Entrants's Name: Hafsa Kanjwal

Country: United States

Field: Volunteerism

Innovation - idea: Kashmircorps seeks to participate in the development of Kashmir by linking students and professionals from outside of Kashmir with local or international NGO's, schools, businesses or healthcare facilities in the region. The volunteers bring their skills in the fields of healthcare, education and economic development. www.kashmircorps.org

Innovation - why it is pioneering: To this day, no organization of this sort has operated in Kashmir, where there is a lack of active civil society participation and civic volunteerism. We seek to engage local resources in efforts to further the development of the region.

Strategy - how it achieves impact: Outside resources and skills will be used to achieve impact in the region- especially in the fields of education, healthcare and economic development. Our volunteers will work with local activists, educators, health care professionals and businesses as consultants and create new and innovate projects that seek to address social issues. It is our hope that this will help create a spirit of volunteerism in the region.

Strategy - growth plans: We hope that this model can be used in other areas of the world. Essentially, it would allow students and young professionals from outside the specific country to have an organized way of volunteering or working in that country/region.

Impact to date: We are in communication with local NGO's who are very excited to be working with us. We're in the process of creating projects for our volunteers to work for the summer of 2007. People there appreciate our vision and our ambitions and are glad that finally some international attention is being given to the problems in this region.

Future impact: We hope that the organization will foster better communication, ties, and action among civil society partners in Kashmir. With greater coomunication and coordination of resources, civil society partners will be able to effectively address the problems in the region. We hope that our volunteers can continue to be engaged in Kashmir and that others may be able to experience a beautiful region that has been blemished by war for so long.

Sustainability - resource base: Since we will be continually working with existing NGO's, schools, health care facilities we will have great sustainability. Our main role is to provide these NGO's with physical labor, our creative ideas, and access to international resources. The organization has great sustainability as we will make partnerships. In addition, we will be asking for funding/donations from Kashmiri ex- pats and other organizations.

Major challenge for the field: Our main challenge is dealing with the central or state government bereaucracy in Kashmir- which may not necessarily be as welcoming to efforts by civil society.

Contact Information:

Name: Ms. Hafsa Kanjwal
Country: United States
Website: www.kashmircorps.org

Bio: Junior at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Major in Regional Studies of the Muslim World and International Development. Originally born in Srinagar, Kashmir but live in the states. Co-Founder of Kashmircorps.