Young Changemakers in India | Social Enterprises & Women Empowerment

Being a 17 year old kid I am always wanting to contribute my part to the most pressing issues of our society. But my efforts usually fall short as I have no clear vision on where to begin.
I figured the best way to start is apply for internships, gain new skills & then look for relevant sectors to help out. Here’s the interesting part, to work as an intern you need to have relevant skills already. Another day, another setback. But this time I decided to turn the tables.

That is how I enrolled for the Young changemakers program of TribesforGOOD. It was a 3 month virtual internship program with a focus on hands-on experience & helping youngsters like me be ready for the world.It was centered around sectors & skills that I wanted to learn about & explore. Since, I wanted to focus on Women empowerment & livelihood I chose that as my potential project.

I was very well introduced to the social impact space and given a few insights on the project I chose to help me come forward with a design plan.
During the first 2 weeks we had a weekly discussion session on the research I conducted & my mentor would give me feedback & resources to work upon.

By the time we entered the fourth week I had a pretty clear idea of what was I working on and could now start understanding the problems of underprivileged women in Mumbai to design possible solutions for it.

By the end of this program TribesforGOOD & I were able to help me develop an
ability to think like an entrepreneur and consider issues from a variety of perspectives & learnt to use my skills effectively & work in a complex environment. The solutions I recommended to tackle Poverty are being considered as an actual setup which felt great.

I was definitely able to achieve my goal of interning, gaining new skills and working for the upliftment of communities around me.This program really helped me gain a perspective of the outside world apart from classroom learning & provided me a confidence boost that with the right amount of dedication your age doesn’t matter in creating an impact.

Young Changemakers Program -

I enrolled with TribesforGOOD for a 3 month virtual internship program called the Young Changemakers program. Since, I have been pursuing a full time undergrad program visiting India was not possible. TribesforGOOD solved this problem by offering me a solution to work remotely.

The program had a combination of workshops, curated readings, training and hands on experience working closely with organisations (education,gender,etc.) in India.
A meticulous planning was firstly done through one-to-one mentor-ship session to design an action plan according to my interests & skills. Next part was to work on Design Thinking & implementing my Action plan.
The Action Plan I chose to work on - Poverty alleviation.
Throughout the internship, I had a facilitator from TribesforGOOD to help with the designing of solutions & to clear my queries.

By the end of this program TribesforGOOD & I were able to help me develop an
ability to think like an entrepreneur and consider issues from a variety of perspectives, learning to use my skills effectively & work in a complex environment.
The solutions I recommended to tackle Poverty were implemented in an actual setup which felt great to me.

I’d recommend this program to anyone planning their travel to India or looking to contribute remotely!