It is refreshingly commendable that people from all over India and beyond are getting connected to discuss community building and effective altruism in general. After virtually connecting over a Zoom call with organisers from Cambodia and Sri Lanka last month, this time it was a pleasure to connect with a fresh graduate from India.
The interaction
He reached out to me after his Introductory EA program sessions and his curiosity was basically "Should I take the GWWC pledge or explore more opportunities to donate in India itself?"
This question is a natural curiosity for anyone who is just exploring philanthropy in the early stages of their career. I was glad that by the end of the meeting he verbally stated that his next step was clear - he wanted to take the trial pledge.
Throughout the meeting, we had discussed a plethora of topics - right from where he could maximise his impact with his donations to Effective Altruism in Indian context. I mostly tried to explain him about how we can expand our Moral Circle with our donation choices and the marginal impact that we can achieve as individuals deciding to give.
It was a sudden meeting right after the festive season here in India. I'm embedding a snippet from our conversations in this post (just realised I could not upload a g-drive mp4 in the post, so here's an unlisted Youtube material).
The pledger- Dhawal Mehta is a fresh graduate with a background in Engineering and Economics from BITS Pilani.
I'm myself considering taking the pledge but what really striked was "the brotherhood" angle the organiser has brought up. I am inclined to donating in my area too but the idea to foster altruism beyond such sentiments is worth it all. Good good people- good work there!
So happy to learn about people like Dhawal who are the current generation of bright Indians. I'm new in the community and working in Germany as an NRI (having family in India- Kolkata). You've rightly put up the moral circle angle. I knew that this concept was mostly used for animal welfare initiatives but it's enlightening how it could be applicable in donation/giving ideas for people across demographies and geographies as well.