Nasmina runs iLAB India that focuses on making opportunities more accessible to women and children in the coastal communities of Kozhikode. Nasmina and her teammate Sabeena Ibrahimkutty, associate director at iLAB, connected with aikyam space to deep dive on key aspects of their work, such as program design, monitoring and evaluation, and fundraising.
"I have been running iLAB for the past eight years, but I have rarely come across such in-depth support sessions. Most support programs for NGOs follow a ready-made, one-size-fits-all model. A mentoring program that takes the time to understand the organisation and its activities is incredibly valuable," says Nasmina.
The activity based sessions helped us to reflect, and
- Listening as as important aspect of program design and team work
- Understand & map out the various stakeholders in our work
- Identify the key stakeholder who is at the centre of the program design.
- Map out the key needs of the different stakeholders.
- Write down the problem statement clearly.
- Identify which of these key needs from the problem statement can iLab's program solve for.
- What are the barriers while solving for those key needs?
- What is the funding requirement and how will the funds be utilised?
- How will we measure Impact and improve our program along the way?
"For organisations like ours, aikyam space is important in enhancing our efforts. I learned about proposal writing and budgeting, everything from the brainstorming process to finally structuring the proposal. I learned how to simplify and organise ideas and strategies, making them clear, engaging and easy to communicate. The sessions have transformed the way I share concepts." says Sabeena.
"I initially believed that providing a highly detailed and exhaustive budget would help convince the donor," explains Nasmina. "However, I learned that a simple, structured budget that derives from our program design and impact framework makes it easier for allies like funders to get a full view of our work."
Kadeeja Fidha, who is Talent Management lead at iLAB and also coordinates the digital tech literacy program, feels the time at aikyam space gave her a calm, safe space to work and ideate from. "Since most of our projects are in pilot phase, often they differ significantly from the original concept as the project progresses. One of my objectives was to get fully updated on all the iLAB projects, even those I am not directly working on," she says. "It was great to have a facilitator and at the same time, these interactions really showed me the potential of the team I am working with."
For Nasmina, one of the key takeaways was also understanding that that program outcomes could be assessed at multiple levels. "Recognising these different levels of impact allows for a more comprehensive evaluation," she says.
"This session helped me deeply reflect on the CEEM project, allowing me to analyze its structure, impact, and effectiveness more critically," explains Nasmina. "It provided clarity on how to design projects with a stronger focus on impact measurement. Moving forward, I can use this understanding to refine iLAB’s project models, ensuring they are more structured, outcome-driven, and effectively communicated in proposals."
