Friday, November 18, 2011

The Youth Alliance:"Featured as Inspiring Story by Microsoft India"

The ‘youth’ of a country is the faction that is a time-honoured scapegoat and never fails to be a source of disapproval to someone at some point. They don’t have focus; they don’t wear too much, they smoke too much, they don’t do too much, they don’t participate politically, they ‘participate’ way too much socially – the list is endless! Even in calmer times, there’s a sword of Damocles hanging over them as a reminder that a slump in positive feedback isn’t too far behind.

The Youth Alliance, initiated by Prakhar, should keep that slump well at bay! Youth Alliance was visualised as a website that would serve as a comprehensive database of the social sector and that’s what it has turned into. Its mission statement – ‘Connect Each Youth With a Cause’ is completely understandable in a world where people are often blindsided by the amount of information there is out there and by the prospect of having to spend time going through it. 

A highly motivated person, Prakhar who is a consultant with NIIT, spends a majority of his spare time on the Youth Alliance and the load of work that accompanies it, though he informs us that he should begin working on the endeavour full-time in a short while. The organisation has as strong an offline presence with projects being undertaken (such as volunteers heading into a village near Kanpur to replace all bulbs with CFLs) that would put high-level NGOs to shame. 

“I have volunteered with Janaagraha when I was in my second year of engineering in college and later even became a fellow with Teach for India. Post attaining my fellowship, I went on the Jaagriti Yatra (an 18-day train journey that takes hundreds of India's highly motivated youth on a national odyssey to awaken the spirit of entrepreneurship). Through my experiences, I found that even though I wanted to help, there wasn’t a cohesive platform to go to. I wanted to create such a platform,” says the activist earnestly. 

What has the response been like, we ask? “(The response)...hasn’t been very high but it’s all relative. We had a seminar for Mass Communication and MBA students recently and about 150 people turned up. They were quite interested and asked a lot of questions,” says Prakhar. 

If you ask who’s behind the Youth Alliance, Prakhar eagerly tells us that Youth Alliance is a family of 7 to 8 core members with 55 volunteers in Delhi alone. They have a host of volunteers in Kanpur and Lucknow and are looking to expand to the south of the country, if possible. 

Endeavours like the Youth Alliance should be supported fully since the goal that they’re furthering is too important to be allowed an indecent burial under the aegis of being ‘a lost cause’ or even worse - ‘unattainable’. 

Contact details

Official Website

Mail : info@youthallianceofindia.org

Telephone: 

Divya - 09868638883

Vibhuti: 09582870628 

Prakhar: 07838540546


Note: We were featured by Microsoft India as an inspiring story on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti. Thanks to all our supporters.
Original Link: http://specials.msn.co.in/sp11/india365/archives_story.aspx?ID=9793705d-860d-419d-8a4e-9f007d220942&index=36