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May 2008 Ashok a I ndia Communication Campaign

Ashoka organized a Sustainability Network Evening at The India Habitat Centre On Thursday, 12 June, 2008. This event was focused on linking social entrepreneurs with experts in fields that are crucial to an organizations success in making itself independent, sustainable and replicable.

ASHOKA INDIA Fellowship Program

Contents
AAJEVIKA BUREAU RURAL TELECOM COVENANT CENTER RESEARCH CENTER PRATIBA SHINDE PRAAJAK PROJECT DISABILITY R&D NGO NETWORK ASTIVA PROJECT SPANDAN PROJECT SNEHA PROJECT 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

ASHA FOUNDATION 15 NALANDA WAY 1 VILLAGE 1 PC OASIS PROJECT WATER LITERACY MIHIR BHATT SIKHA ROY DREAM A DREAM SREOSHI PROJECT LIFELINE PROJECT 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

CHANGE MANAGEMENT WOMAN NETWORK 26

MULBERRY PROJECT 27 WORLD COMICS MUSHROOM PROJECT 28 29

26 POSTERS
Ashoka Indias Fellowship Program launched a Graduation Ceremony for its 2005 batch of Fellows for the first time as part of its Fine Balance Initiative. The program was particularly useful for Ashoka to understand the diversity of ways in which Fellows manage their organizations/institutions. We would specially like to thank our intern Kavita Saini for pictures and reports and virtual volunteer Maud Bourgeois for the beautiful posters which the Fellows took back with them. Warmly Sohini Bhattacharya Director, South Asia Partnerships

AAJEVIKA BUREAU

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

AAJEEVIKA BUREAU PROJECT

Rajiv Khandelwal
Rajiv has set up the Aajeevika Bureau in the city of Udaipur in southern Rajasthan to address the seasonal workers realities and help transform the nature of migration. The Bureau examines the specific needs of these migrants and equips them with basic skills that allow them to get more dignified city jobs that pay higher wages. It also provides destination counseling and assists with job placement, in addition to offering health, education, and legal aid services. Rajiv's work is introducing an element of security into migrants' lives. His Bureau is altering entrenched social dynamics by creating an identity for migrants and according legitimacy to their livelihoods through recognizing their integral role in the public domain.

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Economic Development . Community Participation . Displaced People

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

RURAL TELECOM

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

RURAL TELECOM FOUNDATION PROJECT

Madan Mohan Rao


Rural Telecom Foundation (RTF), of which Madan Mohan Rao is one of the founding members, has created a system to bring telephones to rural India for the mutual benefit of households, small business people, state-run service providers, and the government, while subtly creating important shifts in relationships among families and villages. Through a series of experiments, the RTF has created the GramPhone - a cheap and easily run village-based exchange that takes into account the short-distance communication needs of rural people. their integral role in the public domain. Rural telephones generate money for the national economy, meet policy objectives, and serve as a simple and practical way for millions of people to fully participate in the dayto-day affairs of their neighborhood, region and country.

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Economic Development . Appropriate Technology . Communities

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

COVENANT CENTER

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

THE COVENANT CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

Muthu Velayutham
Muthu Velayutham orchestrates a diverse, integrated suite of development programs in rural India that enable poor communities to build wealth through coordinated business ventures and the stewardship of natural resources. His umbrella organization, the Covenant Center for Development, has helped found farmer producer companies. He organizes federations of rural dry land farmers into producer companies that enable them to compete in large regional markets and to create savings and credit programs needed to sustain their growth. He helps communities fund and run schools, Common Facility Centers (CFCs), and hospitals where none have existed before.

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Muthu Velayutham efforts are being replicated by coalitions of community-based organizations in nine other states. .

Economic & Rural Development . Income Generation . Microenterprise

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

RESEARCH CENTER

RESEARCH CENTER

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PROJECT

Katy Rustom & Rashneh Pardiwala


Kitayun Rustom and Rashneh Pardiwala run imaginative campaigns to protect the environment, linking advocacy and legal strategies with actionoriented education. Through their Center for Environmental Research and Education (CERE), they bring fresh tactics and new professionalism to Indias environmental movement. In this effort, they partner with rural organizations and communities to advocate for new laws and make the most of the laws that already exist. Another campaign supports a longer-term struggle for environmental protection across India through highquality education. These two environmentalists have pioneered a powerful balance between legal, educational, and advocacy campaigns, resulting in a powerful program whose elements complement each other remarkably well.

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Environment . Community Participation . Preservation . Law & Legal Reform

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

PRATIBA SHINDE

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

PUNARVASAN SANGHASH SAMITI PROJECT

Pratibha Shinde
Pratibha Shinde campaigns for a uniform national rehabilitation policy to provide actual practical assistance to displaced people. She wants the government to ensure that these people have the opportunity to prosper in their new homes. Pratibha works in the state of Maharashtra, and her efforts have yielded stunning results. She and her organization, Punarvasan Sangharsh Samiti (The Struggle for Rehabilitation Group) have made Maharashtra the first state in India to announce a comprehensive rehabilitation policy that takes into account all the people, both refugees and tribals, affected by dam projects.

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She is also in the process of drafting a national rehabilitation policy for the government that would monitor six Indian states affected by dam displacement. Her vision goes beyond just people displaced by dams.

Human Rights . Preservation . Equality . Refugees . Indigenous Populations

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

PRAAJAK PROJECT

PRAAJAK PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

PRAAJAK PROJECT

Deep Purokayastha
Deep Purokayastha is working for the protection and care of Indias impoverished itinerant railway children by involving the state-run Railway Police Force in a leading, proactive role, while at the same time engaging civil society and the children themselves in this effort. Prajaak engages members of the RPF with an approach that combines sensitization and emotional reorientation with practical inputs. All RPF members partake in regular empathy-based trainings whose goal is to humanize the kids for them, and also bring to life the RPFs potential role with the children.

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The success of Deeps model has implications not only for migrant children but for other mobile populations of the country. By reorienting civil and government sectors to respond to the needs of one migrant population, Deep is enabling them to be better organized and tuned to the needs of other itinerant groups.

Human Rights . Law Enforcement . Child Protection . Community Participation

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

DISABILITY R&D

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

DISABILITY RESEARCH & DESIGN FOUNDATION PROJECT

Abhishek Ray
Abhishek Ray is using the emerging genre of Universal Design to engage with builders, architects, city planners and citizen organizations to create inclusive and userfriendly environments that serve not only the special needs of the disabled but take into account the diverse needs of the general population. Abhishek says that the question is not one of acceptability but of accessibility. He is shifting the orientation of builders and urban planners from the narrow concept of disabled-friendly architecture to the more inclusive platform of Universal Design which he presents as a cost-effective alternative to serve everyone without exclusion. Abhishek directs his efforts towards prominent government bodies such as courts of justice, national banks, railways and airports as well as citizen organizations catering to the disabled.

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Human Rights . Appropriate Technology . Equality . Underserved Communities

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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NGO NETWORK

NGO NETWORK

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

IMPULSE NGO NETWORK PROJECT

Hasina Kharbhih
Hasina Kharbhih created the nationally and internationally acknowledged Meghalaya Model, a comprehensive tracking system that successfully brings together the state government, security agencies, legal groups, media, and citizen organizations to combat the cross-border trafficking of children in the porous Northeastern states of India. Hasina developed the Meghalaya Model to combat child trafficking in Northeast India as a single comprehensive strategic plan, to be adopted by all state agencies and citizen organizations in the region and on the nearby crossings to Bhutan, China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Pilot testing of the Meghalaya model has been verified as effective and it is one of the best practice models included in the South Asian Regional Initiative/Equity study by Management System International in Washington and supported by USAID for replication in South East Asia.

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Human Rights . Child Protection . Trafficking . Violence and Abuse

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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ASTIVA PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

ASTITVA PROJECT

Rehana Adib
Rehana Adib is challenging religious conservatism in rural India with a response system that compels the formal judiciary to take action against informal religion-based authorities. Using women's response groups to address violence against women, Rehana is influencing women, religious leaders, and law-makersand enforcers. Rehana has designed an indigenous response system to fight the new wave of regressive, violent, religious fundamentalism in rural Uttar Pradesh. Rather than attempting to denounce religion, Rehana works strictly within the religious parameters to bring about behavioral change in everyone involved. Since Rehana's groups operate within the existing religious framework in villages, it can easilysurvive and spread in rural communities that are inaccessible to the national and global city-based women's rights movements.

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Human Rights . Women Rights . Religion . Community Participation

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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SPANDAN PROJECT

SPANDAN PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

SPANDAN PROJECT

Seema & Prakash Michael


Seema and Prakash, a husband-and-wife team, are bringing together rural workers, who are usually considered unorganized or casual workers, into a new kind of collective in which they can negotiate for better treatment as recognized employees. By setting up rural labor associations to monitor the transparent and effective implementation of the new National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, they are creating a grassroots democratic process that improves food security and rural labor relations in India. Seema and Prakash are ensuring that corruption does not eviscerate a powerful new law that could potentially change the face of rural India and help rid it of poverty, disease and indebtedness.

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Economic & Rural Development . Labor . Poverty Alleviation . Cooperatives

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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SNEHA PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

SNEHA PROJECT

Armida Fernandez
Dr. Armida Fernandez reorients and reorganizes the limited resources of Indias public health system, crafting efficient programs to secure quality maternal and neonatal health care for low-income families. Her programs focus on releasing the tremendous potential of the resources and infrastructure already available to the public health system, while simultaneously increasing the use of services at the community level. Armida proves that when the facilities and the community resources are used efficiently in a participatory manner, young lives can be saved. Armida is confident that in 4 years, other cities will be open to adopting it, recognizing its potential to solve the critical problem of neonatal mortality in a replicable, practical, cost-efficient way.

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Health . Child & Women Care . Health Care Delivery . Reproductive Health

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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ASHA FOUNDATION

ASHA PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

ASHA FOUNDATION PROJECT

Glory Alexander
Deep prejudice against people with HIV/AIDS in India leads to patterns of discrimination and maltreatment even in the hospitals they depend on for treatment and care. Dr. Glory Alexander resolves to end medical discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients by educating hospital staff and the patients themselves, using her successes as a lever to push for tolerance in all spheres of Indian life. Glory works with prenatal programs in individual hospitals as a starting point for system-wide change. She works with staff throughout the hospital to improve policies, procedures, and staff attitudes toward HIV/AIDS. She spreads these advances far and wide using existing networks of hospitals in south India. Glorys eventual goal is for people with HIV/AIDS to be treated with the same dignity as people without the disease.

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Health Care Delivery . Equality . Rights . HIV/AIDS Affected . Public

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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NALANDA WAY

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

NALANDA WAY PROJECT

Sriram Ayer
By creating a large resource base of new role models or mentors for underprivileged children, Sriram Ayer is introducing the component of empathy in the existing education system and bridging the gap between a childs perceived intelligence quotient and hidden emotional quotient. Sriram Ayers, Nalanda Way program focuses on children from lower-income groups who lack support systems by way of academic and extra curricular guidance and counseling. The mentor is a mix of friend, philosopher, guide, counselor and sounding board whose role is to draw out a childs creative thought and skills and steer him or her towards the vast opportunities and choices that the new global economy has to offer. The ultimate aim is make education relevant for these children and help them make choices and identify new goals.

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Learning . Education . Volunteerism . Youth Development . Child

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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1 VILLAGE 1 PC

1 VILLAGE 1PC

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

ONE VILLAGE ONE COMPUTER PROJECT

Anil Shaligram
Through his One Village One Computer (1V1C) initiative, Anil Shaligram is making information technology relevant and accessible to rural communities in India by teaching underserved people to use computers as a means of tackling basic social and economic problems and setting up a network of locally run IT cooperatives. 1V1C promotes a democratic use of information technology to help people take ownership of solutions to community challenges. In Maharashtra, where Anils initiative began, villagers have used their new skill sets to take on many development issues like scarcity of water, unemployment, and education, where his train-and-empower strategies are making inroads nationwide. The information generated belongs to the people, and villagers recognize themselves as valuable contributors to their own development as they take ownership of 1V1C activities.

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Learning . Education . Rural Development . Technology . Farmers

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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OASIS PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

OASIS PROJECT

Pradeep Ghosh
Pradeep Ghosh has designed a social security system that incorporates the financial and community realities of the Indian poor. His approach offers economically vulnerable communities the chance to take charge of their social security using their existing resources. Pradeeps innovative system capitalizes on the collective bargaining power of communities, and therefore provides financial security for individuals without the financial burdens that traditional social security models require. Through OASIS (Organization for Awareness of Integrated Social Security) Pradeep is implementing his system in Madhya Prades. Once he has demonstrated its efficacy in these challenging circumstances he is confident he will bring the government on board and ultimately scale his model nationwide.

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Economic Development . Underserved Communities . Working Poor

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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WATER LITERACY

WATER LITERACY

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

WATER LITERACY FOUNDATION PROJECT

Ayyappa Masagi
Ayyappa Masagi helps poor farmers improve their economic condition by teaching them to take charge of their water resources. Through his education programs, and by constructing physical structures for water management, farmers work to reduce the impact of droughts and secure sustainable sources of water for their regions. He trains farmers in his programs to measure and trap rainwater, most of which now passes quickly through their land on its way to the sea. He guides them on how to budget their water needs, equipping them to make informed decisions about the crops they want to grow. Through his efforts farmers become selfsufficient, increasing their income and dramatically reducing their dependence on external sources of water. They also become advocates for strong water management policies throughout India, joining campaigns founded by Masagi to make their voices heard.

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Economic Development . Agriculture . Water Management . Farmers

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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MIHIR BHATT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

DISASTER MITIGATION INSTITUTE PROJECT

Mihir Bhatt
Mihir Bhatt is redefining disaster mitigation by viewing it as a continuous process of social development and community participation rather than as a short-term rescue and relief effort. His organization, the Disaster Mitigation Institute, is addressing disaster risk management from the victims point of view and introducing a long-term social security component in the process. Disaster Mitigation Institute is an actionlearning center that incorporates best practices evolved by different government and nongovernment agencies, donors, and affected communities, and disseminates them. DMI facilitates spreading these insights from one community to another and from one disaster to the next. The communities themselves are treated as partners in disaster mitigation and social security.

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Civic Engagement . Community Participation . Disaster Relief . Crisis

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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SIKHA PROJECT

SIKHA ROY

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

SIKHA ROY PROJECT

Sikha Roy
In the countryside of West Bengal, where arid conditions and landlessness combine to cause hunger and exacerbate attendant problems, Sikha Roy is organizing women who are daily-wage earners to exercise a legal right over unused land and then to farm it appropriately. With produce of their own, the women can feed their families, escape the manifold abuses they are exposed to as laborers, and stay close to their children and loved ones, thereby bringing new life to their villages. Sikha reminds us, women take pleasure and pride in producing and preparing food for their families; it is this simple but intrinsically human quality that makes her idea work.

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Civic Engagement . Agriculture . Law and Legal Reform . Women

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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DREAM A DREAM

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

DREAM A DREAM FOUNDATION PROJECT

Vishal Talreja
Formerly an investment banker and venture capitalist, Vishal Talreja has built a network of volunteers that offer vulnerable children opportunities to increase their chances for normal childhood development. Vishal is building a volunteer-run initiative that provides vulnerable childrenchildren from disadvantaged backgrounds, children who are gravely ill from cancer or who are HIV-positive, children who are orphans and street kidswith opportunities to have fun and learn concrete skills that allow them the possibility of eventually becoming integrated into mainstream society. Vishals initiative has begun to attract considerable attention from the Indian and the international press. Creating a dedicated citizen and corporate base to support societys most vulnerable members, Vishal is building an important model for communities throughout India and beyond.

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Civic Engagement . Child Protection . Non-formal Education . Volunteerism

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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SREOSHI PROJECT

SREOSHI PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

SREOSHI PROJECT

Ashok Bharti
A firm believer in the participatory approach to service management systems, Ashok Bharti is founding community-based cooperatives as an alternative distribution mechanism for electricity to reach Indias slum dwellers. Beginning with an electricity cooperative in Delhis slums, Ashok is reinventing the relationship between poor consumers and service providers and paving the way for an inclusive ownership structure of all civic amenities. At the same time, Ashok is proving to the government and the private sector that his cooperative model is good business. Ashok is in the process of partnering with the Tata Power Companys distribution arm, North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL), which supplies power to one-third of Delhi City, for his pilot program, and plans to continue this collaboration in spreading his model throughout India.

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Economic Development . Cooperatives . Energy . Underserved Communities

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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LIFELINE PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

LIFELINE FOUNDATION PROJECT

Subroto Das
Beginning with highway rescue, Dr. Subroto Das is creating for the first time in the history of South Asia, emergency medical systems that integrate the work of hospitals, ambulances, police, citizens, and the state. The Highway Rescue Project, under the banner of the Lifeline Foundation, has saved as many as 1,258 accident victims with life threatening injuries and 1,070 with minor or moderate injuries within 39 months of the projects launch in 2002. Efforts are under way to spread to the more than 14,800 kilometer of highways linking the four major metropolitan cities of India. Ultimately, he plans for his systems of emergency care to reach the length and breadth of the country.

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Health . Health Care Delivery . Municipal Services . Communities . Government

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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CHANGE MANAGEMENT

CHANGE MANAGEMENT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

CHANGE MANAGEMENT FORUM PROJECT


LIFELINE PROJECT

Srinivas Chary Vedala


Srinivas Chary Vedala is reforming how water is delivered in Indian cities, with the goal of improving poor peoples access to potable water. He is working on the technical aspects of water systems as well as how public officials manage their work. Since 2002, through an initiative called the Change Management Forum (CMF), Chary has set into motion a model of round-theclock water supply, which begins with local reforms focusing on operation, maintenance and best practices in management. With CMF, Chary provides a group of members the tools they need to make positive changes in water delivery systems, as in Andhra Pradesh, in their communities and across India.

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Economic Development . Municipal Services . Sanitation . Communities . Government

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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WOMAN NETWORK

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

POSITIVE WOMAN NETWORK PROJECT

Kousalya Periasamy
Kousalya Periasamy is a pioneer: the first woman in India to declare she is HIV-positive. She has brought attention to the fact that the average Indian housewife is at risk of infection. Through the Positive Women Network, she is creating a network of support systems for women living with HIV and Aids in India. The Positive Women Network works on several fronts. It lobbies to improve how information on HIV and Aids is delivered to women. It also works to improve access to services by providing counseling, treatment, general health services, and drug rehabilitation. In 1998, the Network started up with just four founding members, mostly from Tamil Nadu. In 2002, it organized the first National Consultation on women living with HIV and Aids, transforming it into a national network.

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Health . Equality . Rights . HIV/AIDS Affected . Health Care Delivery . Women

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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MULBERRY PROJECT

MULBERRY PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

MULBERRY PROJECT

Rakhee Choudhury
Rakhee Choudhury is teaching Assamese women the skills they need to revitalize weavinga vital part of their cultural heritageand to convert traditional skills into forward-looking, income-earning activities. She organizes the women into cooperatives that connect them directly to the market, allowing them to earn a living by advancing an industry that has great cultural significance for them. Rakhee trains the women through intensive, hands-on workshops that cover topics relating not only to technicalities of weaving but also to marketing and business management. She encourages women to think of themselves in a new lightas entrepreneurs and professionalsdelivering a quality product to the market and sustaining themselves and their families in the process.

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Economic Development . Cooperatives . Income Generation . Microenterprise . Women

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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WORLD COMICS

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

WORLD COMICS INDIA PROJECT

Sharad Sharma
Sharad Sharma is introducing the use of comics across India as a low-cost medium through which unheard millions can raise their voices on serious issues of daily concern that are ordinarily neglected by the conventional media. With World Comics India, the organization he started, Sharad has pioneered a cheap and easy medium for poor people to communicate meaningfully on issues that are neglected by the conventional media. A soft medium like comics makes possible talk on hard subjectswitchhunting, alcoholism, ritual pollution. Wellportrayed issues catch the attention of passers-by, young and old, poor and rich, literate and illiterate. As Sharad and his colleagues are showing, this attention builds concern and action.

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Civic Engagement . Community Participation . Media . Communications . Public

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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MUSHROOM PROJECT

MUSHROOM PROJECT

ASHOKA
India
2008 Ashoka Fellows Graduation

MUSHROOM CULTIVATION PROJECT

Pranjal Baruah
Pranjal Baruah is organizing farmers in Assam around mushroom cultivation. He puts farmers in control of their produce through his land-to-lab strategies and training and support for "mushroom entrepreneurs." In addition to creating new livelihood opportunities for thousands of unemployed youth and landless families in Assam, Pranjal is developing a new market for mushroom consumption. By federating farmers, he is creating systems that aim to put an end to farmer exploitation in the northeast region. His win-win strategies place control directly into the hands of the farmers and show a way by which growers can gain maximum benefit through organizing.

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Economic Development . Agriculture . Rural Development . Working Poor

Copyleft - Free design by Maud Bourgeois reserved for Ashoka's use. Contact: maudbourgeois@gmail.com - June 2008.

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