Editor’s Note: Alpa Natha is embarking on a personal journey to create a documentary film about the impact of illiteracy on the lives of men, women and children in India. Alpa hopes that her film project will be illustrative of research done by Dr. Miguel Sabado, Dr. Arvind Singhal and other social scientists about the impact media can have to influence positive social changes in human behaviors.

The film is being produced using the Gift Economy Model and in today’s post, Alpa explains what that means and her reasons for employing this approach. Soon, a comprehensive list of required Gifts and another of participating Gifters will be available here as well. – Sheraton Kalouria

- – -

So what is the “Gift Economy” anyway?

Gift Economy is the complete opposite of the economic model we are most familiar with in our everyday lives. Economics is about the exchange of money for goods and services. The laws of supply and demand play their magic and the energy of money propels the economic engine.

Gift Economy is a model whereby individuals give social capital such as their time, resources, skills, talents, and even blessings in exchange for sharing ownership in the success of a given project. The main difference is that instead of physical currency, these contributions are considered the tool or medium to exchange goods and services.

Editor’s Note: Alpa Natha is a woman with a mission. And we are better for it. Alpa and I were connected through our involvement with the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles this past April. Since then, I have come to appreciate Alpa’s deep personal commitment to eliminating illiteracy in India and across the globe. Very soon, Alpa will embark on a journey to India where she will begin to put together the pieces for a documentary film project with the importance of literacy at its core. Alpa will be blogging about her experiences here at Juhu.com. Today we share her first post. - Sheraton Kalouria

- – -

Dear friends and my well wishers…