What opportunity do we have to stay longer in India. Check out corporate foundations. I spoke with Kasia Lechowicz (on the photo) who spent 9 month in India in 2008.

PART I

- How did you come up with the idea of working in corporate foundation in India?

I think that a lot of young people have no money to go for a long to a country like India so they look for a work to earn for it. I wanted to do it on the same time - to earn money while a living in the country. I did not want to work in a big company, but I knew that most of the large companies in India has its foundations. If you do not want to decide to volunteer, or do not have that option, I think that the form of work, which I have chosen is very interesting.

- What are the main advantages of such a form?

- The most important for me are the skills you can gain in project management and budget. When we go to volunteer, we rarely deal with the whole project. We are just part of the project. Someone else determines how the project will look like, how will it be funded, who will be responsible for its subsequent implementation. However, in such a corporate foundation, you take responsibility for the entire budget. You can see the whole project and its closed nature. Therefore, you do not work only in the field, with people - which you can find in most of the volunteering programmes, but also sits in the papers. It is perhaps more boring, but in the professional development is very useful.

- What does the foundation, yo worked with, do?

- Foundation, which I worked in is mainly providing the assistance to the schools. India is a very poor country and the development assistance comes from many places. It is often not very well organized and get lost somewhere in the middle of the road. My company for a very long time was doing assessment an d was looking for a right place to support it. In the end they decided to support several schools around Gurgaonu and Delhi. Hospitals are another popular destination for corptorate foundations. But they choose always the specific places.

- What is the relationship between corporate foundations, and large humanitarian organizations such as Oxfam, Save the Children?

- They deal with totally different things. The advantage of corporate foundations is that they work in specific locations. A big relief and humanitarian organizations pursue a wide variety of projects. When you activities take care of something smaller and concrete, you can watch the positive changes and focus on long-term assistance there.

- And do they cooperate with each other?

- Rarely. Corporate foundations are self-financed, so they do not need support from outside.

- What did surprise you the most in your work with Indians?

- One million thing, and even more. What really surprised me, was the Indians' relationship to the superior. It seems to me that we (most of my friends) are not afraid to express our opinions, talk about something is possible to do something in another way. Hindus never contests the order of his boss. They follow them, even if it is incompatible with their belief. I can count the number of people who questioned the chief command on the fingers of one hand .If there is a brain storm, it's actually not, because everyone is waiting for the boss' words. Another thing that does not exist for them is the word "no." Even if they know that they will be able to something ... There is a business book, which speaks about how the Europeans learn to work in India. There are a couple of interesting examples, such as different ways of saying "no." The positive responses can be inferred about the "no". If Hindus says: "Yes, work will be done in one hundred percent", we feel that it will be done. If s/he said "yes, it will be done", it means that we do not have confidence that it will be done. If s/he said "yes, it will be done, however it depends on the weather ... but, yes - it will be done", we know that it absolutely will not be executed. I needed to learn this. I am accustomed to say: "Listen, this is not possible" or "I'll do it another time."

For Polish readers the ful interview and useful links here.