International Womens Day 2016: "Recognizing the Unrecognized"

Women work without a break for their families, society, and friends all through the year. So, on IWD 2016, LEAD conducted their 3rd annual "Recognizing the Unrecognized", where women in our society who are rarely recognized but are responsible for important work were recognized for their contributions, such as cleaning railway stations, bus stands, picking household trash, selling vegetables etc. LEAD and LEADers believe that, without these women, our communities would come to a standstill.

LEADers from each location of LEAD voluntarily took up the initiative to identify and appreciate these women on the occasion of International Women’s Day. After identifying these unrecognized women in their communities, the LEADers made personal visits to their homes and workplaces to thank them for their contributions and presented a certificate of gratitude they personally signed.

In total, 347 students recognized 30,245 women in honour of International Women’s Day, thanking them for their contributions to society that otherwise go unnoticed. AMAZING work by our LEADers!

Students noted that this project helped them improve their communication skills and confidence, as each LEADer approached and spoke to hundreds of women from all different professions, backgrounds, statuses, and levels of education. 

LEADers from Hubballi Sandbox recognizing local security women

LEADer from Ek Soch Sandbox (Varanasi) and LEAD Functional Head Ajay Suman Shukla
recognizing a working mother

LEADers from Kakatiya Sandbox (Nizamabad) recognizing a local shopkeeper

Awareness of Pollution by LEADer Rathnakar

LEADer Rathnakar from GSCET is a student who is passionate about saving our environment from pollution. It is for this reason that he used the LEAD platform to create his project, "Awareness of Pollution".

Rathnakar knew he wanted to create awareness within his community about pollution by showing people videos, images, and information about the state of our environment today because of pollution. After speaking with his uncle about his project, he suggested that he direct his message to the young people, as they will better be able to understand the message and are still young enough to change their ways and make a big difference over their lifetimes. 

Rathnakar took this as a challenge, and conducted his "Awareness of Pollution" project at Vasudha High School in Nizamabad. While this was a challenge, Rathnkar felt very proud to gain compliments and thanks from the teachers and students of the school after his project. 

During this project, Rathnakar learned to speak in front of strangers and has learned a to about communication skills all throughout his LEAD journey. He also notes that this project helped him improve his confidence when speaking to elders, such as the school principals and teachers. The motivation Rathnaker got from the LEAD is what he says encouraged him to do this project and ultimately gain these skills for the long term. 

My Story: Sharon Blessing

Sharon Blessing, SRCW College

Before joining LEAD, I was quite a reserved person. However, I had lots of energy (but didn't know where to channel it), and I had dreams of becoming an independent woman with her own company and a large network. 

When I was in my 2nd year of college, I attended a LEAD orientation. I watched the LEAD employees, and saw they had a confidence and patience I admired… I wanted to gain the skills they had and be like them. I also saw LEAD as a platform for channelling all my energy I had towards reaching my goals of entrepreneurship and independence.

Since joining LEAD, I have completed 18 projects in total, including working on 13 projects in one month during my first year of LEAD. I therefore won the Most Active Leader award during my local Valedictory in my first year, and this encouraged me to keep going. Since then, I have also won the Best Leader award in the local Valedictory in 2013. 

One of my major projects was a driving license check. I had read many sad stories about accidents and death due to unlicensed drivers, and knew I wanted to do something. After speaking to my parents about my concern, I realized I didn't want to just make people aware… I wanted to do something that would actually make a concrete difference. By completing a survey of driving licenses and giving these statistics to the police, I was able to help the local police to determine some of the drivers in my community without a license who were a possible danger. Through this project, many of the local police and the High District Officer now know my name and who I am, and I feel very proud of my recognition in my community.

Although I feel very good about my accomplishments in LEAD, there have also been challenges. It is difficult when you are taking a leadership position, trying to be innovative, but people oppose you or don't believe in you. However, through LEAD I have become more confident and better understand my true potential, so I know it's important not to let those people discourage me. 

Finally, one of my LEAD accomplishments I feel the most proud of is how many students I have encouraged to join LEAD. Since I became the first student from my college to join LEAD, I have convinced 153 students to join LEAD with my testimonial. My hope is that all of them have a better understanding of their potential through LEAD, just like I have. 

My Story: Satya Phanindra

My Story: LEAD Alumnus Satya Phanindra Saibewar

I'm Satya Phanindra Saibewar, and currently I'm working as an associate at Amazon Development Center, India for Amazon.com in the role of assisting the customers and business partners of the amazon from North America and Canada via emails.

First of all let me thank the Deshpande foundation, LEAD, Kakatiya Sandbox and all my mentors like Mr. Amrut patil, Mr. Raju Reddy, Mr. Phanindra Sama and many others, who helped me to reach the pinnacles in LEAD.

When I was asked to submit a My Story for LEAD, I really felt immense happiness for bringing me into the mainstream and for giving the opportunity to thank the Deshpande Foundation, LEAD, Kakatiya Sandbox, and all my mentors. 

My childhood was comprised of lots of hurdles and learnings, including the loss of my late father, much loved and a courageous policeman, when I was 5 years old.  Then my mother was everything for me and I was everything for her. From that day until now, she did everything for me.

It was in primary school that I realized the joy of learning, and became interested in understanding the world and listening to current event through the news under the mentoring of my mother. This love of learning and the support from my mother never weakened, and in my SSC, I was one of the toppers in my district, and was offered a free college education.

Even though the next years would be difficult as I went to college and my mother's health was struggling, my involvement with the Divine Swadhayaay transformed my life. 

These all Divine thoughts impacted a lot on me, builded the utmost faith in me for God and helped me to stand strong in any tough situations. I feel very happy to say that the Swadhyaay Parivar has impacted millions of the lives irrespective of caste, creed and religion and among those millions, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also one.

I started pursuing my engineering graduation in the year of 2011 and passed out successfully in 2015.While engineering was never my thought, as from my childhood I was very interested towards the society and it's sufferings, I didn't know before that even I could solve the problems of society through technology. 

Initially my enthusiasm and attentiveness was observed and recognized by one of our mathematics faculty at college, who was the mentor of my class and he promoted me as a class representative. 

This enhanced the interpersonal skills and strengthened the roots of confidence in myself. It also helped me to start enhancing my leadership skills. 

On a fine day, when I was in the second year of my engineering college, the HOD entered into our class and said there is a session in the seminar hall and we have to attend it. Most of us rather being excited, felt that this is also might be some kind of session where any of the private institute might visit to promote their business.

But It was completely different. There were the people from Deshpande Foundation LEAD after this session I felt like this is something which can help me to put forward the zeal in me to do something for the society.

From the first time I went there to LEAD I felt very inspired, but my energy and enthusiasm got boosted each time I met another LEAD staff or team member, and even more so when I visited Hubballi. I gained tons of positive energy and unleash my leadership potential to take the social initiatives and solving the problems of the people around. 

My batch mates at LEAD were not only just my fellow students but today they all are my divine brothers and sisters, who look in to my personal life when I'm facing any problem and says that they are with me. Even they call me frequently for seeking assistance in some cases and I love to guide them, with whatever the knowledge I'm blessed with.

After volunteering for a Valedictory in 2013, I was inspired by the work of my friends and the recognition they received. 

From then, I never looked back, and capitalized my weekends and the nonproductive time at my college where mass bunks by the students were very common and unfortunate. I would travel on the local bus to Nizamabad and build up my teammates from various colleges with my support and guidance. 

My projects and leadership which I displayed helped me to evolve at the Best Leader 2015 which was never expected by them, till the moment my name was uttered from Ajay sir who was on the dais of the YUVA summit. Touching the foot of the HUMANITARIAN PERSON OF THE NATION and Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi Ji was an unforgettable moment of my life. A response email from Kailash Satyarthi Ji from my email one month after Yuva Summit, appreciating me, is a life time achievement for me for now.

Taking part in Lead talk 2015 and getting tremendous applauses for my efforts helped me to boost my self-motivation abilities to 100 more times, and being a part of Lead Prayana 2015 for a few days was an unforgettable time in my life. 

Thanks a lot to God, my parents (especially my mother), my divine brothers of Swadhyaay, Dadaji, my beloved friends at college, and all those who helped me throughout my journey.

I'm thankful to God for blessing me with all these, especially the relation which I had with LEAD.

THE FUTURE IS OURS.

KRISHNAM VANDE JAGADDHGURUM.

Fundraising for Flood Victims by LEADer Gazala Muskan

When the Chennai flood disaster hit in November 2015, LEADer Gazala Muskan from Nishita Degree College felt compelled to help her fellow Indians who were facing extreme struggles. After discussing with her mother and father about this problem, she came up with the idea to ask the successful and people-in-charge in her community for donations to the victims Chennai Flood.

Gazala gathered a team and promoted her project in the media, and then by making personal visits, raised 10,000 Rs for disaster relief. While it was a challenge to get the people to trust they would be responsible with the money, the media coverage and support from the mayor helped to ease their minds that the project was legitimate.

However, after raising the funds, it was announced that the government would not be accepting donations to the disaster relief fund. Gazala and her team tried to find ways to circumvent these regulations to get the funds to a program that was supporting the victims, but had no luck. Eventually, they decided to put the funds to use in the immediate community instead, giving the 10,000 Rs to both education initiatives and to train a seamstress in teaching her skills to unemployed women who could then become seamstresses as well.

While conducting this project, Gazala both improved her communication skills and gained experience in talking to the people of power in her community and the media.

My Story: B. Anvesh Kumar

My Story: B. Anvesh Kumar, GS College of Engineering and Technology, Nizamabad

Growing up, I received many awards in my schooling, including a scholarship to and eventually “best student award” in my private college after attending a government school. However, my journey with LEAD did not start until my second year of my B.Tech at Gnyana Saraswathi College of Engineering And Technology, Nizamabad. Before I joined LEAD I was interested to do social service, but was I waiting for the opportunity to come to me. When I joined LEAD, I learned that opportunity won’t come to your door... you need to seek it out.   

After my completing some of my early initiatives, I got a chance of be a part of LLP (LEAD Leadership Program) in Hubballi. I learned lots of things like time management, leadership skills, and was lucky enough to visit Akshaya Patra, the world’s biggest kitchen. Soon after these 10 days spent with LEADers from areas outside my own, I saw that transformation inside me after meeting my fellows and college staff when I returned home.

Through my initiatives and active participation I was promoted to a Telangana LEAD Ambassador and also got the chance to work with LEAD as an Intern. I have also participated in LEAD Prayana 2015, attended the “Design Thinking” workshop in Hubballi with Mr. Adithya Pasupuleti, and feel lucky to have had the chance to co-organize and volunteer at many LEAD events.

Of my many projects, I feel the most proud of the Swatch Nizamabad and Safety First projects. However, I have faced resistance, including people suggesting I simply focus on my studies and if there is a problem in the community, leave it for the government to solve. However, I had to tell people, India is my home and therefore I feel compelled to solve the problem of my home. If government is not taking action, I can do my small part to improve my home. After me telling them this, they are much more supportive and appreciative of my work.

Safety First

Safety First: I feel that every kid is an upcoming leader, so I started guiding school students about the traffic rules. I have so far I reached 200+ students of my 2000 student goal.

Swatch Nizamabad

Swatch Nizamabad: Along with 25 of my co-LEADers, we cleaned from the railway station to the bus stand of Nizamabad, and within 3 hours we completed this project. While doing this project, people around us started supporting by joining their hands with us, and our project was telecasted in the local media for 45 minutes.

LEAD has showed me the importance of speaking to everyone, even the poor whom I was hesitant to interact with before. Now I speak to all the members of my society, and have gained the leadership skills to make my community better. I hope to eventually become an entrepreneur with my own software company, and to contribute to making India a cleaner and greener place, starting with my community and my city.

Initiatives by Agastya Foundation

Today’s Children are tomorrow’s citizens. The direction of tomorrow is decided by what we teach children today. To build a world of stronger leaders, it is essential that we expose children to leadership qualities and solving social problems around.  Understanding this, LEAD Youngstar is working on the same. It is helping children to nurture leadership qualities in them.

LEAD has spread among the children of Nizamabad and they took several initiatives of spreading the awareness about social problems. A set of energetic children of 9th std under theLEADer G. Badiri with his team N. Likit, J. Nanda Kishore, Sairaj, J .Sagar, K. Bhairava did leadership project on Water conservation. They visited 4 families in Vinayakanagar and spoke to them about Water conservation and made them understand how each drop of water is precious. They used charts to present their thoughts in a better manner.
 

Another set of students in took up a project on Air pollution and their preventive measures.  The LEADer of this project was Areeba of class 7. Her team members were K. Ashish, P. Sampath Kumar, M. Kedhar, J. Mouna, R. Aishwarya. They visited several homes in Vinayakanagar and told them about the air pollution and its drastic effects on environment. They also enlightened people about the ozone layer depleting and requested them not to cause air pollution and plant more trees.

The third group of class 8 decided to create awareness about women empowerment. Hence they took up the project of creating awareness in their locality by visiting homes and convincing them through charts to respect women and empower them to take decisions of their life. They requested everyone to save girl child and educate them. The leader of this project was K.Pranathi Kavya who did this project with her team Fathika, Karan, Manya, Manasa.
 

Another team of children of class 8 worked towards conservation of Water and avoiding water pollution. The LEADer of this project was LEADer S. Jathin and team mates R. Nandini, N. Akshaya, P. Pooja, M. Poojitha. They visited several houses and tried their best to convince them not to waste water.

The projects of children was appreciated by the localities. These initiatives of children is a hope of a better tomorrow and a better future. It is a beginning of new era of LEADers.

LEADer Suhas's Initiative at Thimapur

“Sanitation is more important than Independence” Gandhiji

In all the civilization of the earlier world – may be Mesopotamian, Egyptian or Harappan civilization all have stressed upon sanitation. However from last few centuries, the lower class of Indians seem to have forgotten about the significance of sanitation. 

Suhas and his team during their visit to village Thimmapur in Karimnagar noticed the lack of knowledge about sanitation among people there. Hence under his leadership, he took up a LEAD project for the village in Thimmapur. He created awareness about sanitation and convinced them about the requirement of bathroom.  He visited around 80 houses and educated them.

As a model, he and his team built a bathroom as shown in the picture using the materials available in the surroundings. They enlightened people about the facilities provided by the government for construction of bathroom and toilets.

His project tried to solve one of the major problems that India is facing. The dream of India, Swachh Bharat can be achieved only when every Indian citizen works to  make their best contribution towards making the dream a reality.

LEADership Camp at Siddipet, Telanagana

 

Basic Leadership Program (BLP) was conducted at Siddipet, Nizamabad, Telangana by LEAD Staff Vinay and Praveen on 7th and 8th of April 2015. 31 students participated in it. The students were from Indur Institute of Engineering and Technology.

The camp was of two days and was filled with leadership learning and activities. On the first of the camp, introduction about LEAD was given and students were made to understand the importance of leadership qualities. Then, the students were divided into 5 groups and Scavenger hunt activity was conducted to allow students to get acquainted with each other. Brain storming session was also conducted for students to make them think and to generate ideas.

The second day of the camp was filled with leadership activities where students got real taste of leadership. The students were divided into 5 groups and were given the task of identifying the problem and coming up with solution for the same. One of the group went to Chowrasta , next two other groups went to slums and last two groups went to nearby government hospital.

Students involved themselves in several interesting tasks. One of the team cleaned bus stand and also motivated a boy who works in a shop about education. Another team observed government hospital and noticed lack of cleanliness. Hence they gave a request letter to maintain strictness in hospital.
 

After these leadership activities, they shared their experience, thoughts and learnings with everyone in the camp. The students were motivated and were filled with new energy and vigor to take up challenges and to solve problems around. Through this camp they completely understood the tagline of LEAD “ Complaints starts with They… and Solutions starts with I…”  

Students benefitted with this camp as this camp opened a door to the world of Leadership. The college management was happy with the camp and whole heartedly appreciated the work of LEAD.

LEAD Youngstar initiative at Nizamabad

Childhood is the most beautiful phase of life. The lessons we pick up in childhood stays with us forever. Kindness, empathy and responsibility are the qualities children need to develop become a better human being, a responsible citizen and a good LEADer.

LEAD Youngstar is putting its best efforts to make children realize the qualities of a LEADer hidden within them. It encourages school students to observe their surrounding, notice a problem and to come up with a viable solution for the same. Thereby, making children feel that they are an integral part of the society.

In Nizamabad recently, LEAD Youngstar worked with 21 children in the age group 13-15. The students of Vasavi High School attended an orientation by LEAD staff Vinay V Raj. After the orientations, students thought of contributing to their society through actions. 

With the temperature rising in Nizamabad and the major reason for this being absence of trees. Children decided to plant saplings and clean the park of their area. They also rearranged the sitting arrangement of the park.

The initiative of the Children is worth appreciating. Not only for their hard work but also for their concern towards their Environment and society.

LEAD Valedictory 2015 at Nizamabad

LEAD Program was first introduced at Nizamabad in September 2013. Since then, 661 students have been reached and 315 Projects have been completed. In this academic year of 2014-15, 225 projects have been completed and Valedictory function is celebrated on 1st April to commemorate the hard work, innovation and achievement of young leaders in this particular year.

The Valedictory Ceremony began with LEAD project exhibition to the delegates Mr. Naveen Jha, C.E.O of Deshpande Foundation and Ms. N. Sharada, Women Entrepreneur from Nizamabad. They were impressed by LEAD Leaders Project and boldness of the students and confidence with which they explained their idea and their project.

Later, the chief guests addressed the students. Mr. Naveen Jha motivated the students to take up challenging tasks and exhibit leadership skills and contribute to the betterment of the society.
Ms. Sharada appreciated students for their hard work and she told them that they can approach her for any support. She assured them that she would do her best to guide them and help them in their endeavors.
  

Students who recieved awards were 

The program was attended by 300 students.The major project of  LEAD Nizamabad for the year 2014-2015 that has contributed immensely to society are ‘Aksharadeepam’   and ‘Build and Help’.  Aksharadeepam is an initiative by LEADer Sathya Phanindra to educate the children of slum area. He has even appointed teachers to train them. “Build and help” is a LEAD project of LEADer Kalyan Chakravarthy   where he collected funds to educate children who would otherwise involve themselves in begging.

LEADers dispersed from the venue inspired to take up  bigger challenges and to make a greater impact.

Leaders receiving awards from Nobel Laureat Mr. Kailash Satyarthi

LEader Prajwal and Gagan from NIE First Grade College designed a prototype to teach children about astronomy and make them more interested to learn the galaxy practically. Students understand better when taught practically than theoretically. He is planning to reach out more number of students. LEaders have built a pipe network for planetarium, by realizing that planetarium was not mobile, they accepted a challenge to make a portable planetarium. The procedure to build planetarium was simple and the project did not take much time for them. LEaders have completed the planetarium in less then 4 days and started to promote it to Governmental organizations and schoold for children with disabled people. He has reached 400+ students. Prajwal has got 4 orders for the prototypes from various institutions.

Among the main goals and objectives of the project there were:

1. To promote the wonders of the space to governmental organizations and schools for children with disabilities through mobile planetarium.

2. To encourage scientific thinking among young students.

3. To teach students about planetary systems and tell about eclipses and laws of planetary motion from scientific point of view.

4. To prevent superstitious beliefs like Astrology among young students through planetarium show.

LEader Pallavi wanted to take up initiatives on women empowerment as she had witnessed the hardships of life in the rural environment of the rural people as she hailed from the rural family. Instead of wasting time in home, she thought to train up the rural women about the craft and help them to earn their livelihood and she started visiting the villages Kodekal, Hunasagi, Hokrani and Talikoti and appealed the women and explained the people about her project, they were impressed by this inspiring project. 

Pallavi from SK Degree College was inspired by the NGO SIRI during her visit to Dharmasthala and then thought of implementing similar kind of idea at her place Talikoti. Hence she trained more than 1500+ women out of which 342 women started their business.  Pallavi has completed more than 13 projects and has benefited many villages. She has also completed a project under Jan Dhan Yojana. It has helped 7638+ people of her village to create the bank accounts.

LEADer Yuvraj from VSM Institue of Technology, Nipani has designed a prototype to reduce smoke which helps in the circulation of good air in the room. People, who visited his home, got to know about it and requested Yuvraj to install in their houses too. He has received 48 orders for the prototype out of which 9 have already being installed. Yuvraj is interested in solving problems by doing Jugaad. He also designed a device that generates electricity with the help of gushing water in the peipe. The device is helpful in the farms as water is utilized in larger quantity and also the electricity generated will be helpful to light a light in dark. He is very active LEader and has completed more than 13 initiatives through which lot of people’s lives has been touched.

LEADer from Mr. Kalyan Chakrawarti from GSCET College  has inspired 15+ students from his college and made them to join LEAD program and has also taken several initiatives. His project "Help and Build" has benefited 35+ kids. Every day student attends evening classes, and 20+ students have started regularly attending schools. He has also been raising fund from society and assigned teachers to teach. He pays Rs.2000 to teachers and rent Rs.1000/- every month. Adding cream on the cake, he is taking tuition classes every day from past 2 years and gets Rs.7000 per month. He is very happy about it as there are several children who are been educated.

Kalyan has designed a prototype which helps in saving water as it automatically switches off once the water is filled in the tank due to sensor, the devices is of low cost and is known as over head automatic on and off system! Kalyan has completed eight initiatives which helped many people in the community.

LEader Ravi from Anjuman Arts, Science & Commerce College Dharwad is an Active LEADer and had a taught that there are so many schemes and projects for the poor & underprivileged people, yet many of the intended beneficiaries don’t reap the benefits of such government due to lack of awareness. He worked on the concept of village development and drove of 30 different initiatives which has impacted on more than 4000+ villagers.

Few of his initiatives were constructing homes and helped 12 families in getting homes, 8 toilets, and closing open bore wells, plantation of 200 plants besides lakes in the village which was been given by the Governement officials, promoting Desi sports and there are several other initiatives and many more. People in the locality are very happy with the leader and have extended complete cooperation to him in his initiatives.

 
Mr. Satya Phanindra from VREC College, Nizamabad is an active leader from past 2 years; he has been inspired by the LEAD concept and started attending workshops, trainings and events/activities of LEAD. (LEAD Innovation, LEAD Kick off, LEAD Valedictory etc). He has volunteered in many events, taken up 13 initiatives and completed the projects, more than 1000 people have been benefited, 30+ students have got inspired by him and joined LEAD program. He has mentored 20+ students, 30+ projects have been documented by him. LEader Satya is passionate in increasing literacy rate in the community where he lives which hinted him to take up initiative to support the cause. 

LEADer Niranjan from AITM Belgaum has designed a device named Hydrogen Kit which increases the bike mileage by 30% and also increases the pickup of the bike with the help of water. He has implemented the device with the Honda Activa and has successfully worked. The advantages of using hydrogen kit is to increase the mileage up to 30%, it reduces the smoke, also consumes less fuel and the pickup of the bike will be increased and it can also be used lifelong. The device is now being used on continuous basis to one vehicle and Niranjan is in process of installing it into several devices making it more user friendly.

There were awards presented as ‘BEST Faculty Award’ to Dr. Ravi S from as he promotes social innovation in college students and focuses on practical learning in students and insisted college to sponsor 12 students to take part in LEAD Prayana, a leadership journey.

Jain College of Engineering got the “BEST Team and Supportive College” for being fully active in the activities of LEAD. The college has completed 70+ projects. It has initiated radium project for railway gate and bullock cart. Two students have been selected as LEAD Ambassador and large numbers of students have participated in the LEADership camp, 4 projects from the college were selected for the Yuva Summit. This year there were 300+ students registered with LEAD and 30+ students from Diploma College who has joined LEAD