Changemakers

1. Changemakers® is a community of action where we all collaborate on

solutions. We know we have the power to solve the world’s most
pressing social problems. We’re already doing it, one project, one idea at
a time.
2. How do we do it? We talk about the issues, share stories and mentor,
advise, and encourage each other in group forums, even engage in
friendlycompetition. We form surprising connections and unexpected
partnerships across the globe that turn the old ways of problem solving
upside down. We try things that have never been tried before.
3. Our mantra is “Everyone a Changemaker.”™ Whatever your passions,
however you want to make a difference, you’ll find a way to make it
happen it here. Changemakers® connects you to action because we’re
on the ground, making changes every day.
4. The solutions are all around us

Here are some examples of how Changemakers members take action and how you can
become involved:

An idea

Krista Cameron knew she wanted to be a Changemaker. “I was on a bus going through the
downtown eastside (of Vancouver) and was engulfed by the hardship faced in the area,” she
recalled. “I felt like my plans to work in impoverished areas in Africa and India were
somewhat naïve if I could not even help those in my own city.” She put her newfound desire
to act locally together with her passion for dance, and came up with an idea. Changemakers
helped her make the Heart Source Dance Program a reality

A mentor

Charles Tsai is a member of our sister organization, Youth Venture. He showed Krista how to
get her idea for free dance classes for underprivileged kids off the ground quickly – by
partnering with an existing service organization and by encouraging her to enter a
Changemakers competition with cash prizes. Charles’ mentorship has been a powerful force
in Krista’s life plan. “This whole experience has helped her on a completely different path,”
said Charles. “Now, she is committing her whole life to this. It’s no longer simply a side
project, it’s her calling.”

A supporter

Financial supporters, like Staples, look to the Changemakers community for great ideas to
invest in and help grow. Sometimes they do this through competitions, such as the Staples
Youth competition that Krista Cameron entered. Krista was among the 515 entrants from 60
countries who introduced their ideas—from projects aimed at supporting local biofuel use to
assisting wheelchair users in poor countries. She was one of 32 that received a $1,000 seed
grant to get her Heart Source Dance program off the ground. It now offers seven free dance
classes a week, serving 55 underprivileged kids from her hometown of Vancouver

A network

Krista’s journey at Changemakers inspired her college professor, Cam Sylvester, and her
dynamic class for budding social entrepreneurs to start a Changemakers group called Global
Stewardship. The group’s members aim to find “creative solutions to the global problems
identified in the Millennium Development goals”. They do this with the goal of becoming
Changemakers while pursuing careers in international development. The “Global Stew”
wants to know, “Do you want to join our group as we strive to change our world, and change
ourselves?”

- Changemakers is an initiative of Ashoka: Innovators for the Public

Asha For Education

Mission Statement

To catalyze socio-economic change in India through education of underprivileged children.

Asha for Education is a secular organization dedicated to change in India by focusing on basic education
in the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change.

In keeping with this focus, our volunteers are involved with and support projects that are secular and have
an education-related component to them. The objectives of this group are:

1. To provide education to underprivileged children in India.

2. To encourage the formation of various local groups across the world to reach out to larger sections
of the population.
3. To support and cooperate with persons and groups already engaged in similar activities.
4. To raise the required human and other resources to achieve the group objectives.
5. To provide opportunities to individuals living outside India who wish to participate in Asha
activities in India.
6. To address, whenever possible, other issues affecting human life such as health care, environment,
socio-economic aspects and women's issues.

How it Started

In the summer of 1991, a few students including V.J.P.Srivatsavoy@, D. Gupta#, and S. Pandey* got
together to think of ways in which they could play a role in the development of India, the country of their
origin. These young people shared the belief that education is a critical requisite and an effective catalyst
for social and economic change in India. Basic education became the agenda for the action group that
emerged from this gathering. The group was named Asha to represent the hope that had brought these
individuals together and the hope that they aimed to bring into the lives of children in India. In that
summer of 1991, Asha was born at the University of California in Berkeley.

*Volunteers in each of these chapters take personal interest in identifying education-related projects in
India, and supporting them through funds and other means.

*Clearly, identifying, researching, owning, funding, and sustaining projects has formed the core of Asha's
activities till now. Asha raises funds for its projects in a number of ways: individual donations, corporate
donations, sale of merchandise (T-shirts, calendars, mugs, greeting cards, etc.), fundraising dinners,
Indian classical music and dance concerts, popular music concerts and many others. In the process, we
also promote Indian culture over here.

Some Asha chapters also work towards raising awareness in appropriate forums about various issues
affecting the people of India. This awareness-raising is accomplished by organizing discussion series,
invited talks and study groups. Asha also acts as a network for various grass-roots workers and volunteers
and non-governmental organizations.

Pratham
Pratham is the largest non governmental organization working to provide quality education to the
underprivileged children of India. Pratham was established in 1994 to provide pre-school education to the
children in the slums of Mumbai city. Since then, the organization has grown both in scope and
geographical coverage.

Today, we reach out to millions of children living in both rural and urban areas through a range of
interventions. 

Pratham’s mission is to ensure “Every Child in School and Learning Well ”. The organization is founded
on the firm belief that education is the fundamental right of every child and no child should be deprived of
this basic right simply because he/she does not have access to it or does not have the resources to realize
his/her dreams.

The principal focus of our programs is to ensure quantum and visible improvement in the enrolment and
learning levels of the underprivileged children.

HAQ 
The story of HAQ, as is the case with most organisations like it, is also a story of individuals — their own
journeys, dreams and vision. Indeed, all organisations and institutions find their genesis like this. The only
difference is that HAQ’s birth is not a result of any one person’s dream or vision, but that shared by
several people. However, once again, as is often known to happen, the responsibility to translate this
dream into reality gets vested on a few people.

The Idea

The idea of a child rights centre goes back to the early 1990s when the two founder Co-Directors, Enakshi
Ganguly Thukral and Bharti Ali were working in the Alipur Children’s Home, New Delhi. They had
decided to enter the home after they had received unofficial information that a child had ‘died’ in the
home when a caretaker sat on the child’s chest to punish him for “soiling the bed” everyday. The child
had a problem controlling his bowels. This information came through a friend of a friend, a medical
student, who was visiting the home to provide medical care to the children. This medical student did not
want to be identified --- so we will never quite know who she is. But clearly, there was a need to visit the
home and check the circumstances in which children live.

Bharti and Enakshi (who were then both working with Delhi based Multiple Action Research Group with
another colleague, began to visit the home. The directorate had allowed the visits on condition that they
would not go to the press or publicise what they saw or felt. They would however give their feed-back to
the Director, Social Welfare, Government of Delhi. These visits continued for over a year. The situation
inside the home changed substantially. The Superintendent was transferred, a new doctor appointed, the
infrastructure inside the home improved somewhat --- children began to eat in the dining hall, the quality
of food improved, the revival of the system for sending children from the home to the neigbourhood
school was initiated. Unfortunately, the new Director was transferred and his replacement decided that
visitors to the home were no longer necessary. So the visits stopped. But the seeds of an idea that was to
see fruition many years later had been sown. Clearly there was a need to monitor and intervene in the
lives of children, and the juvenile justice system definitely needed greater attention.

In 1996 a child was once again killed in a children’s home in Delhi. This time the newspapers reported it.
The boy had been hung from the ceiling and beaten to death…..but this incident did not elicit any joint
consolidated action from the groups that worked with children. Each group waited for someone else to
come forward. Clearly there was a need for a child rights defence organisation whose mandate it was to
address any violation. Once again the need for a comprehensive child rights was felt.

However, it was only in 1998 that the first draft of the concept note for such an “entity” got written. The
need was identified. The first scribbles were converted into notes. Enakshi’s friend Nevena Vucovic
Sahovic, a human rights lawyer, had just set up the Yugoslav Child Rights Center (she was till recently
member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child). She sent her concept notes and proposals and
became a distant moral force urging and encouraging a similar concept for India. Aanchal Kapur and
Enakshi worked on the first few drafts. The introduction of e-mail in the country was providential,
because that meant that despite full time jobs elsewhere they could exchange notes and drafts. These
drafts were shared with Jaya Shrivastava (then Director of Ankur), and Bharti Ali who got enthused.
Their comments and suggestions enriched these drafts. The idea was that the Centre for Child Rights must
be located in an organisation working on children. Aftter meetings with several organisations, it was
decided that it should be registered as a separate and independent organisation.

Name and Identity

Somewhere along, the centre got a name -“HAQ”. The idea was that the name must not be “soft”, because
children’s issues are traditionally seen to be soft. The name must be rights based. The name suddenly
sprung up in little chits that Aancahal and Enakshi were exchanging at an Action Aid meeting where a
project in Ladakh was being presented! And the name has stayed!

With a name like HAQ, the vision of children with happy childhood had to be reflected in the logo.
Taking from this vision, initially an art work was produced in-house by Shiuli Thukral and Atish Thukral
(Enakshi’s children). This was further worked upon and the final logo came from a friend and well
wisher, Rustam Vania (graphic designer,  environmentalist and a child rights activist at heart) that carried
a gender neutral image of a dancing child in the ‘Q’ in HAQ

Smile Foundation     

India is a country of contrasts! The country has as many as 53 billionaires; the fourth highest in the world.
But the same country has over 3 million children living on the streets.
Among the world’s 10 richest people, four are Indians. On the other side, 17 million Indian children work
as labourers.
India’s economy is galloping around 7% GDP growth. But also, 2 million children die before their first
birthday due to lack of immunization and medical facilities!
The statement "Children are the future of the nation" stops making sense, then! In fact, it sounds like an
ominous prophecy.
Smile Foundation believes that the desired changes in the lives of such children will come only when
more and more privileged people start participating proactively in finding a solution. The Foundation also
believes that the only way to ensure a better future for these children is by educating them.
That is because education is both the means as well as the end; it empowers these children and evolves
them as better citizens.

Social Venture Philanthropy

Smile Foundation underscores the fact that helping is not simply a matter of dispersing money but of
making a deep, long-term commitment and casting a hard eye on results. With this model, the Foundation
partners with emerging and committed organizations for various programmes. It tries to build their
capacity, training them to gradually sustain and scale up themselves and their activities. It initially offers
them the opportunity to reach their potential and progressively scale up and bear the entire weight
themselves. The entire management and operation of Smile Foundation is in compliance with the
principles of "Good Governance "and thus sets itself apart with its set norms of sustainability, scalability,
accountability, transparency, credibility and effective leadership.

Programme: Education
HealthCare
Girl Child & Women Empowerment
Child Care

Prayas
Initiatives in Health, Energy, Learning and Parenthood
Health:
The health group of PRAYAS concentrates on issues of HIV/AIDS and sexuality. The work started in
1986, even before the inception of the organization through the individual efforts of Dr. Vinay Kulkarni
and Dr. Sanjeevani Kulkarni. In the initial period the focus of the work was mainly on creating public
awareness about HIV/AIDS and sexuality. As the epidemic evolved the other activities such as
preparation of audiovisual software for awareness programs, counseling center for HIV infected as well as
affected people, information center about HIV and research on the topics which needed systematic
exploration in order to extend the efforts to combat the epidemic started.

Activities of the Health Group

Awareness
Trainings
Creation of educational material
Information dissemination
Counseling
Care and support facility for people with HIV
Child care
Prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT)
Research
Advocacy and networking

Youth Ki Awaaz (on-line)

Youth Ki Awaaz, which literally translates to “Voice of the Youth” in English, is an online platform for
young people to express themselves on issues of importance. We make best  use of social media tools and
online journalism skills to mobilize and engage young people in participatory and collaborative
journalism. We combine new media innovation with social news reporting.

Youth Ki Awaaz is one of the most prolific website/blog around, presenting youth views, opinions,
analysis and reports on issues that matter. Since its inception in March 2008, it has had thousands of
young people write for it, and millions of others contributing by reading, commenting and more.

In April 2010, Youth Ki Awaaz was awarded the Best Blog on Social Causes in India, and in September
2010, it also won the prestigious World Summit Youth Award by the International Center for New
Media and the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development — for best practices in online
journalism.

How Youth Ki Awaaz works:

Our understanding is simple, and so is our work culture. We understand that the urban educated youth has
the power to change the way issues have been addressed in the past. We also understand that much of this
urban youth has access to the internet. Thus we combine the dynamism of the youth with the power of
journalism and new media to create compelling content that reaches out to a mass audience in order to
create awareness, and is thought provoking.
 Parivartan Foundation
Parivartan Foundation believes that collective action is the way forward in bringing change on a large
scale. Coordinated efforts of multiple organizations are needed to work around the complex development
issues.

 We treat communities we are serving as equal partners in progress and not as beneficiaries.
 We believe that every person has the potential to be a responsible citizen and contribute to the
growth of the community.
 We measure our success through the success of communities that we are working with.
 We learn from, work with and add to the knowledge of others working towards a common cause.
 We govern the organization in a manner that makes it a matter of pride for all partners, members,
employees and supporters.
 We maximize the social return for every rupee given to us.