Vasudha Kapoor is a youth leader and social innovator with over eight years of experience empowering rural youth in Madhya Pradesh through educational. As co-founder of Mera Gaon Meri Dunia, she has contributed improving the educational landscapes by fostering youth leadership, community ownership, and parental involvement, resulting in a remarkable 80% increase in parental engagement in schools.
Shubhra is a trained social worker who has worked with and for children for decades. Their journey in the development space began as a volunteer with Make a Difference, and they later worked in the space of intellectual disability with Jai Vakeel Foundation. They were previously associated with Pratham Education Foundation where they supported teams implementing school and community-based learning programs and scaling them through government partnerships. Shubhra is currently a Senior Program Officer at YLAC.
Priyanshi, Program Manager, Plustrust is based in Udaipur. She has built up the network anchors who are spreading the Plustrust model.. She has managed the fellowship program in Plustrust working across 6 states and has been part of the journey of more than 50 women changemakers. Healthcare in rural India has always been the core interest areas of her and she managed the pilot of Plustrust's CHE (Community health Entrepreneurs) program, and is doing the next batch with two more collaborators reinventing the program as "Jansehat".
Ayeshna works with rural communities in Haryana, North India on exploring solutions for quality teaching-learning in schools, advocating equal access to opportunities for all genders through leadership and skill-building and working with rural youth on self-led development. Prior to co-founding her non-profit, Varitra Foundation in 2018, Ayeshna worked as a CSR professional with Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai - an experience that marked her passage to ‘the other side’. Ayeshna completed her graduation in mass media from St.
Surender is an engineer turned social worker. An alumnus of prestigious VIT University Vellore & a Gandhi Fellow. He co-founded Self Reliant India (SRI). SRI is a non-profit organization with a mission to make historically under-resourced communities self-reliant by enabling access to quality education. He has more than eight years of experience in the education development sector. He believes that until skilled youth do not join the development sector, the energy and innovation will not come at the same speed as compared to the corporate and other sectors.
Ravi Dhanuka is a co-founder of i-Saksham. He strongly believes in inclusive growth and envisions a fair, equitable world. At i-Saksham, he is primarily looking after program strategy to develop young women leaders, and leads partnerships.
Ravi has done Post Graduate Diploma in Rural Management from Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). He is a Bachelors in Economics (H) from Hans Raj College, Delhi University.
Vandana is an applied theatre practitioner and founder of Rang Kaarwaan. She's a passionate advocate for community development, hails from multiple small towns in India.
Her early years were marked by limited exposure, and the pursuit of a successful career seemed like an unattainable dream. Despite these challenges, Vandana's innate curiosity and creativity propelled her forward.
Baljeet is the Founding Director of Varitra Foundation. Born in a small agrarian family, he has experienced the challenges faced by children in rural areas. Baljeet has grown with a keen interest towards improving of government school as a quality learning space, the thought of which has stemmed out of his personal experiences during childhood. He started missing classes from class VI onwards due to the inability to pay fees and to avoid the ensuing embarrassment by teachers.
Living up to her name, Prasanna has sought joy in the field of arts and performing. She is a multifaceted artist who has a keen interest in theatre and Kathak. She has pursued her Madhyama Purna in Kathak from Bhatkhande Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya
To promote arts and culture, especially among children and young people, she leads many ventures through "Bewajah" in Lucknow and "Himalaya Study Centre & Retreat" in Kausani, Uttarakhand. These are platforms for creative expression, learning and collaboration.
Ajay is a social entrepreneur who has been working in the field of green energy, environment advocacy and climate change issues for the last seven years. Right from childhood he got lucky in life to have amazing people like friends, teachers and mentors who always supported and helped me to become a better human being. He has worked on leading different projects on solar smart grids set up and innovations during the fellowship in SBI-Youth for India and India Fellow Leadership Program.
