Country: India

Organization: Pravah

Idea: We believe that young people, the future changemakers, find little opportunity here to develop an intellectual and values framework that can help them understand the myriad local and global tensions that arise from cultural and socially divisive factors. Nor are they adequately equipped to understand their roles in preventing those or acquire the skills and mindset for making a positive difference.

Our idea is to fill this systemic gap, and through lifeskills & citizenship education, build their self awareness, sensitize them to social issues, develop in them a sense of social responsibility and facilitate them to channel their energy in socially constructive directions.

How do you do it: Pravah targets youth in through multiple programs, help them understand conflicts, break myths and stereotypes and equips them with the skills for positive action. Our key interventions: Running lifeskills workshops in schools. Facilitating a ýlearning through volunteeringý program for college students. Mentoring youth to take up diverse social action projects. Training teachers to design and run lifeskills programs with students. Building capacities of other agencies to develop & run youth programs. Our curricula with all groups start with building self- awareness, goes on to build understanding of self within larger groups, then within society. They culminate with building linkages with social conflicts and executing action projects

Innovation: A rigid syllabus in Indian schools/colleges do not adequately nurture critical thinking, values framework, or leadership, nor encourage an open mind to alternatives. Our work seeks to find spaces within this framework and fill in the gaps. We are not advocating alternative spaces, but are looking at expanding the scopes of the spaces available.

We are not advocating a stance but creating spaces for diverse positive stances.

The methodology: Through role-playing, simulation games, and behavioral exercises young people are enabled to identify their values and make the journey from ýselfý to ýsocietyý. They are facilitated to apply their learnings to impact real-life issues, through social action projects, theatre, filmmaking, or music.

Impact: Constructive social action and conflict positive stances are critical to building a society that prevents violence and appreciates diversity. But social work is not done in the social sector alone. We believe that it is individuals that create the system. Change them, and the system will change. Many young people, having gone through our college & school programs, have entered diverse fields and have demonstrated their positive decision making abilities.

At other levels, many schools we work with have incorporated lifeskills as a part of their curriculum. We are offering teacher training and interim support to make the incorporation smooth.

Our organization development and capacity building functions are also geared to impact system

Ethical Action: After graduating in Bihar, Bidhan Singh had visited Delhi to clear his civil services exam. Here he met Pravah, and fascinated, joined its theater and social issues workshop. He believes he was reborn in those 10 days. Eventually, as an active SMILE volunteer, he worked for various causes through theater and campaigning. As a SMILE volunteer, he went to URMUL in Rajasthan. This was another turning point. His visit coincided with the kidnapping of activist Sanjay Ghosh. Spending days with a crowd supporting Ghosh, he realized that he wanted to do work which looked beyond personal benefits. Upon return, Bidhan pursued an MSW, worked with Ashray Adhikar Abhiyan, and then joined Greenpeace. His deep association with Pravah still continues.

Replication: Schools (mainly in Delhi) are replicating it. We are actively investing energy in training teachers in schools who can in turn work with subsequent generations of young people on the issues that we are addressing. The training involves skills components such as instruction design so that teachers are empowered to further innovate.

Other organizations are replicating it. We are receiving requests, and are actively building capacities of other voluntary organizations to develop and facilitate youth and citizenship programs. We are also mentoring a number of youth organization start-up and strengthening processes.

Having worked with youth on lifeskills issues for over a decade, we are happy to finally see a favorable climate building up.

Sustainability: Pravah believes that mainstreaming lifeskills & citizenship education is one way of reaching sustainability. The gaps, which propelled Pravah to become active, will then be filled, making the organization redundant in the particular area. Through teachers training and capacity building in schools, this could be achieved.

Regarding work with college youth, it is a paradigm shift that Pravah is working towards ý that of building a culture of active philanthropy and social entrepreneurship. The youth awards programs of Pravah are steps in the direction.

Capacity building of other organizations is the third way in which Pravahýs efforts will become self-sustainable in the long run.

Position in the Ethics Mosaic of Solutions:

Factor: Otherness

Principle: Developing self-awareness and interconnectedness