“The mantra for the social worker is be passionate and be with the community,” says Lukka Thurayil, Profugo’s Field Director in Wayanad, India. We had the opportunity to interview him to find out what keeps him motivated and inspired regarding community development. Hopefully it will leave you feeling inspired too!
1. For our readers to know a bit about you before we get in to the “real” questions, tell us a little about yourself. What activities do you enjoy when you’re not working? What is a favourite memory you have with your family? What is your favourite food? Anything else you would like to share about yourself?
Going around the world and see new places, people is what I enjoy if not working. In fact my dream about engagement after retiring from full time professional engagement is travelling to new places and seeing the life around.
My family lived mostly in Trivandrum, capital city of Kerala and Bangalore, capital city of Karnataka. My daughter from her early childhood lived in these places. When I decided to take up the position in Valad too interior an area with bare minimum facilities for schooling, health care, entertainment and travel, I felt it would be too much for them to shift. I asked them to continue in Bangalore or move to Trivandrum. But my family together said we are coming with you to the people in Valad and we will live in the facility that is available there. A support that every social worker would cherish to get from the family.
Irrespective of all items that I have tasted across the journey in many cities, states and countries, I still am fond of “Tapioca and Fish Curry”.
2. What inspired you to devote your career to community development and social work?
I did not come into this work by coincidence or by chance, but I deliberately selected social work as my career. I only applied to one college in one course, which was MSW at Loyola College of Social Sciences, Trivandrum. I was completely focused on this goal. From childhood, social work has been a passion to me. To add to that, I never applied to a government job, and always sought to work with NGOS and other non-profit entities.
In my career there are two links in everything I have done. First, everything I have done is linked to development interventions. Second, I always had the orientation to remote villages throughout my career. These two things I have kept close to my heart.
3. Social work can be difficult, what keeps you going and how do you stay positive?
Yes, there are a lot of challenges working in this sector. The shift in concepts and approaches, the difficulties in raising funds, lack of recognition, the deviation required to cause a change in the society, the accusations of facilitating anti-social and anti- government thoughts and actions, and above all sometimes the disbelief from the community due to their past bad experiences.
You need to accept from the very beginning that nothing is going to remain the same, the concepts, practices and attitude will change, we need to be patient and keep trying. Experimenting new things, understanding the community and being with them is something that I always follow. I’m not expecting to change the entire world head down, but the little smile in the faces of the community that I work for, the small changes in their lives makes me happy and I know it is the beginning of many greater things to come.
For me the basic nature of a social worker should be finding happiness in small things and challenging your environment so that you never become tired of the setbacks and half achievements. I do always believe that “the determination of one man – a small group to follow a dream can work wonders.”
4. There are many non-profits in India, why did you choose Profugo?
That is of course an interesting and relevant question. Because before coming to Profugo I was working in impact investing in Northeast India, for an organization based out of Bangalore. As you know, it was a glamorous job with the authority to sanction crores of money. I came to know about Profugo through one of my friends who understands how I think and saw the listing for the Profugo Organizational Leader opening and passed the position along.
There are two key things which made my decision to join Profugo easy. I have worked with many development organizations and very often I was fed up with the vested interest and the profit motive of the visionaries. Here I saw an entirely different visionary group who wanted to help the community selflessly. I was so happy to join such a group as it is a rare opportunity in today’s current society. Second thing is Profugo’s Center of Development concept and doing development comprehensively, from every angle. This concept I believe is crucial in bringing up sustainable development and improving quality of life. Impact investing is glamorous work, but I am most interested in walking with the community, sitting with the community, planning with the community, and working alongside the community. Living with the community and seeing a smile on their faces when the work is done; the joy from that feeling is immersed in my blood.
5. You have been with Profugo for 4-5 years now, what accomplishments are you the most proud of so far?
Profugo is now a rare group in India. The only farmer’s collective in India with 3695 women farmers working together to improve their quality of life by providing healthy and sustainable food solutions to people. This progress has come without any support from the government sector and I know that in two more years we will continue to grow like this and all the government mechanisms will be after us to share the glory. But the women have collectively accomplished this, with the support of visionaries from Profugo, planting the seeds and paving the way. There are 48 women entrepreneurs ready to establish food processing units of their own. They are going to become entrepreneurs who will shape the future of these four panchayats (local districts). They just need some seed funding and if that is materialised, this is going to be a dream come true for these women. What more could I ask for within 4 years!!!
6. There are over 3500 families involved with Profugo, how do you keep all of them engaged and on track?
In my previous work in the HIV-AIDS field, l learned an important lesson while working with the target community. We have to identify from within the community what can bring people together. You cannot bring something from the outside and ask them to unite around that. It has to come from the community itself. Once we have that common theme to work around, then it is easy to keep all the community members very much engaged, focused and on track.
In Valad this core theme was agricultural activities, as it is critical to life here and what people naturally rally around. That is why we set up a sustainable agriculture farmer producer company and led the people to multiple activities from cultivation, collection, value addition, marketing, quality improvement.
Everyone has a role to play, activities to take part in, contributions to make, keeping everyone engaged and always happy to associate.
7. Where do you see Profugo in 2025? Do you have any specific goals or hopes?
In the next one year I would like to see major progress at Profugo and for the community. This is in fact harvesting the investment and effort that we have put in for the last decade. We have to build on the foundation established thus far so the community can stand on its own. In short, the focus is to consolidate, put structure and design, and expand on sustainable agriculture, sustainable animal husbandry, and enterprise incubation. Some goals are goat breeding unit established with 600+ goats, 48 women entrepreneurs, microfinance program reaching 20 million in disbursement, and Profugo’s toxin free produce expanding to urban sales channels.
8. What advice would you give someone starting out in social work and non-profit work?
If you want to pursue a social work career, you have to be passionate about it. You cannot have time boundaries, activity boundaries, geographical boundaries; you have to do whatever is required for the community. The mantra for the social worker is be passionate and be with the community. If you have the skills and you’re committed to this work, the rest will come along naturally. If you are looking for money – choose the corporate world. If you want recognition and glamour – choose performance sector. If you are looking for power – choose politics. If your heart bleeds and empathises with the poor, marginalised and neglected –then you have a place in social work.