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| VOLUNTEEER OF THE YEAR |
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EAST INDIA - Amalendu Ghosh
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Amalendu joined civil service in 1972 and has held various responsible positions in the district and secretariat administration, Commssioner for Panchayat and Rural Development and finally retired as Chairman, Municipal Service Commission,in 2008. He now works on absolutely voluntary basis in the field of rural development and rural local governance. |
From supporting implementation of hundred days work programme, NREG S in Purulia to different types of innovative ideas like utilization of unattended land and developing leadership of the rural women are initiated by him, his contribution has benefitted both the Organisation he volunteers for and the community enormously. |
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| EAST INDIA - Arun Nevatia |
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Afflicted with cancer at the age of 10 , Arun hasn't allowed this serious ailment to curb his zeal to help others. Post his graduation B.Sc (Maths), Arun pursued Real Estate Business for 20 years till he started engaging in social service 2007 onwards with the corpus he had built.He donated to the Trust Board as initial fund for establishing health centers in rural areas starting off the Health Centre at Mayapur. |
The Rural Health Care Foundation set up along with his brother and school friends presently operates four centres and serves more than 15000 rural poor every month and target is 1Lac per month in next 5 years. |
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| EAST INDIA - Kalyani Kandar Meena |
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Kalyani has grappled with acute economic and social distress and challenges in life to be what she is today, a frontrunner in her community , working towards women's empowerment through education, improvement of maternal health and political participation. With a questioning mind and a zeal to change things for the better,Kalyani staged the first dharna of her life when she was only 9 to protest against the transfer order of her school head master as he was a very good teacher. |
In 1970 she joined the National Adult Literacy campaign, visited door to door, motivated women and their families, organised Mahila Mandals and adult literacy centres.A regular in volunteering since 1990, she has however been a crusader against injustice from the very outset of her very tough life. |
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| NORTH INDIA - Shiva Balak Mishra |
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Sacrificing the objective of personal glory and achievement, Shiva's exhibited initiative and innovation is almost impossible to match. Tackling the ground realities, organizing Government and Community support, the volunteer initiated a path breaking change by creating a school in the wilderness that has withstood the test of time, validating the test of a sustainable model. He started Bharatiya Gramin Vidyalaya Society in Kunaura Village in Uttar Pradesh in a small hut. |
It has expanded over four decades and has transformed thousands of lives, especially of Dalits and girls who had no access to quality education. He continues to dream of making quality education possible for poor kids in India and has since worked as a geologist and taught students in Lucknow and Nanital. He is a beacon of inspiration for all achievers, who want to volunteer and make a difference. |
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| SOUTH INDIA - Ram Sundher |
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Twenty years spent devotedly on various causes Ram has reached out to those in need of help when there was no one in sight. From patrolling the Ulsoor lake banks in a bustling part of Bangalore city during SSLC / PUC results to prevent dejected students who have failed from committing suicide, to helping people complete details in the form to claim a body at the morgue, the testimonials of his volunteering excellence are many. |
What emerges from each of these is his passion for Volunteering. Ram is the advisor to reputed voluntary organizations in India, Member of the Task force for Secularism at YMCA for the past 10years; he has counseled thousands of individuals and helped many NGO's with their start up processes. |
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| SOUTH INDIA - MS Prashanth |
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An IT Professional for over 6 years, currently working with Thomson Reuters , Prashanth grew up in a village, worked hard to attain a good education, bagged an engineering degree from Hassan a tier 2 city in Karnataka , started his career with Infosys and later moved to ANZ.From organizing Prerana, a fund raiser along with his friends to buy a solar water heater for a blind children's hostel when he was a student to committed volunteering with a school for disadvantaged and displaced children run by an NGO, he has never ever forgotten what ails his roots - the many development challenges in India's villages. |
Understanding that education is the key, he began assisting Sri Guru Raghavendra Charitable Trust 4 years ago to attain their mission to educate the poor children of remote villages.. For his volunteering activities to this NGO in the year 2010, he has been awarded "Community Champion Award -2010" from Thomson Reuters. |
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| WEST INDIA - Dhanraj Nand Patel |
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Volunteering in Yavatmal prison in Maharashtra, Dhanraj's inspiration to work with prisoners came from his father who is in the Police and often spoke about the trauma and insecurities of the family members of the prisoners who themselves were grappling with the indignity and humiliation of being in prison. He volunteered to alleviate the sufferings of both the prisoners as well as their families. |
By initiating a process whereby the women and children of the prisoners were not considered as criminals themselves, he opened doors for them towards opportunity of livelihood and education thus making his volunteering work really tough and unique. |
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| WEST INDIA - Jaslene Bawa |
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A Financial Analyst at Value Notes who researches the Indian infrastructure sector and a double post graduate from Pune University, Jaslene devotes her weekends to Volunteering work. She works with Great Foundation in the role of a volunteer teaching English and also as a Volunteer Co-ordinator who manages a group of volunteers. Along with two other working professionals, she began Panel, a volunteer initiative to teach underprivileged children in 2008 under Great Foundation and has partnered with various organisations such as Teach for India, Vedanta Foundation (for computer education), Soroptomist (Teaches art and craft). |
From simpler activities like visits to old age homes and orphanages as a student to undertaking community service while studying for her MBA this self inspired girl gives back to the society as best as she can. |
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