Indian students win social projects Award at United Nations Headquarters

NEW DELHI, MARCH 26: 1M1B, (1 Million for 1 Billion) has awarded three high school students from TISB school, Bangalore,India for social projects that advance United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG's).

The selections was made from a batch of 26 students of Grade 9 from The International School Bangalore (TISB) where 1M1B initiated its ‘1M1B Future Leaders’ program. Ten students from the batch were selected to travel to New York where their projects were assessed by a high profile panel of judges from different fields. A final selection of the top three was made who were then given opportunity to present to the global body for the 1M1B Future Leaders awards.

This was the first batch of students who travelled to New York to present their ideas and solutions for a poverty free world and had the opportunity of talking about their projects to diplomats, media, foundations and influencers from across the world.

The three winners are Nikita Nambiar (Grade 9 student) for her project named ‘Fresh Start’ which involved working with women inmates in Tumkur jail and skilling them to make Tanjore paintings. Sanjana Tarigopula (Grade 9 student) created support group therapy for Autistic kids and their families through her project named ‘Divyang’and helped in spreading awareness about autism.

Nina Reddy & Preethi Subbiah’sproject ‘Svaasthy’ aimed to educate young girlsand generate awareness about the taboo subject of menstrual health and hygiene via workshops in rural areas as well as in underserved communities.

The original batch of the 26 students was selected in June 2017 and underwent a 6-month leadership curriculum designed by 1M1B. The modules were designed to teach the students to design scalable models through a process that emphasizes stakeholder discovery, business innovation, and social impact assessment. Thereafter they were trained to develop a social entrepreneurial project representing global movements, like gender equality, climate change, poverty alleviation, hunger and other goals assigned underthe United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The 1M1B Future Leaders program and awards aims to create a new brand of socially conscious leaders that are connected to their communities. It is a project-based curriculum focussed on innovation and entrepreneurial thinking. 1M1B Future Leaders program and awards is designed to recognize young people who work at the grassroots and demonstrate how their actions and social influence is driving fulfilment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's)

Speaking about 1M1B’s Future Leaders, Manav Subodh, Co-Founder, 1M1B said, “We are very excited to conclude our inaugural campaign. This has been an extraordinary journey and we are now ready to expand the initiative to many schools in different countries. These young leaders are helping us to achieve our goal of activating a million young leaders and entrepreneurs who will drive a billion people out of poverty and achieve United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's).”

The program is now open-up for more schools in different countries to participate, in particular USA, Caribbean, Kenya and Vietnam and will expand in India to over 500 high school students. Over 100 Future Leaders will participate in a grand finale of IM1B Future Leaders Program at the UN Headquarters in New York in October 2018. In addition, 20 scholarships will be announced for youth from the villages of India.