Raja is our teacher. He uses a long stick to point at the screen. He doesn’t need it to poke us into attention. We are locked on to his every word.
He has a lot of experience. Forty or more years of working with MYRADA. His story is one of trial and error. Groups that failed to produce trust. Groups that were dominated by tribal leaders. Groups that flourished but only for short periods. The winning formula was eight years in the making, and twenty in the perfecting.
By now Raja is MYRADA’s éminence grise but he served in dozens of positions as the organisation found its way. Encouraging women to join groups. Encouraging local leaders to share power with citizens. In the early days, flicking through the pages of each groups accounts trying to work out why loans went unpaid. Training people to do the job better than he could. Helping the organisation secure a license for a radio station to transmit training and innovation to tens of thousands of households.