IndiaPost.com - Inspiring Diaspora youth

India Post News Service

Indicorps is dedicated to engaging young, talented members of the global Indian Diaspora in development projects. In 2004, Gaurav Parnami, former portfolio advisor in San Francisco and alumni of the University of Arizona was assigned to a project named "improving slum life" in Gujarat. Avni and Ishan introduced "dust-bin culture" in Ahmedabad through street plays.

Shaila Parikh lived with a group of kids for 10 months exploring the world of learning with them. These are only few examples of the impact Indicorps is making. Since its first fellowship program launch in 2002, Indicorps has engaged its fellows in over 60 grassroots initiatives in India.

These projects address some of India's critical issues, including governance reform, women's health, education and social entrepreneurship. Indicorps fellows come from the US, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Indicorps' aims to reconnect Indians to India through service and of building leadership in the Indian diaspora. Indicorp's inception in 1997 provided a platform for its three U.S.-based founders- Sonal, Anand and Roopal Shah- to enact a collective vision of changing the nature of Indian civic responsibility.

Through Indicorps, youth of Indian heritage from around the world would have the opportunity to apply their education, skills and talent to meaningful development programs in India. They benefit from an improved understanding of not only their Indian heritage, but also as individuals through this personal involvement in challenging and sometimes difficult grassroots endeavors.

In July, Indicorps Intern Veronica Huang started a unique four month long spoken English class. Indicorps partnered with Adarsh, Ahmedabad to provide a service while inspiring others to serve. The organization is focused on the involvement of youth in their projects. One of them is to build a modern township in Rajasthan.

In partnership with the Piramal Foundation, Indicorps has helped establish a Grassroots Development Laboratory (GDL) in Bagar, Rajasthan. The GDL aims to address broad development challenges by implementing nationally capable projects in the local Bagar community.

The GDL focuses on implementation of top-quality, small-scale interventions by committed young people. Like many small towns in India, Bagar still struggles with basic provisions such as healthcare services, potable water, solid-waste management and employment opportunities.

The size and the number of graduates residing within the town increase the potential to sustain interventions because of the availability of human resources. The GDL mandate is to work towards solutions that have national relevance and potential to be scaled. The initiative is designed to collaboratively improve conditions in Bagar.

The second project is collaboration with a woman self help group in Maharashtra called Chaitanya. Ketki Sheth, a California- based woman is spearheading this project wherein women are trained to be the "jankaars" for other fellow women and help them out with their legal rights in the domestic sphere.

Indicorps is the assumed name of Indify, Inc., a U.S.-based organization with the broader mission of offering service initiatives and building leadership opportunities among the Indian-American community. Indicorps depends mostly on volunteer work.

The leadership consists of a seven Board of Directors and its three founders- Sonal, Anand, and Roopal Shah. Along with her sister and brother Roopal Shah co-founded Indicorps in 2001. In India from 2003 through 2006, Roopal helped manage the Indicorps fellowship program (creating projects, supporting fellows, managing relationships, etc); she continues to remain an active part of Indicorps core team and their innovative efforts to reconnect the Indian Diaspora to India through service.

A graduate of Harvard University and the University of Michigan Law School, Roopal practiced law for 10 years. She is currently working in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. A popular method that is undertaken to engage people from the rural sections is street plays. As it was done by volunteers during the sensitization and motivating the "dust-bin culture" in rural areas.

In July this year, Avni Yadav and Ishan Bhavsar made a commitment to promote vermicompost in Ahmedabad as a means to reducing trash. Indicorps Fellow Shaila Parikh, last year made science learning come alive for a group of kids who don't often get the chance to touch, smell, run and explore the world of learning.

The children are residents of the community Shaila had been living in and working with over the past ten months. The vision is to bring a change right from the grassroots level and that they bring out by, as they say, "service for the soul".

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