V-Awardees 2020
Akriti Gupta
23 years old, Haryana, Faridabad
In 2015, Akriti Gupta’s father was diagnosed with cancer and given a 10% survival chance. As a 17-year-old, she felt a lack of cancer awareness and taboo associated with the disease. That’s when the young leader started working on cancer awareness and has impacted 70000+ people to date. Akriti and her mother developed low-cost external breast prosthesis for them and started giving it for free. Today, they have collectively served 3500+ breast cancer survivors.
Another program was started to upskill and employ cancer impact families was started that resulted in 65000+ skill development centers. They provide scholarships for such training and help in employment. In 2019 Akriti also started working with an NGO, ‘Win Over Cancer’.
Her social enterprise ‘Canfem’, focuses on helping breast cancer survivors to have a better quality of life. Today, through this initiative, the organization has impacted 12000+ people. The organization aims to promote cancer Awareness via designed and implemented innovative, behavior change-focused campaigns towards cancer awareness. They also provide free prosthetic bras to cancer survivors that have been developed as low-cost breast prosthesis for breast cancer survivors and started its free distribution. The organization is also helping underserved cancer patients for their treatment by providing subsidies on cancer medicines, diagnostic tests and running fundraisers for treatment expenses, and helping cancer impacted families get upskilled and employed.
Chaitanya Prabhu founded ‘Mark Your Presence’ at the age of 20 and took up ‘registering’ as a challenge upon himself and registered 550 people and decided to register as many people as he could for the Lok Sabha elections. After realizing that he can register voters and empower young voters, Chaitanya met the Chief Electoral Officer to gain the support of the Election Commission. The organization started conducting seminars in colleges to spread the message and since then, the team has registered young voters and adapted different techniques to reach out to a larger audience. “Register in 7.30mins’ – I branded it,”
Turning youth into educated voters has been Chaitanya’s mission. The organization has registered 10,000+ voters and continues the campaign for young registrants. What started as a help to friends is now a movement on strengthening democracy. Mark Your Presence has served as a platform to bring people together for the task of nation-building. “I will not stop till every student is registered and is an informed voter in every college, school, and university of India,” says Chaitanya.
Chaitanya Prabhu
22 years old, Maharashtra, Mumbai City
Chetan Pardeshi
25 years old, Maharashtra, Pune
An all-rounder working in multiple areas like Quality Education, Good Health and Well Being, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Reduced Inequalities, and Partnership for sustainable development goals, Chetan has done it all at the age of 25.
This young volunteer from Pune has worked extensively and implemented several government initiatives like Digital India Week, Yoga Day, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, and Self for Society. He was a full-time National Youth Volunteer under the aegis of Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, Government of India.
Chetan conducted village-level surveys for youth volunteers and youth clubs and also on government schemes like Mid-Day Meal scheme, Adolescents Health Awareness, etc.
Harshit Gupta from New Delhi runs a non-profit organization called ‘Womenite’ that works on issues like child sexual abuse, gender, and menstrual hygiene in schools, colleges, and other community areas. Apart from reaching out to 2,00,000 students and women through our 300+ workshops and campaigns in different schools, colleges, and institutions, he carried out the whole COVID19 relief work on behalf of Womenite. The organization managed to impact over 20,000 girls and women by distributing 2 lakh sanitary napkins, 2000 dry ration kits, and serving over 5000 cooked meals. His organization worked in 100 North MCD schools as a part of safety week organized by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights.
Harshit’s engagement is through motivating the youth of our nation to do good for society. He believes that leadership is not about giving orders, it is about inspiring others to be leaders and setting an example by working more than the other members. He impacts various stakeholders at the same time that includes the youth working with human agents of change, communities in terms of school children, and 20,000 females via, distribution of sanitary napkins.
Harshit Gupta
25 years old, Delhi, West Delhi
Nupur Agarwal
28 years old, Uttarakhand, Dehradun
“ My mission is to mobilize the masses & inspire others.I believe volunteering is something that every person should do in any way possible”
Nupur Agarwal from Uttarakhand comes with a vision to develop & empower communities, intending to create inclusive societies. Through Dehradun Drum circle, she calls out to all kinds of people in a community to join the event.
An initiator, her project names ‘Kahaani’ works towards cultural preservation of a community through wall art depiction of old customs & traditions shared by the elder members in the form of stories.
Her initiative evolved as a social enterprise that works with the members of the village to make local & safe products. Nupur believes in learning by doing because of which she actively participates in every project and always aims to help communities develop in a smart & sustainable manner.
With a strong will to create an impact and help people, and from the inspiration that brave social workers have, Poorvaprabha Patil from Maharashtra has been brought up by a single parent- a strong and independent woman. She was sexually abused at the age of 6 and suffered from clinical depression at the age of 17. She attempted suicide in 2016.
Her recovery from it had been through volunteering and helping people, which soon turned from a ‘hobby’ to the very purpose of her life. Starting her journey from the ground up, Poorvaprabha is a self-starter, a young change-maker who embraces new ideas and creates solutions for challenges that the world currently faces. As a medico, she believes that it is her responsibility to do her best to ensure safe, accessible, affordable health care and health care for all, irrespective of who they are, what they do, or where they come from.
She started with a small volunteering effort which gradually led her to head an organization of 20,000+ medical students making an on-ground (person-to-person) impact to 2,00,000+ people per year, and working as the Regional Focal Point for the United Nations Major Group for Children and Youth; and being the Co-moderator for Health Information for All- a WHO supported global health network; among many other initiatives.
Poorvaprabha Patil
22 years old, Maharashtra, Ratnagiri
Pradeep Sharma
28 years old, Chhattisgarh, Bilaspur
“सीखने सिखाने के कार्यो में समुदाय और पालकों का अहम रोल होता है। जैसे विद्यालय का बच्चो के प्रति पर एक गेप जो दिखता था वह यह की समुदाय विद्यालय को अपना नही समझता था और विद्यालय भी समुदाय के लिए अपने आप को अलग रखता था। उनकी जिम्मेदारी केवल स्कूल तक ही रहती थी। हमने इस दायरे को खत्म करने का काम किया है। स्कूल में समुदाय का हस्तछेप केवल बैठकों तक सीमित न हो इसके लिए हमने उन्हें अलग अलग तरीके से जोड़ना शुरू किया उनकी भागीदारी बढ़ाने के लिए काम शुरू किया। समुदाय के कुछ पढ़े लिखे साथी अपना ज्ञान का कुछ हिस्सा स्कूल में देंवें। और कुछ कारीगर कुम्हार, बढ़ाई भी अपने कौशल का प्रदर्शन स्कूलों में करे इसके लिए उन्हें प्रेरित किया गया। यह समुदाय के लगातार करने वाले कार्य है पर जब स्कूल के शिक्षा के साथ इसे जोड़ा जाने लगा तब स्कूल और समुदाय का एक बेहतर रिश्ता बनते देखने को मिला, कुछ बुजुर्ग दादाजी एवं अम्मा कोई कहानी स्थानीय भाषा मे बच्चो को सुना दे वह मजा देखने को मिलता है। खेती के बारे एक किसान आकर बच्चो को बता सकता है। अपने खेत घुमा सकता है। यह असली ज्ञान है। जो किताबो के ज्ञान से असल जिंदगी से मेल खाता है। और इस ज्ञान को बच्चा जीवन भर नही भूलेगा।
इस बंद के समय खाना जितना जरूरी है शिक्षा भी जरूरी है यह बताना फिर इसके लिए उनसे सहयोग मांगना, उनका विश्वास जीतना और उनके ही आंगन में अपनी कक्षा लगाना और उनसे सहयोग लेना भी हमने किया है। समुदाय के सहयोग के बिना कोई कार्य नही हो सकता, आज हम कोरोना से बचने और सुरक्षा संबंधी उपाय को लेकर समुदाय को जागरूक करते है। निगरानी समिति बनाते है। कौन मास्क पहन रहा है या नही इसे देखते है। यह हम सभी के लिए है। बच्चो को जागरूक करते है। समुदाय के लोगो को विश्वास दिलाना कि हम सभी एक साथ है हम अपने भलाई के लिए यह सब कर रहे है, बच्चे जो सीखते है उसे समुदाय के साथ साझा करना,अभिभावकों को बच्चो के काम साझा करते हुए मनोबल बढ़ाना, शिक्षा के प्रति लगाव पैदा करना, यह विभिन्न छोटी-छोटी गतिविधियों और कार्यो से हम समाज और समुदाय के साथ जुड़ते है।”
खेती के बारे एक किसान आकर बच्चो को बता सकता है। अपने खेत घुमा सकता है। यह असली ज्ञान है। जो किताबो के ज्ञान से असल जिंदगी से मेल खाता है। और इस ज्ञान को बच्चा जीवन भर नही भूलेगा।
During lockdown, Rohan formulated a model of contact-less delivery of Essential Grocery boxes to unemployed workers by developing an Android App, India’s first app that caters to displaced community, successfully implemented in 3 States, impacted 1200+ people, and provided 8400+ days of essentials thus avoiding potential starvation.
Rohan’s initiative ‘Go-vid’ has served Telangana, Maharashtra and Kerala so far and he plans to serve across India. Go-vid started its journey in playing a small role to alleviate hunger for out of work daily wage urban workers both casual workers and those working in the informal sector by soliciting, collecting and packaging food for distribution through a network of kirana stores and other programs that serve our target population groups. The organisation’s services include grocery box programs and emergency food programs. Go-vid receives support from individual donors, charitable organizations and corporate sponsorship. The services improve the ability of families to care for children and achieve goals of self-sufficiency. Go-vid plans to serve 100,000 people in Telangana, 60,000 in Maharashtra and 40,000 in Kerala during the first year. To achieve this, it intends to distribute 25,000 grocery boxes in Telangana, 15,000 in Maharashtra and 10,000 in Kerala.
The organisation estimated 50-Lakh urban unemployed not getting the benefit currently, and assuming an average family size of 4, the target group is 2 crore urban unemployed youth and their families.
Rohan Modi
17 years old, Telangana Hyderabad
Vijayambigai Thulashidoss
21 years old, Tamil Nadu, Thiruvallur
Coming from a semi-rural area of Thiruvallur district of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, volunteering has empowered Vijayabigai to work towards a better society. She has inspired and mobilized many volunteers through her actions and dedication. The 21-year-old youth started her volunteering journey when she was in the 12th standard after getting inspired by her mother, a teacher in Anganwadi school. Vijayambigai was able to identify herself and her purpose because of volunteering. It not only boosted her self-esteem but also made her realize the role of a responsible citizen of the country. She organized and conducted 30 community awareness programs at MCDS from May to June 2018, provided assistance to United Ways, Chennai to conduct an awareness camp on Health and Hygiene.
She has volunteered in organizations like Bhumi NGO (2018 -2019), Arunodhayam NGO as a life skill trainer for youth, Indian youth café, volunteered with a tribal group at Wayanad, Kerala while being an active volunteer for child health and diet at Little Walks NGO from 2019. The changemaker campaigned for Psycho-Social support at Spoken Waves from 2018 to 2019, volunteered at Asha Nivas for a learning aid project for 8th-grade students in 2019. She organized and coordinated to form Children’s parliament in slums of Chennai and Bangalore in 2019 at the Centre for Social Action NGO and is providing Psycho-Social support for COVID-19 in tandem with Greater Chennai Corporation.
The 21-year-old active youth volunteer from Odisha dreamt of doing something for society since childhood. Her volunteering journey started after being elected as president of the Block level ANANYA girl’s federation and continues to go a long way since.
From being an introvert to addressing the masses, Yashoda always dreamt big of becoming a leader despite all odds. This year, she addressed a crowd consisting of 5,000 people on Child Marriage during Koshli Dhanuyatra Mohachhav at her district. Her parents who initially refused such activities and yelled at Yashoda very often for being involved in mass mobilization and rallies are now her biggest supporters.
The evolving leader used to take life skills sessions among adolescent girl groups along with discussions, exercises, and games, etc. These sessions helped in capacity building and discussions that empowered adolescent girls. Later on, she was also trained on Sexual Reproductive Health Rights and shared the knowledge with adolescents through group interactions that increased their awareness about Menstrual Health and hygiene.
Yashoda Pandey
21 years old, Odisha, Nuapada
V-Awards 2020 Ceremony
