Draw Inspiration from Past Winners
Volunteer Hero
Antara Sarkar, Volunteer Hero 2022
Antara volunteers because she believes that we must change the world for the better on our own. She's the creator and founder of Sunday Class. Every Sunday, she gives lessons to underprivileged kids with a focus on STEM and practical learning. She also looks after the kids and their families outside of the classroom because the children come from homes where the income is low and erratic. In 2016, when she first began working in this neighbourhood, she learned that the majority of kids drop out of school after classes 4-5. So she visited every one of these homes for several months, up until every child had their enrollment in school reinstated. The best accomplishment of her mission has been getting dropout children back in the classroom and making sure they stay there for years, even during a pandemic. Along with being an educator, her motto was to be a parent and friend to all these children, and though she is modest about her achievements, it appears she has achieved what she set out to do, and continues to do so.
Arup Kumar, Volunteer Hero 2020
Arup used his savings to start Puncha Nabadisha Model School, a school for the children from the Sabari tribe. It started with 20 children and today, the school offers education to 112 tribal children and provides them with clothes, toiletries and a decent meal. The impact of his school is not only the education of these children but also reduction of crime in the area. Arup hopes to give the children a chance at a dignified life with stable jobs and income. He has enrolled the older children in a primary Government school nearby and has located his school next to a hospital and other basic facilities.
Andu Maida, Volunteer Hero 2020
Andu Maida is a powerful example of women empowerment. Hailing from a remote, orthodox village in Rajasthan, she couldn’t pursue her studies due to domestic reasons. As a volunteer of Team Balika; a non profitable NGO, Andu is firmly determined to provide education to the girls of her area. She has enrolled 45 girl students mainly in the age group of 6-14 years into government schools and under her initiative the schools now have a separate toilet for male and female students.
After Andu’s marriage, she gave birth to a girl child which was not accepted by her husband and after three days of her delivery, she moved back permanently to her parents house. Initially, being from a conservative family, her parents refused to send their daughters to school, but, by her continuous efforts and strong will power, Andu fulfilled her dream and proved to be a boon for the girls there.
Shishir Joshi, Volunteer Hero 2019
Shishir Joshi conceived ‘The Mumbai Plastic Recyclothon’ as an initiative to involve voluntary participation of people across the region to make the community and city cleaner & healthier. The larger purpose was to inculcate a habit of giving, inspire a sense of hygiene & inject awareness of the perils of plastic as well as the benefits of recycling plastic for public amenities. Through this unique initiative the donated plastic will be recycled and converted into benches for senior citizens and a live permanent work of art. The MCGM and MMRDA has approved this. Shishir invested over 200 hours in this project and his key role in the Recyclothon was to lead by example and build a communication network along with confidence among the masses who wished to participate. The Recyclothon resulted in huge participation amongst citizens, institutions and the local administration, as well as created massive awareness, across all age groups as a voluntary act of giving. Shishir wholeheartedly dedicates his time because he “Prefers walking the talk”, because by leading a volunteering initiative like this, others too get inspired to take the plunge.
Naveen Prathapaneni, Volunteer Hero 2018
I have volunteered with 22 schools and three NGOs, primarily focusing on education and sustainable agriculture. I was sucessful in providing guidance and support to over 1000 students in pursuing education of their choice. I have also developed ‘MobiCounsel’ mobile application to help teachers quickly access career information as well as a ‘Kiosk based application’ to offer virtual counseling to rural students.
Krupali Bidaye, Volunteer Hero 2017
A passionate grassroots volunteer who enjoys being with communities, Krupali, currently handles the Transgender persons’ portfolio at the Social Inclusion Task Force, Govt. of Chhattisgarh. Krupali, a volunteer for more than 15 years, is responsible for the conceptualization of Joy for All – an Anam Prem initiative of Love for the Hijra and Transgender Community. In 2016, she organized the Trans and Hijra Empowerment Mela, the first of its kind pioneering attempt to encourage entrepreneurship among the transgender community across India. Krupali believes in equal rights for all and volunteering has now become a way of life for her.
Arun Kumar, Volunteer Hero 2016
Arun Kumar is currently working as a consultant with Cognizant Technology Solutions, Chennai. He felt compelled to help underprivileged cancer patients and with the support of friends and family, he has reached out to thousands of cancer patients. He volunteer because he dont want anyone to fight cancer alone.
Pushpa Sagar, Volunteer Hero 2015
She belongs to a poor family of a small village in Rajasthan where girls are not allowed to go to school. She is among the few women in her village to have completed her education and found a job. She feels that each and every girl of her village needs to be independent. She joined Educate Girls as Volunteer (Team Balika) in the year 2011 and has visited each and every household her village to make parents and children aware of the value education can provide.
Selva Ganapathy, Volunteer Hero 2014
Selva Ganapathy was awarded the title of Volunteer Hero 2013. Selva Ganapathy, a Chennai based volunteer with AID India. He has been volunteering with AID INDIA for the past ten years and has mobilized more than 10,000 volunteers across the country and raised funds of more than INR 1 crore.
C. Kartheeban, Volunteer Hero 2013
Kartheeban founded Team Everest an NGO that focuses on promoting volunteerism and making a difference in the field of Education. To spread the word about Team Everest and encourage volunteerism he initiated the Contest for Change campaign which consisted of a photography a drawing and a short movie contest. Today his reach via Team Everest has spread far and wide with a Delhi charter slated to start soon.
Youth Champion
Indraneel Acharya, Youth Champion 2022
Indraneel Acharya, is the Associate Vice-President of Yuvaspark. Through their non-profit, they have raised 40 Lakh+ rupees from 1500+ micro-donors, impacting 82,000+ beneficiaries in 8 districts across 3 states of India. They have engaged 600+ student volunteers from 35+ institutions and 100+ young professionals. Whilst running a child welfare NGO during the pandemic, Indraneel and the team ensured 11,000+ children and migrant workers were provided essentials. They also provided tablets devices to ensure 200+ rural children accessed digital education and provided scholarships to 15 students. During the second wave, they provided 157 Oximeters, 18 oxygen concentrators, and 600 oxygen masks. They also set up their very own 12-bed facility at a COVID Care Centre in Bangalore. Post-pandemic, the team established a new orphanage for 26 children. They are improving the lives of these children through their 4-pronged approach: infrastructure, education, nutrition and holistic development. They are also digitising learning at 300+ Anganwadi centres.
.jpg&size=1423x653&date=20230918111029)
Rahul Dhiman, Youth Champion 2020
Rahul Dhiman, started his journey as a volunteer 3 years ago. In January 2018 he founded his own NGO named “Careness and Awareness Welfare Society” in Hoshiarpur, Punjab. During the General Elections 2019, he was considered as the representative of his NGO. His organization has facilitated PwD voters so that they could cast their votes easily. He was allotted 10 villages by the SDM-cum-Electoral Registration Officer. He made a successful voting of 209 voters out of 233 PwD voters. He has motivated and convinced the people for voting and having equal rights. He personally picked and dropped each voter this shows his love and concern.
Anju Verma, Youth Champion 2019
Anju Verma, a 16-year old young student with great aspirations, has been working for the past five years to conduct surveys in and around her hometown to gauge the number of children being deprived of education, and helping to get them enrolled in educational institutions. Coming from a rural area, Anju faced a lot of criticism including death threats from her community. Yet, she continued with her noble work and initiated a movement of education, which now operates in Punjab, Haryana, and Rajasthan.
Bisathi Bharat, Youth Champion 2018
Starting off with humble tasks such as planting, keeping my surroundings litter-free, I eventually moved on to volunteering for several NGOs. I initiated free career guidance and soft skill development classes for upto 2600 youth, helping them build their future better. I volunteer to make people socially and morally strong.
Manoj Padaiyachi, Youth Champion 2017
Manoj recently completed his BE Mech. Engineering and MBA aspirant. He found the Wealth (we all live to help) Foundation in 2015. He is the brain child of this organization and all of its activities. Wealth focuses on social awareness and kids’ education. Manoj is leading the organization to bring a change in our society. In the span of just two years, Manoj has expanded the activities of his Foundation in cities like Ahmedabad, Baroda and Mumbai. Apart from that, he is also working as a campus Brand Ambassador for various companies. He has also organized the First Mega Women Empowerment Conclave in Gujarat. Manoj is a very aspiring person and has associated himself with several firms and activities.
Rishi Banshiwal, Youth Champion 2016
Rishi Banshiwal is an enthusiastic learner and believes in leadership philosophies. His volunteering experience started as a coordinator in a non-profit organization. Rishi quotes, “Volunteering has made him learn human skills – like patience, perseverance, never give up attitude, relentless work and efforts”.
Leader In Volunteer Engagement
Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CinI), Leader In volunteer engagement 2022
Improving the quality of life for tribal communities by energising the communities, creating a shared desire for a better life while demonstrating ways to achieve it, and launching a cascade movement for similar development throughout Central India is what the Collectives for Integrated Livelihood Initiatives (CInI) aim for. The organisation closely collaborates with the community, parents, teachers, and students and then establishes a volunteer pool. This volunteer pool consists of volunteers from across the globe who work to develop solutions at the community and school levels to boost academic achievement for kids and foster an educational environment for them. To spread awareness among the tribal communities, the volunteers arrange many programs. The main objective behind arranging such events is to improve the learning methodology of the students. The team also works towards activating the community by engaging the students and beginning them to perform multiple tasks. They utilise the collaborative approach and resource development for institutional development.
Team Everest, Leader In volunteer engagement 2020
Team Everest was established with an objective to provide quality education to children who could not afford it. They work with 40,000+ children every year and volunteers play a key role in operating these activities. They firmly believe that every person has something to give back to society. Team Everest’s role is to tap that kindness in individuals and channelize it towards the welfare of society. Their major initiatives include ‘Speak Out’ wherein students from underprivileged backgrounds are assigned volunteers who talk to them on phones to teach English and improve their communication skills, ‘Digital Literacy Program’ where they train students on digital and computer literacy, etc. They also collaborate with big organizations for Corporate Volunteering Programs and help transform schools and the lives of children.
eVidyaloka Trust, eVidyaloka Trust
eVidyaloka Trust is working towards creating an educated and empowered rural India. They connect passionate volunteers with children in remote Indian villages to provide quality education. They enable quality education for children across grade V to VIII of govt. schools through digital classrooms. They have over 1100 volunteers who come from all walks of life such as homemakers, working professionals, retired teachers, defense personnel and students. They have delivered 522,620 child learning hours in the year 2018. eVidyaloka is disrupting the traditional physical paid teacher model by leveraging technology to make a difference to the societies in which we live. eVidyaloka’s operating strategy is to maximise contribution from the society/community at large and their organisation structure, both people and system, is designed to enable the same.
Udayan Care, Leader In Volunteer Engagement 2018
Udayan Care is a volunteer driven organization that seeks to help out underprivileged children of the society. The organization helps both national and international volunteers to implement work according to their capacity by providing them with proper guidance and training. The dedication of their volunteers has steered a path for various programs such as Mentor Parents in Udayan Ghar, which was a concept designed to encourage men and women to make a lifetime commitment as voluntary mentors to the orphaned children residing around their community. Udayan Shailni Fellowship is another program that provides a senior mentor to impact the lives of girls at both primary and secondary level of academics, and to provide career counseling and personality development for a period of five years. This pyramidal structure of voluntarism impacts each fellow at a personal, academic and professional level, ensuring long term sustainability of the programme whilst creating a band of over 3500 young women positively contributing to society and the economy. Udayan Care is an organization that believes in changing the lives of many around by engaging its volunteers.
CMCA, Leader In volunteer engagement 2017
CMCA works in the field of Citizenship education and life skills. The Civic Club Program is the largest program that is run in schools on a weekly basis for an entire academic year for students of class VII/VIII. The youth volunteers in rural Karnataka, run this programme in village. They meet regularly and run programmes for the betterment of their villages and to spread awareness on important social issues. Their team consists of over 300+ committed volunteers. CMCA runs ‘civic clubs’ in Grade 8 in schools on a weekly basis for an entire academic year. The objective of the intervention is to transform the young into concerned, thinking & active Citizens, for an inclusive & sustainable India. Volunteers also – Lead and run our “Products” department, including designing, sourcing, marketing; Contribute to Curriculum Development, including translations; Organise events for CMCA’s member children; Take the responsibility, as Zonal Coordinators, of ensuring the programme is run successfully in schools in their respective ‘zones’; and actively raise funds for CMCA.
Voice 4 Girls, Leader In volunteer engagement 2017
VOICE 4 Girls has a mission to enable marginalized adolescent girls in India to take charge of their futures by imparting critical knowledge (about health, safety, rights, education and careers), spoken English, and life skills through activity based camps. The VOICE model engages volunteers – female college students – who are trained in content, teaching methodology and VOICE philosophy, and then placed at schools to teach 13-15-year-old girls. Since 2011, VOICE 4 Girls has reached out to 42,000 adolescent girls through VOICE Camps. This number would have been impossible with just our staff of 10.
Educate Girls, Leader in Volunteer Engagement 2016
Established in 2007, Educate Girls is holistically tackling issues at the root cause of gender inequality in India’s education system. Educate Girls mobilizes communities to take a stand against gender disparity, working directly with governments, schools, parents, village leaders, and Team Balika to ensure access to quality education.
Indiability, Leader In Volunteer Engagement 2015
Indiability Foundation was awarded the title of Leader in Volunteer Engagement 2014. Indiability Foundation is a non-profit organization, working to improve the ordinary lives, Opportunities, and human rights of people with physical disabilities in India. Indiability delivers a variety of projects to youth and people living in the harsh, Thar Desert region of Western Rajasthan. Our aim is to promote the value of education, health, and gender, to enhance the social inclusion of disabled citizens into mainstream communities.
Bhumi, Leader In volunteer engagement 2014
Bhumi, a Chennai based NGO is one of India’s largest independent youth volunteer non-profit organisations. They work with children in orphanages, slum and village community centres; educating and mentoring them for a better future, for both themselves and our country.
MAD, Leader in Volunteer Engagement 2013
Over the last 6 years, MAD as an organization has been able to reach out to over 6000 children and make a significant impact in their lives and the larger community at very minimal cost because of the dedication, hard work, determination and commitment of a young 2000 strong volunteer base.
Leader in Employee Volunteering
CGI, Leader In Employee Volunteering 2022
CGI members have helped in deployment of six tech solutions, ranging from building dashboards to deployment of a chatbot for social good. CSR is one of CGI’s Core values that serves three purposes, People, Communities and Climate. CGI also actively participates in plantation drives. Internally, they’ve already seen incredibly positive results in reducing carbon emissions over the past decade. 31,000 saplings have been planted. Around 1100 of their employees participate in plantation and maintenance drives. CGI helped in growing six patches of Urban forests in the cities of Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad. CGI also actively contributes to their community through their Mentoring Students program. The purpose of mentoring is to help mentees tap into the knowledge of those with more experience than themselves and learn faster than they would on their own. To empower the mentors and nurture the relationship they have created a toolkit of 18 different life skills and work skills. With the help of the pro bono campaign, those passionate about social change and community building, pro bono is one way to lend support to organizations moving the needle on important issues—from sharing HR practices to building tech solutions to NGOs. The support they provide ranges from one-day workshops to three-month projects where individuals volunteer 2-5 hours per week. These programs not only allow to help drive social impact for the greater good, they also grow CGI teams’ talent by providing professional skill development, and team building opportunities.
Tata Power Company Pvt Ltd, Leader In Employee Volunteering 2020
Tata Power is a pioneer credited with steering the energy sector on technology, process and platform. The company has an inhouse online volunteering portal – Arpan where employees can check upcoming volunteering events and register themselves in the portal and participate. They have a structured process of identifying, designing and implementing volunteering initiatives. The four flagship initiatives- Shiksha Saarthi(mentoring of school and college students), Greenolution (promoting environment friendly practices), Tree Mittra (afforestation), Good Health & Sanitation and Adhikaar (financial inclusivity for marginalized) are the key programs undertaken across all locations of Tata Power. The company celebrates the spirit of employee volunteering by recognizing and rewarding locations and Volunteer Champions on a regular basis. This year 2500+ employees participated across various programs and contributed a total of 28,090 volunteering hours.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Leader In Employee Volunteering 2019
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. is a global federation of companies operating in 22 key industries including information technology and financial services. They work towards encouraging their employees to connect and help the underprivileged community. Esops – Employee Social Options, is an employee volunteering platform at the Mahindra & Mahindra Group, adopted by the organisation to involve employees in social and developmental programmes. They have organised several successful programs like ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ to work around the hygiene and cleanliness domain; ‘Mahindra Haryali – A Million Trees Each Year’ which aims to plant one million trees every year and ‘Lifeline – Express’ that aims to bridge the gap between remote rural areas and quality healthcare. Mahindra & Mahindra felicitates its employees with certificates as a token of appreciation for their selfless hard work as volunteers.
Brillio Technologies, Leader In Employee Volunteering 2018
Brillio, a global technology consulting and business solutions company, works with the theme of “Bringing Smiles” for their global CSR initiative. Fostering career development and STEM skills with underserved people in Costa Rica, India, and the United States, Brillio aims at empowering the under privileged children through STEM education and reaching out to 100,000 children by the year 2020. Their major effort is to bridge the gap between accessibility and quality of education in rural India. ‘Brillians’, as employee volunteers proudly call themselves , engage in the teaching during work hours and leisure hours, ensuring their bit to volunteering. Around 250 employees have been part of this venture. The beneficiary schools have observed a remarkable improvement in their students’ English speaking skills. Another initiative taken by Brillio is of audiobook recordings, done by employees for visually challenged children. The contributions of Brillio extend beyond their organization by encouraging the families to contribute to their activities through e-teaching and audiobook recording.
Edelweiss Financial Services, Leader In Employee Volunteering 2017
Edelweiss Group has a strategic philanthropic arm known as “ EdelGive Foundation”, established in 2008. Since their inception, they have worked towards being a bridge between the users and providers of philanthropic capital and knowledge by bringing the skills, resources and talents of the for- profit world to the not- for- profit arena. This is complemented by well- planned employee engagement initiatives wherein each of Edelweiss employees is motivated to contribute with their expertise and in turn help the non- profits by guiding them for capacity building projects and financial aid
Cognizant, Leader In Employee Volunteering 2016
The iVolunteer Awards for Leader in Employee Volunteering 2015 is “Cognizant.” They have been successful to encourage and enabled employee volunteering, from January 2015 – December 2015. Over the 12 months they have shown excellence not only in extent of employee engagement but also in support by the Company towards volunteering.
Cummins India, Leader In Employee Volunteering 2015
Cummins India Limited was awarded the title of Leader in Employee Volunteering 2013. They created a unique employee volunteering model, where, in line with its core strengths it undertook the task of upgrading ITI Phaltan, engaging more than 25% of its employees in skill based volunteering. Along with other community projects undertaken, 600 out of a total 800 employees of Cummins India volunteered in 2013.
Intel India, Leader In Employee Volunteering 2014
Intel India was awarded the title of Leader in Employee Volunteering 2013. They created a unique employee volunteering model, where, in line with its core strengths it undertook a number of volunteering tasks, engaging a huge number of its employees in skill based volunteering. Intel as an organsiation was involved in 89 different projects in 2013 and engaged over 2600 of their employees.
Jury’s Special Mention
Jasper Paul, Youth Champion 2019
Jasper, through his volunteering efforts, has established a shelter for the elderly poor. He oversees the welfare of over 130 destitute members in terms of medical care, food, emotional support as well as of those working under him. He has helped rescue over 500 people from the streets of Hyderabad and has also helped unite over 50 people with their family members. Jasper has also helped in bridging the gap between the sick street dwellers and govt. hospitals. He has done all of this despite the lack of support from the police department. Jasper believes in changing one life at a time.
Sudha Varghese, Volunteer Hero 2018
I was shaken by the condition of women in Bihar, so I initiated ‘Nari Gunjan’ in 1987, through which ZI was able to educating over 3000 girls. I also helped launching the first ‘Dalit Women Band’ from the community who were trained to be professional drummers. I volunteer because I want to uplift women and work for the ones who need my service the most.
