SUCCESS STORIES AT A GLANCE
Small steps lead to great achievements. An organization gets satisfaction when its effort brings desirable and effective changes. Sadhana Foundation has worked in the field of youth leadership and empowerment for a long time. It is heartening to share some of the success stories where our effort has got recognized. Youths who had joined us in despair have now become icons of inspire. Their village background, poverty, lack of communication ability, uninspiring surroundings and immediate concerns have not deterred the committed souls. Their desire, self-confidence, endeavor and the hand holding support from sadhana Foundation has transformed them into youth icons. Now they are not only seen as great achievers but also as the source of inspiration for the other youths. We are happy to share some of the transformative journeys of our youth achievers. We are proud of them and also giving due recognition to their individual attributes and endeavors to attain such heights.
Mr. Srikanta Kumar Tripathy
Journalist cum Youth Entrepreneur
Salatara, Gediapalli, Khurdha
Mr. Srikanta Kumar Tripathy from Salatara village of Gediapalli Gram Panchayat in Bolagarh Block of Khurda District was a young village youth in his twenties. He was quite impatient to do something for his village and was an enterprising youth desiring to bring changes in his surroundings. But there was no way out. He was searching for opportunities and guidance. To his dismay no body was there to aid, advice and guide. He was wandering on his own.
Shadhana Foundation located and identified Mr Srikanta as a potential youth leader in its youth outreach programme. He took the opportunity in his stride. After a number of training programmes on leadership, communication skill, entrepreneurship, social engineering and accountable governance Mr Srikanta transformed into a leader. He led the right to information campaign in the Bolagarh Block, sought accountability from officials regarding development projects, helped people in distress and solved local problems through his initiatives. His leadership inspired many youths in the area to get into social work and the administration also took recognisation of his work. Many pending works in the area got started and completed with the intervention of this youth icon.
Now Mr Srikanta is a well-known person in the area. He has started his poultry business as well as working in a web portal as a journalist.
Mrs. Pushpanjali Seth Sargidihi, Bamra,Sambalpur
The transformative journey has been started in Pushpanjali’s life after becoming an active volunteer of Sadhana Foundation, Bhubaneswar when we had organized one youth development programme in Badgaon, Sundergarh under the leadership of Mr. Narayan Majhi, a dedicated worker who is no more with us. Being a girl from tribal belt, she vowed and committed to change the lives of many. After adopting the vision and mission of Sadhana Foundation, she became a strong leader and advocated for neglected and poor voices. Through this journey of transforming the lives of others, she has also experienced her own transformation – one that includes self-discovery and learning of new skills like communication, leadership, motivation etc.
When young girls advocate for change, it often comes from their commitment with a very good intentions- one that has the strong ability to resonate with people in many different ways and serve them.
Subsequently she started her initiative in her community with a group of youngsters to empower the women, adolescent girls and youths by organizing some awareness programmes on girls’ education, women health, livelihood and gender based violence. In between she completed her master degree in Social work and got the opportunity to work with women under the scheme of Mission Shakti, an initiative of Govt. of Odisha. She is also supporting 3 to 4 families by providing the financial support for their children’s education and upbringing. Currently Puspanjali is placed as a development officer, community and livelihood (Forest Department) of Kolabira Block of Jharsuguda district. She is also continuing that same service with a high spirit in the field of women’s rights and youth development.
Sadhana Foundation wishing her a great success to set a milestone for others.
Ms. Sasmita Dalai Community LeaderBhubaneswar
Women can bring changes. But many times women and girls are discouraged from activities intended to bring social changes against patriarchal construct. But sasmita Dalai is a different person. From her Childhood she was interested in questioning the system and its impositions. But she was without any support and mentor. Sadhana foundation identified her potential and provided required training and support.
As a result, Mrs. Sasmita Dalai, a self Help group member became a strong motivational community leader in the urban slum community and started doing service with MAS ( Mahila Arogya Samiti) team member in the field of Health, hygiene and life skill education of adolescent girls. She is now a most sought after community leader of her area and is in the forefront of fighting social evils. Continuous community engagement and strong hidden desire towards changes can make impossible to possible. That’s what happened in her life. During pandemic she got felicitated by Government of Odisha as a COVID warrior due to her restless service rendered to the slum community by putting her life in danger.
We feel proud to see her in TV debates where Ms. Dalai participates actively and discusses bravely the hygiene and sanitation requirement of young girls and health hazards of community people along with other dignitaries. She is the bright example of community driven development through selfless service.
Sadhana Foundation whishing her more power and commitment towards her vision.
Mr. Sushant Kumar Pradhan Young EntrepreneurBhubaneswar
Sushant’s journey started as a newspaper hawker. He has a strong spirit to work for social welfare and empowerment of the poor. Being a slum dweller he could understood the plight of the working class and the poor. He was looking for opportunities to come out of this poverty cycle and also to help the neighbours and the unemployed youths. Being a hawker he was meeting different households and was interacting with cross section of people. He came to know the Sadhana foundation and its youth training programmes. He got involved with the organization and started to work under its guidance. Sadhana Foundation enrolled Mr Sushanta as a potential youth leader and provided all kinds of training and motivation. He learned about use of Right to information act, took trainings in gender and gender based discriminations, learned about tools of community mobilization, prepared reports and acquired computer knowledge.
It helped him find a placement in one NGO and he took charge of some of the slums of Bhubaneswar as its project coordinator to implement the livelihood projects of the organization. His access to resources and organization helped him to find out livelihood options for many women and youth. He helped the Self Help Groups to establish businesses and also started his own Customer service Centre to provide applicable digital services to community people. Some youths are engaged in his enterprise. Now Mr Susanta is a very reputed and enterprising youth.
Sadhana Foundation wishing him a great success and achievement.