PLANET WHY-- A Guest House with a Difference
Planet Why Guest House will offer travellers a chance to enjoy authentic Indian hospitality and culture in a clean, well-run, reasonably priced place, furnished using local materials. Because the site is near the Delhi green belt, but close to the Metro, the proposed motorway, and the airport, guests can mix quiet rural days with the bustle of central Delhi. While it would be a good base for a complete one to two week holiday, or for a longer period for those seeking time to relax and immerse themselves in India, it would also be ideal for travellers looking for somewhere to start and/or end their wider travels in India because of its closeness to major roads and the airport.
Reason for Planet Why
Planet why is the logical outcome of project why and answers a whole new set of whys that came our way during our seven years on the field.
We began this incredible journey with a simple question: why do so many children drop out of schools in India's capital city? We slowly crafted a model that we feel is one that can be replicated as it draws most of its resources from within the community. Our model has proved successful as we have had no drop outs in the last seven years and this achievement goes to the credit of a team entirely drawn from the community we work with.
It has not been easy as social transformation has inherent problems but we overcame them one by one. It was an an intuitive feeling that made us choose this model seven years back. Today we stand vindicated as 2010 looms on our head heralding the inevitable relocation of many of the slums we work in. hence our choice of staff from within the community and our choice of classrooms (from reclaimed garbage dumps to road sides via rented rooms) was the right one. The only thing that is still not resolved is the sustainability factor as our one rupee a day programme did not quite get off, though one again intuition says it will some day.
Working with a community means working with individuals too and the last seven years has dropped in our lives many children of a lesser god that we need to walk through life. But come 2010 and even earlier places that were available to us will be gone as the sealing laws will take away from us all affordable space.
These are all the new whys that need an answer and planet why is the solution we seek.
Planet Why, will be a social business, generating income to support itself and enable Project Why’s mission to continue into the long term.
Planet Why will employ, train, and house disabled young adults, vulnerable women and their children. It will provide employment and other opportunities for local people through the foreign visitors it will bring and the education and training it will make available. Although this is a social business – that is, driven primarily by the mission not the maximization of profits – it will have to succeed first as a business before it can achieve its social and environmental objectives or succeed as the sustainability concept for Project Why.
Just as no commercial business can start without capital investment, and very few commercial businesses make a profit immediately, Planet Why similarly needs initial investment and support during its development phase. Because business investors normally expect returns that a social business cannot achieve, we have to look to non-traditional sources for the start-up backing we need.
For more information about PlanetWHY Click HERE
(Field office) 251A/3 Govindpuri, Kalkaji, New delhi 110019
Phone: 91 9811424877 and 91 9999079705
Email: anouradha.bakshi@gmail.com