When the chance to join Samuha at their Hosur Cross office in Irkalgadda came his way, Hemmana took it and, over the next few years, became the go-to person for all kinds of tasks and errands. He cleaned the office, took care of the landscaping, learnt how to make tea to suit a number of individual tastes, and did other odd jobs around the place, including cleaning toilets. He would have liked to have learnt more about the work that Samuha did but didn’t know how to communicate this. He also felt insecure about the fact that he could only speak Kannada, and not even a few words of English.
Eventually, Hemanna signed up for the Head Held High program and joined nine other individuals in an Indiranagar location where, over the next few months, they delved into exercises in speaking, writing and various other assignments designed to boost their communication skills as well as their confidence levels.
If there is any validation needed for the program, the trajectory that Hemanna’s story then took provides this. After completing the training, he and his fellow trainees joined an HDFC insurance unit in data entry roles. They worked to improve their speed, going from completing 75 forms in one day to wrapping up 15 forms in ten minutes!! Following this, he worked with Head Held High to start and run a rural BPO type setup near his village to handle data entry requirements for clients. When security concerns eventually forced them to shut down the unit, Hemanna went back to Samuha for a job.
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