Application open for the 4th edition of the Grassroutes Fellowship Program

Tuesday February 15, 2011 , 3 min Read

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The Grassroutes mantra is to use travel as a means to enable youth to discover different issues plaguing India today and explore the ongoing efforts that are tackling these issues.The Grassroutes Fellowship consists of a 30 day road-trip where the Fellows are mapped to a social organisation or NGO (host organisation) in rural India. Fellows spend the summer working with change-makers and social entrepreneurs, who are creating sustainable and significant impact in different parts of the country. During their stay, Fellows work on a pre-defined project based on their skill-sets and don the role of social journalists – researching, understanding and capturing unheard stories from the grassroots – of people, places, challenges, solutions, hope and above all, the impact that individuals can create.

The Fellowship experience is aimed at:

1. Providing a transformational experience to Fellows.

2. Adding incremental value to the host organisations.

3. Inspiring a larger community by spreading the experiences of Grassroutes Fellows in the form of human stories.

What do Grassroutes Fellows get?

A deep understanding of the on-ground reality – the problem at hand, the nonprofits, the change-makers and their actions, the community and the local government.
An opportunity to capture the stories of all the people involved in community development: the local folks, the change-makers and employ it to inspire a bigger community into social action.
Access to opportunities on working with Yofa/Grassroutes and our partners.
Access to network of Grassroutes fellows group for opportunities and networking.
An opportunity to give back

& finally – A Life changing experience

Impact

The Fellowship is aimed at having a deep and sustained impact, viz., on the Fellows themselves, the host organisation and the society at large. While it is easy to gauge the impact on the host organisation, the full impact of the Fellowship can be measured only in the long run. However, there already are visible signs of positive change in most of the Fellows. Elucidated under are just some of the results of those positive changes.

Sri Ranganathan B (Fellow 2010) is now a full-time team member of YoFa.
Abhishek Nayak (Fellow 2008), Rachit Chandra (Fellow 2008), Raghav Mimani (Fellow 2008) and Varsha Adusumilli (Fellow 2009) have been E4SI Fellows. Abhishek was a policy team member of Indian Youth delegation that went to Copenhagen for the COP15.
Swetha S (Fellow 2010) was a Yatri at the Tata Jagriti Yatra, 2010 and was a member of the Indian Youth Delegation at COP15, Copenhagen.
Varsha A (Fellow 2009) writes for www.ennovent.com and was an Echoing Green Semifinalist.
Raghav Mimani (Fellow 2008) has been awarded the Green Globe Award - Youth Unite for Voluntary Action, 2010 and was selected for the 1st NMC World Youth Meet in Jan, 2010 at Bari, Italy.
Rishabh Kaul (Fellow 2008) writes for www.nextbillion.net, one of the most respected publication on social entrepreneurship.
Arvind Sastry (Fellow 2010) interned at the Solar Energy Centre, India.