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Head Held High Foundation, together with its subsidiaries, works on creating sustainable models for rural transformation. It identify
the communities, selects vulnerable youths, puts them through a six month unique training programmes and gets them employed either in its own.
Their vision is to be the catalyst in the transformation of rural India. They intend to this creating the skilled talent pool in the villages – and catalyzing the creation of new industries in the villages. They aim to make a difference to the most vulnerable by empowering them through breakthrough training and then enable them through livelihood.

The SAP team has been asked to help Head Held High Foundation from an IT point of view by suggesting tolls and setting up a
technology roadmap for the next years. The SAP employees working for this organisation are: Reyes, Brijesh and Dingling respectively from Spain, US and China. The team is showing great commitment and dedication to make sure that their deliverables will help Head Held High to succeed.

The next story is a great example on how this non-profit organization is changing the life of people in the rural part of India.

In September 2007, Rameh had come to Bangalore for the first time. For the first two and a half days in Bangalore, he never spoke to anyone. He sat in a corner in a room and asked everyone to leave him alone. Ramesh was a cowherd. He had never ever been to school. He didn’t know to write his name in any language. His life was all about his buffaloes. Ramesh entered in contact with HHH in June of the same year. He was asked to say his name and he couldn’t pronounce it properly after trying for half an hour. After about 2 hours, when all the interviews were over, he was asked to leave. He stood up, stretched his hands for a handshake and said, “My name is Ramesh. ‘Tenk’ you.” This determination helped him to be selected for the HHH programme.

In the first few days of the training, Ramesh found it extremely difficult to learn alphabets. p’s and q’s would look the same to him.
He would also find it difficult to remember all the keys on the keyboard. He constantly had head-ache. One day, he got lost in a bus in Bangalore – with no money. He didn’t know how to use toilets – since he always used the open grounds as his
toilet. He didn’t know how to shake hands because he had never done it. Ramesh was scared – of touching a computer, of talking to people, of travelling on a bus, of studying with girls.

However, Ramesh was determined and clear about his goals and slowly started learning and speaking English. As he became more confident, he started using the computers, slowly started opening the internet. Once he learnt how to google,
it became his best friend. He tried to search everything in google, though he would only understand what was in pictures in the beginning.

Ramesh’s first test came after about 5 months of training. This was a ‘Show and Tell Session’. Ramesh was supposed to showcase what he’d learnt to a group of dignitaries who were eager to know how Ramesh and his colleagues had fared. Ramesh
came out trumps – he truly stood there and spoke – for the first time on
stage and in English – this was the beginning of a new
future– where he started believing that he might just be able to stand up and become something in his life.

Ramesh, after about 6 months of training, went back to his home for his brother’s wedding. His mother, who hadn’t seen him for over six months, couldn’t recognize him. She had to be shown his identity card where
his earlier photo was printed to truly believe that it was her son, Ramesh.

After his training, Ramesh could type at 60 words per minute --.. he was ‘employed’ and started his first job!

  

Ramesh is now like a torchbearer – who brings hopes to the lives of many more people like him in his village. They, including the
people who have much more formal education than him.
We really hope to hear more stories like Ramesh’s thanks
to the SAP social sabbatical.

*Thank you to Reyes, Brijesh and Dingling for their help to write this blog