enables us to reach women and girls in the most remote areas of India. We built a data analytics tool, the Vulnerability Mapping Tool, to map villages highly prone to trafficking in eight states in India.
Our partnership with Quantium has existed for the past three years and together, we built India’s first ‘mapping tool’ using big data analytics – identifying the most risk villages to trafficking. The Village Vulnerability Mapping Tool is a big data solution developed by Quantium that analyses India’s census data; government education data, and other sources for factors such as drought, poverty level, proximity to transportation stations, educational opportunities, population, and distance to police stations; to identify the villages and towns that are most at risk of human trafficking.
This allows us to prioritise and conduct our education programs on a priority basis – critical to those villages where girls are most at-risk and every moment is crucial. The tool also enables our 100+ field trainers to capture data online and in real-time perform the necessary analysis.
Quickly adapting to the changing environment due to Covid-19 we conceptualized the building of eLearning modules (Anti -Trafficking 101, Allied Issues & Laws & Safe Village Program, as well as Modules on Domestic Violence). Building on our existing technology platform, this proposed digital module will be built to be scalable, replicable, and sustainable.
This module will have a ripple effect not only in the way we deliver training and retaining to our field workers and counsellor training, but can also become part of the program delivery. It will enable us to spread virtually to all colleges and schools – as an open course with modules on trafficking, domestic violence, abuse against women and allied laws.
The reach and impact and reach of these courses will be significant. It also entails launching all our content on open source platforms. These include different Global education platforms such as ChalKit, Philanthropy University, EDx to name a few. These online training modules will develop into accredited courses which allows people to globally participate.
In your opinion, what is more necessary: An idea or a good team for a successful startup?
In the Social Justice sector – You have to have a clear vision and a relentless commitment to what should be. The idea is extremely important, but the passion and the motivation behind the idea is what will motivate anyone starting an organisation for business to keep going when disappointments present themselves.
And it will. If there is no passion and a deep desire for what you do, you will end up giving up when things get really tough. Equally important is the people that you surround yourself with, that and the team that you build. No organization or business can be successful with only one person leading and believing.
You have to have people in your team and organisation that share your passion. Especially in My Choices Foundation, as we deal with heartbreaking and tremendous trauma, we have to have a team with a shared passion. We, at My Choices Foundation, have built a strong and resilient team and this is such a major part of our success.
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
There are many things that work well, but I have to acknowledge, it is also in the disappointment and in the various trials and errors that one is familiarised with what works well and what does not work well within an organisation. These obstacles present many opportunities for growth.
Greatness is not achieved in a day’s work, but it is achieved through consistency, with a deep love for the work one does. I deeply love what we do at My Choices Foundation and this, with my and my team’s dedication to what we do enables us to be successful and grow and reach the vulnerable communities in India.
I will close with a quote that highlights the importance of the work that we do and the importance of giving a voice to the voiceless:
“I raise up my voice not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” ― Malala Yousafzai
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
My team and I have been given the privilege to sstep into thousands of families’ lives & home and help them slowly repair the broken pieces, and replace violence with peace. This motivates us, the privilege that we have to step inside the homes of families.
What also motivates me is the resilience of the women and girls we work with and the courage that the women and the girls portray, who come from extremely abusive homes, is a true inspiration and keeps me going day after day.
When someone, for the first time in 14 years, shares their story with a PeaceMaker or a counsellor at one of our centres for the first time, it is inspirational. It is inspirational how they have had the resilience to live through this all these years for the safety of their children. Moreover, it moves us how they have the courage to start speaking and standing up to the abuse, once they have received the tools how to cope.
Most of these women do not have a choice to live a life without abuse and exploitation. They have to go back to their homes for the sake of the children and that displays true courage. The spirit of the human soul that does not give up can be reflected in the schoolgirls’ absolute commitment and courage to look after one another and not make the same mistake that their mothers made.
In most cases, this is not the mistake of the mothers, since they were born in this situation. But to think about a girl who dreams of a better life and is willing to learn and sit by candlelight only to have a better future and be educated – this is inspirational and this is what encourages me and my entire team.
The courage of a 14-year old that phones the helpline, stating that her parent is forcing her into a child marriage, and can we please help her. It is this type of courage, resilience and beauty of these girls that keeps us going and inspires us and that makes us get up every morning to stand up for them when they can’t do it themselves.
There is also a quote that truly inspires me and that I live by: These are the words of Bryan Stevenson (is an American lawyer, social justice activist, founder/executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative, and a law professor at New York University School of Law.):
“We have to be willing to do uncomfortable things, to do inconvenient things—that’s when the world changes” Bryan Stevenson.
We would love to know your advice for all those starting out as an aspiring women entrepreneur?
There is a saying – “A dream is something you want to do, but a Calling is something you have to do.”
Starting a business or starting a Nonprofit Organization has one definite characteristic in common and that is the unrelenting desire and passion for what you believe in. My passion for righteousness, a righteous anger – to give women and girls choices to live a life free of abuse is so strong, it motivated me to take action and start My Choices Foundation. The desire will result in success although there are many obstacles along the way.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
