Inovation and Impact
Ashoka
Alok Institute and Ashoka India join forces to create a world in which everyone identifies themselves as agents of positive transformation in society.
The common goal is to shed some light on the leadership, creativity, empathy of social entrepreneurs (Ashoka Fellows), so that they can make a commitment to solving social problems in an effective, innovative and systemic way.
The Alok Institute supports Ashoka’s actions in India, and more specifically five Ashoka Fellows, two of them have already been selected:
all conduct innovative social projects to solve the country’s biggest challenges in areas such as: social protection and inclusion, education, entrepreneurship, income generation, food chain and social gastronomy.
Find out about their stories:
Arundhut Gupta
Mentor Together
Founder of Mentor Together, India’s largest digital mentoring program, currently deployed in 10 states, with 25 employees, over 10,000 volunteer mentors and nearly 12,000 women benefited through policies and practices that deliver quality digital mentorship. In addition to mentoring, young women are supported in their career plans and in building and empowering self-esteem, creating a broader and richer ecosystem across India, in addition to breaking the cycle of unequal opportunities.
The support from the Alok Institute, through the Ashoka network, is being used to campaign for greater visibility on women’s rights and their economic empowerment, through powerful stories of transformation.
Sonal Kapoor
Protsahan Foundation
is the founder of Protsahan, an organization that works to find systemic solutions to end violence against girls in India. Her project is mainly focused on providing a safer place for young people who live in a state of vulnerability, so that they can have greater access to education, health and gender justice.
Today, Protsahan assists more than 72,000 girls annually through its programs and is filling a gap in childcare systems by introducing an empathy-based methodology to heal and transform girls who are survivors of or at high risk of abuse.
The financial support of the Alok Institute, through the Ashoka network, contributes to the HEART model of Protsahan, being recognized globally, in addition to allowing a great growth as an organization of social impact.
Actions:
• Expansion of the fund to promote the rescue of abused children by enrolling them in schools, offering them creative expression and sustainable bonds.
• Launch of flagship global report, together with other institutions, on closing the gender gap in girls’ education.
• Launch of new annual donation programs.
Ashok Kamath
Protsahan Foundation
is founder of the Akshara Foundation, an organization that is improving learning outcomes for teaching mathematics in primary schools by redesigning the pedagogy of the public education system in India.
Ashok is building a network of local champions who mobilize community and political participation in public education to achieve a strong math foundation. More than 50,000 schools in India have been reached by the Akshara Foundation model.
Saransh Vaswani
Saajha
is the creator of Saajha, a project that aims to impact the education of children living in vulnerable situations through direct action with their parents, who now have greater participation in their children’s learning alongside teachers and administrators.
The organization has 74 employees and is building a community of parents across India, making them partners in their children’s education.
The Alok Institute’s support, through the Ashoka network, is used to deepen the alignment and new vision among the teams and ensure that everyone has the necessary technology hardware to carry out organizational activities.
Madhukar Banuri
Leadership For Equity (LFE)
is founder of the Leadership For Equity (LFE), a social organization which aims to strengthen the capacity of government schools systems of India.
How? By working on people capacity to deliver; by creating policies that are rooted in children’s needs; and by structuring processes that help government system leaders deliver quality at scale.
LFE belives in the idea of operating with high levels of empathy, reinforcing the practice of reflection with government stakeholders about their most concrete problems and challenges, developing a spirit of leadership and sustainable learning results for the most marginalised children of India.
The organization is co-creating government programs in the areas of teacher development, system strengthening and academic governance using technology.
With the support of the Alok Institute, through the Ashoka Fellows network, Leadership For Equity has implemented 3 important steps:
1. employee well-being and mental health support sessions lasting 1 year, through a reputed partner for higher staff retention and effectiveness;
2. a 3-day yearly retreat with all 80+ team members for a time of reflection, team Building and stepping back on program impact;
3. made a learning and development consultant to help the project management & field teams build capacity on key project competencies for improving delivery and effectiveness
About Ashoka:
Created in 1980 in India, it is considered the 5th NGO with the greatest social impact in the world, according to the Swiss publication NGO Advisor.
Our changemaker community consists of 3,500+ Fellows, 50+ Young Changemakers, 250+ change institutions, and 300+ partners across more than 90 countries. Together, they form a strong, diverse and vibrant ecosystem of change agents collaborating and co-leading to positively transform societies and cultures around the world.
→ 83% of Ashoka Fellows change systems nationwide 10 years after the election.
→ 57% change national policy within 5 years after the election.
→ 91% of Ashoka Fellows’ ideas are replicated by other groups.
