Economic Sustainability for Kranti's Future

I hope this message finds you all well! I am one of the Krantikaris and I'm writing to update you about Vakoloft. You guys have all been supporting Vakoloft, which was an income generation venture for Kranti. It has been very up and down, but I wanted to write and update you about everything happening here. My name is Shweta and I've been at Kranti for four years....and I've been at Vakoloft pretty much from the beginning. One of our staff, Melissa, designed this space a few months ago, and the most interesting thing has been watching the ideas, events, people and space evolve since then.

First, the good news! Vakoloft has been an amazing, amazing asset for many reasons. Particularly for media, school, meetings and community events. Since we have a tin roof on the top floor of Kranti's space (which is where the classroom is), it was unbearably hot during the summer months, and we held Kranti school in Vakoloft for nearly four months! There are several groups that started using Vakoloft for meetings, including women's rights groups, non-profit organizations and even a poetry club. We've also had some major events happen here, including concerts, plays and even hosted 15 university students from the US! But I think one of the most fun and interesting things that happened for us this year was all the media events and shootings that took place here the past six months. This includes an awesome, awesome video that we Kranti girls made to fight stigma against dark skin. (Link below!) It was just a lot of fun to see the newspapers, online videos and even TV programs where Vakoloft was always in the background. :)

Of course we faced many difficulties as well....there are normal logistical (Indian!) problems like occasional water and electricity outages. But we have also had a really, really hard time with the weather - it was an exceptionally hot this year in India, and some of our regular groups ended up not using the space for a couple months due to the heat. It is much better since the monsoon started and people are needing indoor spaces again! :P Overall, we haven't made a lot of money, but we have definitely covered the costs of running Vakoloft, and we've had a lot of fun along the way. For the next couple months, we are focusing on getting back all of our lost summer clients, fixing the electricity issues and raising enough funds to design and roll out Kranti merchandise. 

We cannot thank you enough for all you have done to make our Vakoloft experiment feasible! It takes time to design, create, implement, evaluate and update things when you start an experiment....and we would not be able to do this without you. I know many of you are not in India, but it would be a privilege to have you visit Vakoloft if you are ever here. Thank you so much for your support...and for reading this! 

Sincerely,

Shweta