WINNERS OF NATIONAL SILVER KARMAVEER CHAKRA 2014 - 15

Mr. Kennedy Dhanabala

Kennedy is currently the Executive Director of The Evangelical Fellowship of India Commission on

Relief (EFICOR), Delhi. He has led the team members of his organization to build capacity of local

people in Lakhnaur block of Madhubani district, Bihar which is affected by flood seriously every year.

He and his team imparted needed information, knowledge and training to people to develop

community resilience and safety by developing their skills to protect lives and means of livelihood in

emergency of floods. He took initiative to integrate local government authorities and communities

together where they could work jointly in future to prepare people to cope with floods. He guided

people to take care of their developmental gains as well as protection of lives by becoming equal

partners in the process of disaster management and adaptation to climate change. The team of

EFICOR under his guidance has also assisted the district authorities of Madhepura, Darbhanga,

Nalanda and Gaya for developing district disaster management plans where common people were

made nucleus of disaster preparedness in their districts. His tireless initiatives and inspiring leadership

has benefited 55000 people of the Lakhnaur. His initiatives have provided equal opportunities to

farmers, women self help groups, school children, disabled and senior citizens. His initiative sets one

of the good examples where the most vulnerable people are prepared to minimize risks from disasters

and impacts of climate change.

Smt. Suparna Aajgaokar

Suparna has served as a Principal and Director of Kamla Mehta High School for Blind Girls for past 30

years. She has recognized the importance of empowering visually impaired girls by education and

vocational training to make them self reliant to lead their lives. The most significant contribution which

she has made is by understanding the need of visually impaired girls and women to cope with

disasters, where they are most vulnerable physically as well as psychologically. They are also easy prey

to sexual violence's in disasters. It is commendable that she recognized the importance to prepare

visually impaired girls and teachers to develop knowledge to protect lives in disasters and emergencies

where as people in India are least sensitized to take such initiative. She has a mission to provide equal

opportunities to visually impaired girls to develop skills, to respond to disasters and be resilient. About

5000 visually impaired girls and teachers have been the beneficiaries of this education in past 10 years.

These beneficiaries are confident and have developed courage to cope with disasters and to share

such awareness with other visually impaired persons. She has been continuously organizing

workshops for educating and training by seeking help from experts and practitioners in the field of

disaster preparedness to impart needed education to her students.

Dr. Aabha Chaudhary Dr. Aabha has done her PhD in gerontology and gender issues and has been working since 2000 mostly in Uttarakhand area through her NGO Anugraha. She is multi talented person and has been working in the areas of – women’s development, holistic health care, human rights, girl child empowerment, Corporate Social Responsibility but with prime focus on Age Care initiatives. She has been proactively involved with National and International Organizations and Conferences for the cause of Ageing. Her work for Senior Citizens, especially with Widows and Destitute and her initiative for Eye Care projects, Campaigns for Active Ageing, Day Care & Recreation centers are highly appreciated. Recently her NGO was appointed as RRTC (Regional Resource & Training Centre) on ageing by MOSJE, Govt. of India. Anugraha has also published two books titled “Active Ageing in the New Millennium” & “Coping with Ageing: Emerging issues & Strategies in India & South Asia”. She is an inspiration to many women to be a Change for Age Care.

Dr. Rajesh Ganesh Singh Chouhan Rajesh Chouhan is a medical doctor in Ayurvedic Medicines and specializes in treating Geriatric Patients since year 2001. He has been selflessly working for Senior Citizens on various front; providing them counseling service, medical advice, government ID cards, working with Old Age Homes, arranging Medical Camps and offering concessional medicine and treatment. Many times he has gone out of the way to help poor elders. His social work has benefited various NGO’s like Dignity Foundation, Silver Innings Foundation, Krishna Kala Trust, Shrimad Buddhisagar Suri Manav Seva Kendra, Helping Hands Foundation, etc. He is currently working with Vasai Virar Municpal Corporation as Medical Officer but his never ending love to serve the society continues. His ever helping attitude will surely benefit many elders and their family.

Mr. Christopher Von Toggenburg Christopher is a photographer, writer and artist. In 1998 he ran an ultra marathon for homeless children in Romania. In his endeavor he ran 270 kms across the Alps in 4.5 days. In 2001 and 2002, Christopher made a solo bicycle trip from India to Switzerland covering 9300 kms for the people suffering from leprosy. In the year 2010 he made a solo bicycle trip from Nepal to India covering 3200 kms in the highest motorable roads of the world for the people suffering from leprosy. He also made a documentary named: Alegria, about his journey in the Himalayas which bagged many international awards. Christopher has also been invited as a speaker at TED and is currently working in the Middle East with the United Nations.

Mr. Ulhas Mahadeo Thakur

Ulhas Mahadeo Thakur from Navi Mumbai is a Herpetologist and associated with NGO's like Indian Herpetological Society (IHS) since 1989, Chief Coordinator of Mutual Aid Response Group (MARG), Advisory Board Member of Plant & Animals Welfare Society - Mumbai (PAWS-Mumbai) and Member

of Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti. He is working as Deputy General Manager of Environment, Health and Safety at SI Group - India Limited, Navi Mumbai. He is actively involved in activities like eradication of blind faith & superstitions; snake rescue, conservation, awareness; tree plantation drive and coastal clean-up. He has been appointed as Hon. Wildlife Warden of Raigad District by Department of Forest of Maharashtra State since 2006 till date. He is an author of a book on snakes titled Sarpa Vidhyan. He has received awards like Sarpa Mitra Award in year 1996, Snake Expert by Department of Forest in the year 2009 and Paryawaran Mitra Award in year 2011 by Centre of Environment Research and Training.

Ms. Smita Sharma

Smita Sharma is an Indian freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer based in between New York and Kolkata. Her work has been published in CNN, UNWRA, Washington Post, The Telegraph (India), Vision Project, Proof: Media for Social Justice, First Post, CNN-IBN among others and she is working for the prestigious photojournalism workshop - Eddie Adams Workshop as the Assistant Producer. Besides her freelance work and personal projects, she is currently teaming up with Stephanie Sinclair to add voice to the global campaign on child marriage -"Too Young To Wed". She is the recipient of The Washington Post Award at the Eddie Adams Workshop XXVI, George and Joyce Moss Scholarship 2013 for documentary photography and the ‘New York City Newstrain’ diversity scholarship organized by APME (Associated Press Media Editors), Associated Press, New York. Born and raised in the Himalayan foothills of Shillong she is fond of travelling and learning about different cultures and takes deep interest in human rights and gender violence issues.

Ms. Bindu Singh Bindu Singh is icon of successful single woman of eastern Part of UP. She established Gramaya, a pioneer social organization working for most marginalized people in remote and Maoist insurgency affected areas. She was convenor of Right to Food campaign, Uttar Pradesh for many years. Besides leadership of Gramya’s works/ programmes she worked as consultants with several groups/ organizations on the issue of Women Empowerment, Qualitative Education to Children, Federation of SHG’s, Women Leadership Training, Gender Sensitization with Males, Police and Doctors, Women & Law along with several reviews and evaluation of social development projects like Mahila Samakhya, CARE, OXFAM (INDIA) Trust, FPA (Family Planning Association) etc.

Mrs. Maneesha Chaturvedi

Maneesha is a Trustee at Saksham Bal Vikas Sanstha (Saksham). Saksham is a charitable organization committed to providing education – academic and vocational, to the underprivileged children. They run a school in Gurgaon, educating over 230 students, from ages 4 to 18. The school is run free of cost to the children. Under her guidance Saksham arranged various camps for the Parents of these under

privileged children. The parents included daily wage laborers, vegetable sellers, masons, etc. The attendance, feedback and learning at these camps were phenomenal. The camps organized imparted financial knowledge, informed and educated them about savings, insurance, and other financial products. Information imparted at the camps included Aadhaar related information, Jan-Dhan Yojana, Affordable Insurance covers like Personal Accidents, Mediclaim, simple life covers, saving products etc. She has also worked with various colleges to get interns who would then guide and further educate the parents of children haviing finance related queries.

Ms. Aditi Misra Aditi Misra is an alumnus of DPS, RK Puram and LSR, Delhi University. She started her teaching career 3 decades ago. A founder Principal of DPS Gurgaon, Sector 45, she was the youngest Principal in 2003 among more than 100 schools under the aegis of DPS. She is a trained Odissi Dancer who was awarded scholarship for 5 years from the Sahitya Kala Parishad. She has performed extensively at various venues in Delhi. A master trainer for CBSE, she has authored and ideated many books for children. She is a philanthropist, who has initiated many community outreach programs and has collaborated with various NGOs to give back to the community (Cancer Society, Teach India, Akshar and Education for the marginalised). She runs a school (non formal education) for a thousand underprivileged students in the afternoon in the premises of her school.

Ms. Jagriti Rahi

Jagriti started volunteering for the society while studying. She started teaching poor kids for two hours and slowly the strength of these students reached 75. Slowly, she got in touch with other students who were interested in teaching these kids and in 2001 they together got the registration of her NGO ‘Vision’. She also took active participation in fighting the case against Coca Cola Bottling plant where she marched from Balia to Banaras. While fighting this case, she was even imprisoned for 7 days. She also keeps an interest in studying various social issues like women empowerment, water management, education system, loans, etc. She has worked with almost 660 poor families for improving their living standard.

Mr. Raman Kant

Keeping in view, urgency of enlightening the community and making efforts at the grassroots level in order to meet the growing need of water demand, Raman initiated his work towards water conservation in the year 2004. He formed NEER Foundation with an objective of creating awareness on various issues related to water involving the community in finding various solutions for sustainable future. With a contribution of about 95 articles published in the Hindi national dailies, magazines etc., he has a wide range of experience with a deep understanding of various issues concerning water across the country. Lead by him, NEER Foundation acts as an independent, not-for-profit making voluntary organisation working towards environment protection and management by means of water

conservation and organic farming. NEER Foundation is involved in research, campaigns, grassroots level practical work and advocacy on issues related to environment and human rights. As a public interest organization, NEER Foundation has focused on strengthening of the community through their active participation to achieve sustainable development.

Ms. Jurismita Puzari Jurismita shares a passion for empowering the under privileged and has chosen media as her tool to correct social imperfections. She volunteers for AFRC in Wayanad, Kerala as a media and communication trainer. She is involved in tribal development initiatives with Mishing and Tai Phake tribal communities in Assam and has also published articles in newspaper and made a documentary. She is involved with the Ramsing Chapori village development by making a study on the condition of the village so as to create a leadership village to empower village youth and children. She supported physically disabled children with DPRC. She is also involved with the ‘Missionary of charity’, Tezpur, to give dignity in the lives of orphan children. She has also published stories on ‘Amar Ghor’- old age home in Guwahati on the need of public attention. She mentors Shivam, a physically disabled child suffering from cerebral palsy. She is actively involved in the Backbenchers conference to introduce educational reformation.

Mr. Ajit Kaikini

Ajit Kaikini is a motivational trainer post an in-depth experience in sales/marketing, production & admin/training at top positions in blue chip companies for 15 yrs. He is the Founder Director (Growth & Corporate Training) Buoyancee - started in 1992 (www.buoyancee.com), a successful Soft Skill Training Institute. A consultant to many professional institutes in over 5 states and to large corporations such as Adidas, Accenture, Cisco, Stanchart and ITC to name a few. He is invited as a keynote speaker in many Lions and Rotary meets/conferences. He trains their office bearers in over 5 states. He has conducted training in 6 languages from the slums & villages of India to executives in Denmark & UK. Buoyancee has empowered over 500,000 teens & youth in the slums/ villages/ cities, over 50,000 housewives & over 10,000 executives all over India. Ajit has a knack of empowering individuals and large groups to perform at their best. While Buoyancee tea-boy Prakash was supported to start a school in his village in Coorg, his attender was motivated to become a successful businessman and Ghataprabha Fertilisers & Sutures India almost doubled their turnover to touch 100 crores. He was also involved with motivating the launch team of Bisleri 500 ml and improving the profit margin of Bank of India. Ajit has the Midas touch in empowering humans by helping them tap into their potentials.

Mr. Rohit Gupta

Rohit, 28yrs old IT Engineer by profession and social worker by passion has completed graduation in B.Tech. IT and started career with TCS in Bangalore. He is very fond of travelling, interacting with people and very extrovert in nature. Lately he realized his skills can be used for needy people like

organizing events with NGO's, bringing awareness to them and connect helping hands. His vision and direction led to formation of Khushiyan with tagline 'Connecting Helping Hands', informally on 27th May 13. So far he has organized more than 15 events in Delhi/ Bangalore with various NGOs where 300+ volunteers joined. The Facebook page has 3500+ followers and email group with 400 + registered volunteers. In the year 2014 he connected NGO's and volunteers by communicating 400+ emails to volunteers & NGO's spreading causes and events. His vision is to build technical infrastructure where helping hands can seamlessly connect, discuss and take the projects forward without any hassle.

Mr. Ranjan Solomon

Ranjan is a widely experienced NGO/ ecumenical leader with varied experience in organizational

transformation and in creating social change through advocacy, communications and issue education.

His main areas of focus in his 40+ professional involvements have been on issues of development,

justice, peace and human rights with a special focus on youth. He also specializes in providing advice

and support to organizations working in conflict situations. . He has worked tirelessly for the welfare

of youth to bring about a humane world order where there is peace, freedom and justice for all. He

was the Executive Secretary for Mission and Ecumenical Concerns, Justice, Peace and Development

at the World Council of YMCAs and was instrumental in taking the World Alliance of YMCAs forward

towards addressing broader and crucial justice-human rights issues and linking the YMCA to the wider

ecumenical movement and civil society groups. Many of the initiatives taken were unfamiliar terrain

for the YMCA and required working at organizational transformation alongside programme

development. He is also the Chairman of the advisory committee of SCAN-INDIA organization.

Mr. S. Raghavan

Mr. Raghavan is a Bangalore based businessman who spends a lot of his time for social and humane

activities. He is associated with many social organizations in the country and contributes his time and

energy for the betterment of human kind and society at large. He has conducted many youth

leadership and awareness programmes for the Tribal and Rural youth through the Nehru Yuva Kendra,

a nodal agency under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. He has organized blood donation

involving 1300 youth in Bangalore and conducted many motivational camps for the youth through

Rotary Bangalore and collected around 1000 units of blood and also motivated the youth to donate

their eyes and as an outcome of this around 250 eyes were pledged. He also received a citation from

the Governor of Karnataka for this achievement. Raghavan is a long time member of the SCAN-INDIA

advisory committee.

Dr. A. Gregory Ashok

Dr. Ashok is the Chairman & Managing Director of Scorpion group of companies having its head office

in Bangalore. He is a well known community leader in the city and in the country. He is deeply involved

in many community social development programmes and associated with many NGOs and civic

organizations. His association with SCAN-INDIA began in the year 2005 as a member of the executive

committee and contributed his time, energy and resources for the development of underprivileged

and marginalized children in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu & Andhra Pradesh. He is the recipient of many

awards like ‘Udyograttan’, Outstanding Businessman and Life time achievement award related to his

business, apart from the Social and Child care services.

Dr. Mrs. I. V. Christopher

Dr. Mrs. I. V. Christopher is an outstanding social activist in the field of child care and women

empowerment. She is a long time associate of SCAN-INDIA and has served as committee member in

the organization. She is the Founder Chairperson of ‘Adarsha Foundation’ in Bangalore and has

contributed tremendously for the health care of the rural children and women. She has organized

many health camps for the children in the villages surrounding Bangalore city. Recently she has

evolved a programme called “Life Skills, School Health & Well-being training” specially focusing on

the school children to improve their personality and educational performance. She is also actively

involved in the YWCA movement as the committee member.

Mr. Ghulam Hussain

Ghulam Hussain belongs to a remotest village of Baramuula District (Khanpeath) of Jammu and Kashmir. Hardly in his 40’s, he is working as a devoted social worker since last 5 years in the field of health. He is working continuously for people of all ages, distributing medicines among them and especially taking care of people suffering from cancer or any other life taking diseases. His main focus is to distribute the life saving drugs among the most trustworthy people of the society and keeping their records read, in order to let them connect with the doctors available at Government hospital’s across Jammu And Kashmir State.

Sheikh Nousheen

Sheikh Nousheen is a young Graduate from Jammu division of Jammu and Kashmir State, providing free education to nearly about 25 girls from Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir, bearing all their expenditures and helping them start something new by empowering local women in utilizing their efforts in a co-operative manner. Her major thrust is opening of joint liability groups on her own

income and making illiterate women to be the mirror of their own future. Nearly about 1,500 women benefit by her ideas of saving till yet. Moreover she is actively lobbying for women rights, especially molestation, dowry cases or freedom to women. She is providing scholarships to the meritorious girls belonging to remotest areas of Jammu and Kashmir State. Her dream is to set up an academy for girls, where they can chase their dreams.

Ms. Sai Padma

Sai Padma is an active social entrepreneur despite her physical disability. Her time, energy and social skills made her a life coach and mentor in tribal, rural and urban areas of Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts of Andhra Pradesh. Her focus is on improving the lives of persons with disabilities, rural and tribal children, women and people suffering from HIV/AIDS. A polio survivor with scoliosis, she functions mostly by being on a wheelchair. A trained vocalist and professional in law and finance, she uses her knowledge and art to bring positive change in lives of disabled and marginalized. She raised funds for the above causes, both nationally and internationally. She led ground level teams while working with several organizations - Pratham, National AIDS Control Society, ILO, Clinton Foundation, IDS USA, ASHA JYOTHI, USA. Her current programs are Hub & Spoke model of education with Activity Based Learning as pedagogy to 350 rural and tribal children. She is the Founder-President of an NGO aiming to making a positive impact in the lives of persons with disabilities.

Dr. B S R Murthy Dr. Murthy is a physician and surgeon with 50 years of experience in serving rural tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh. An innovator par excellence by inventing a unique surgical technique for family planning operations called “Murthy’s sutureless tubectomy & Vasectomy method” and operated more than 90,000 surgeries and trained many government and private doctors in this method. He performed these surgeries free of cost. He has served several organizations like Lions Club, Prema Samajam, and Lions Cancer Hospital in various capacities and was instrumental in turning them out as sustainable and healthy organizations. He worked since 40 years in a hub village of 200 small villages and coached many villagers in self sustainability, watershed, agriculture, horticulture programs. His contribution towards physical and social health of communities is unmatched. Till date he has donated blood about 80 times. In short, his work encompasses pre & post life of all beings.

Prof. Dr. S. Sampathkumari

Dr. Sampathkumari is Head of OG Dept at Tiruvannamalai Govt. Medical College & Hospital, Tamil

Nadu. She has provided 27 years of service at Rural Primary Health Centers, Dist Head Quarters

Hospital, Specialty Institute Hospitals & Govt Medical Colleges. She regularly conducts Adolescent

health Education Workshops/ CMEs, camps, TOTS in all sections of the society – PHC Hospitals,

Panchayat level schools, slums, villages and Schools and Colleges in the low socio economic class to

middle income group localities. She organizes periodic Health Education camps individually as well as

with the help of NGOs – Penn Nalam & Thozhamai, Service organizations like Rotary & Lions Club. She

also takes Cancer Screening, Pap Smear, Breast Cancer Examinations targeting middle age group

women in the less privileged sections of the society and referrals to higher institutes. In 2012 she was

awarded with ‘Certificate of Appreciation’ at the hands of Sir. Dr. Arulkumaran, President of

Federation of International Gynecological Organizations in recognition of Adolescent Health Education

Camps & Workshops across a wide variety of settings. In 2013, she received ‘Helping Mothers Survive

(HMS) Champion Award’ at the Vision 2020 International Conference at Bengaluru.

Mr. Jamil Ahmed

Jamil Ahmed, professionally an organized teacher in a formal school run by community in Howrah was born in 1968 in a very poor family in P.M. Bustee, a slum in Shibpur, Howrah. He founded a school for the children of marginalized population in 1992 which has been running successfully from Class KG to Class X. It is regarded as one of the best Urdu medium schools in Howrah. Mr. Ahmed joined FOCUS in 1996 as community worker and led the team for successful implementation of several projects for Street and Working children, Self Help Groups and Women Empowerment besides running non-formal centres, coaching centres for dropped out children and organized women groups enabling them to run Functional Literacy centres and Vocational training centre for earning livelihood for 100 women and adolescent girls in Ward no. 59 and 64 of KMC. He designed several tools for proper implementation, reporting and process of evaluation of project activities to reach its objectives and goal. He developed unique accounting system in the organization which ensures transparent accounting in financial management which is his great achievement in the organization.

Ms. Pampa Biswas

Pampa Biswas, a 24 year old woman lives in Shekharbali village nearly 20 kilometers from Kolkata. She was born in a poor family and was married at the age of 16. She wanted to do something on her own. She used to see didis from Nishtha forming group of women to take up vocational activities. A discussion was conducted on possible vocation; finally she decided to make Latka. She was introduced to local market for purchasing raw material, given the seed capital as a loan and also helped her get the selling market. She turned out to be an entrepreneur. Now, under her leadership 150 women are taking this trade. She has been able to build a better house and able to ensure education of her child. Recently, on 15th Aug’ 2014, Doordarshan Kolkata (Government sponsored TV channel) organized an event on status of women in India. She was invited to share her story and she received lots of positive response in the shape of phone call from the viewers.

Mr. Tarak Majumdar

33 year old Tarak has completed his masters in social work from TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) and has been working in the field of social work since the year 2008. Presently he is part of SPAN’s (Society for Peoples’ Awareness) rural project in Jalpaiguri, working for the betterment of the lives of the children, with the active participation of youth and women of the areas. He has been able to bring a stop to the high trafficking of young children from Jalpaiguri and has been able to build a safety net for the children with the youth members of the villages. Tarak has been able to mobile around 200 youth members and 100 children into the safety net process. Youth members working with Tarak are trained well to view every situation through ‘rights’ lens and analyze the loopholes or gap in the implementation process of many laws.

Ms. Archi Basu

30 year old Archi has also completed masters in social work from TISS (Tata Institute of Social Sciences) and has been working in the field of social work since the year 2008. Presently Archi has been working with children and youth in Kolkata city, making it a place protective for either of the groups. She has been conducting workshops, exposure visits and guiding the children to understand themselves and their society, as well as make the youths get thoughtful on the governance issues and be a part of the governance process through active and informed participation. This activity is going on in Kamarhati, Titagarh and South Dum Dum area (Pramod Nagar). Around 200 youth members and 100 children are part of the urban program too. They all dream for building a better world for the children and youth – ‘a world without fear, a world with lots of dream and hope’.

Ms. Debarchana Bonnerjee Mullick

Debarchana believes that every child, whatever their needs, has the right to participate fully in their community and to have the same choices, opportunities and experiences as other children; to make local friends, and to access, play, leisure and recreational facilities. As Debarchana got the offer to start an organization for the special children, she was simply overwhelmed. With her cousin she started Pratham Padakshep. Shewas from a different career background, without any experience in this field but moved ahead with Sreyashi with a heart of love and an aim to be there besides the differently abled children and their parents. Initially, Debarchana gave the ground floor premises of her residence to Pratham Padakshep without any rent. Debarchana says that working with children with special needs taught her very important lessons in life. She has absolutely no regrets and is lucky to have met all the wonderful children. She feels that working with these children is an absolute pleasure.

Ms. Sreyashi Nag Chandra

Words cannot describe Sreyashi’s experience of working with children with disabilities, as every day is a new learning and new memory. They are her family. In February of 2011, she started her first job at Pradip, The Management for Autism. Since then she has been handling children. Before she started

to work among children with disabilities, she first gathered few experience from Little Heart (a Mental Asylum) and also visited many hospices and observed how they operated and their daily activities. Sreyashi’s first day at Pradip, broke her apart. She was speechless to see the plight of the students. The children never saw sympathy in her eyes for them. All that she does, she motivates them; she lets them know that they are the best and can do anything. She made them realize the importance of who they are in this world. They offer various therapies to develop their skills; mostly they work upon the socialization and communication skills so that the children can easily get mixed with the crowd outside in the society without feeling left out.

Dr. Manas Kumar Roy

Dr. Manas, is an accomplished oncosurgeon and currently the Consultant surgeon at the Tata Medical Centre, Kolkata. Dr. Roy has been committed to the cause of cancer control and hence a driving force at the Cancer Foundation of India (CFI). He has been a life member of CFI since May 2003 and has contributed immensely in shaping the cancer control efforts. Since 2008 he has been the honorary Treasurer of CFI and continues to hold the post due to his commitment to the cause. Dr. Roy is a graduate and MS (Surgery) of Banaras Hindu University and obtained FRCS (Edinburgh and Glasgow) in 1994 followed by MCh from University of Wales, Cardiff in 2005.

Mr. Prodipta Saha

Prodipta Saha is a Kolkata-based designer and event organizer. He is currently the CEO of Calcutta Yellow Pages. Mr. Saha has been associated with CFI as a volunteer since 2004 when he designed the first organizational brochures and henceforth continued to design for CFI. While doing that he involved himself in CFI’s community activities. In 2013 he extended his association by developing the unique public campaign to curb public smoking as Smoke-free Puja awards which rewards the Durga Puja that maintains a surrounding devoid of tobacco smoke. He has taken it upon himself to create awareness on passive smoking in Kolkata through the Puja campaign and scaled up the campaign in 2014 and beyond.

Md. Allauddin Sheikh

Md. Allauddin started his earnings as waste worker at a tender age of 13, when his father migrated from Bangladesh in search of livelihood and finally took refuge in Kolkata. Alluaddin grew up in the lanes of Kolkata and waste dumps by rag picking all day along with his mother. However, he was enterprising and always dreamt to overcome his suffocating poverty and sufferings. He developed an informal network of waste workers by which he could make better earnings for himself and his co-workers by not falling prey in the hand of mid-agents. However, this still didn’t give him a breakthrough for what he desired. He never craved for big money; mostly he desired was respect and recognition. In year 2011, he joined SAFE’s Solid Waste Management Program titled, “Resolve Trash2Cash’, and received training from SAFE, currently he is leading the waste segregation at source campaign in the offices of Kolkata and carrying out the mammoth task of waste collection and disposal operations effectively. He handles 3000-4000 kg of waste per day and has volunteered to train other

35 unemployed youth from slums of Kolkata who are efficiently carrying out the waste management program in the city. He also meticulously supervises that the waste is properly disposed at respective recycling units which immensely contributes in saving the environment. The project ‘Resolve Trash2Cash has received 2014 UNFCCC Momentum for Change, Lighthouse Activity Award.

Mr. Abhijit Sarkar

Abhijit is a graduate and joined SAFE as a volunteer in year 2010. He started volunteering by organizing community meets in the grassroots and within a year his unknown leadership skills unveiled as he continued to give method to the dynamism of hundreds of poor youth in rural communities and slums. Currently, he is leading the project, “Vertical Greens in Urban Environments as Career Corridors for the Disadvantaged Youth”, and has successfully united the near extinct nursery communities of Kolkata, main challenges were that changing climate has an adverse impact on nurseries and for past few years the demand for plants have dropped considerably making the nursery communities most vulnerable. Under his able leadership hundreds of youth who were drifting and migrating received skill development training on ‘urban gardening’ and ‘vertical gardens’ and now has developed skilled entrepreneurial groups that directly caters to the market demand for urban gardening and vertical gardens. He continues to create win win situation by creating enhanced livelihood opportunities for youth and reducing the urban heat island effect in the cities. He has pioneered in organizing the poor youth creating new environmental leaders. His intense environmental leadership demonstrates tremendous courage in carrying through the innovation of vertical greens that is steadily making a sustained difference. In year 2013, SAFE received UN Habitat Award for Vertical Greens project.

Ms. Shikha Karmakar

Shikha joined New Light in 2007. Shikha has surfaced as a HIV survivor and winner. She lost her husband to the same disease. Inspite of her own illness she has brought up her son single handedly who is now pursuing his higher education. Shikha helps others in her community with their ration and health check up at New Light. Shikha also helps in creating awareness on the importance of medicine and nutrition to those infected with the same. She has taken up the challenge to live her life as any other person. Her faith in herself and hope has inspired many in similar circumstances to live with dignity and respect. She is truly a hero in her own right to stand up and face the world and live with great fortitude. We salute her!

Smt. Aparna Sinha

Smt. Aparna Sinhais the oldest employee of Jana Shiksha Prachar Kendra in urban areas successfully managing different children projects since 1993 to 31st March, 2011 she shouldered the Integrated Programme for Street children running 10 centres with more or less 500 children from the Jhupries beside the streets and poor slum dwellers providing them education, nutrition, counseling, health care, recreation & cultural development with funds received from the Govt. of India. During this period the NGO admitted about 2000 children in formal schools with coaching support to arrest dropout. She

also supervised the medical centres and skill up-gradation training programme under the project. In skill upgradation training centres mainly the girls of red light area were trained in different occupations to enable them to stand on their feet eschewing mother’s professions.

Shri. Sukumar Pal

After passing Madhyamik Examination, Sri. Sukumar Pal responded to the call of the Secretary, JPK to eradicate illiteracy from among the poor villagers. He successfully carried out the duties even bringing the students visiting their houses repeatedly. He joined as a tutor of Birpur Sabarpara Centre in 1976. It was not easy then to bring the out of school villagers to adult education centres. Observing the caliber to run the centre successfully the Secretary gave him the charge of setting up the centres at Baganda, Santalpara, Baganda South Santalpara etc. He was also given the duty of looking after the child welfare centres opened in collaboration with NORAD & RED BARNA where children were brought up with normal course of development under the care of two mistresses and one helper. Observing the ability to run a programme successfully, Secretary entrusted him with the charge of running Poultry Farming in villages among the poor people, pisciculture and agriculture in JPK –owned ponds and land to augment the funds of the NGO. In addition to his official work he is responsible for any internal and outside work relating to rural infrastructure at Baganda. After opening of shelter Homes like Short Stay home, Old Age Home, J.J. Act Home, Swadhar Home& Cottage Home within the infrastructure of the NGO at Bagandathe running of the same is much dependent on him. In addition to his normal duties in office he is responsible for any emergency work both internal and outside relating to rural infrastructure. Looking after any sort of internal duties like routine cleanliness of the entire infrastructure, repair job involving masonry or electrical done by outside workers, daily marketing to feed the inmates, arranging hospitalization in critical cases of any inmates at any time even at mid night and sundry others. In sort in the absence of this one man the rural infrastructure will come to a halt.

Mr. Anthony Das Anthony has been working in restoring the lost childhood of hundreds of working children who have been migrated from neighboring district and states and are forced to work in the leather industries in and around the slums of eastern part of Kolkata. The children are provided basic education and have been mainstreamed into regular schools.

Mr. Prakash Selvaraj

With his effervescent ideas and indomitable spirit Prakash has been associated with Bhumi since 2006 as a part of the community development and English programmes, and has played a vital role in diversifying the organization’s efforts beyond education. He ideated and led the execution of Bhumi’s first inter-orphanage talent festival in 2009. The event has now transformed into Nakshatra, one of the largest of its kind, national festivals for identifying talent in arts and sports, benefitting several thousand children living in shelter homes each year. He was also instrumental in starting the Nakshatra Reach Out programme for children in shelter homes that nurtures the discovered talent through the

year. He is a role model for his sportive nature, perseverance, leadership and has made immense contributions in shaping Bhumi’s volunteer focused processes. He continues to volunteer for the organization in various capacities helping Bhumi scale new heights and touch more lives.

Mohammed Shafkat Alam

Shafkat Alam comes from a family where social work is a daily life affair. He has been engaged in teaching underprivileged children once a week since his early childhood. After graduating from St Xavier’s College, Kolkata, he went on to pursue his Master’s in Human Rights. He has represented his state in South Asian Student Leader Conference which was held in 2005 organized by US Embassy, Kathmandu, Nepal. He has also represented India in Misereor Lenten Campaign in many parts of Germany in 2012. He was also selected in the prestigious Women Deliver Conference (a reputed women rights organization) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 2013. Shafkat has worked as an advisor in the Sponsorship project supported by AIDOS in Tiljala SHED and an assistant in US Government project in Tiljala SHED. He is currently the chief strategist for fundraising activities of the organization. In 2014, he was selected for representing India and Tiljala Shed in launching of the Girl Declaration (HeforShe campaign) in Rome, Italy organized by AIDOS and the Italian Parliament. His vision is to alleviate poverty in an effective manner that fosters hopelessness for the future, instil a vision for the deprived.