Gold completion in Welham Girls' School the largest in India: a peek into their Residential Project with HESCO

Welham Girls' School (WGS), among the Top 5 best schools for Girls in India, makes headlines for the committed, talented, energetic and driven young women that graduate every year. WGS has a very robust, extensive and rigorous Award Programme and 20 Gold Level completions have happened in the last three years, making it the largest number of Gold Award completions in one Award Operating Unit in India. 

Gold Award participants engage in exciting and innovative activities that range from learning traditional India dance forms from Gurus such as Birju Maharaj, to learning digital media, exploring different art forms, foreign language, sport including leading in basketball, athletics, badminton, karate, etc, to making their presence felt in the communities in Dehradun with their Service. 

The 'sulabh shauchalay’ project, with partnership with Himalayan Environmental Studies and Conservation Organisation or  HESCO (http://www.hesco.in/) at Donkwala village is a recent Residential Project completed by the Gold Awardees at Welham this year. The HESCO-Welham partnership, operational since over five years has transformed lives of villagers in the Uttarkhand region and of the young Gold Award participants. 

The school students and teachers undertook construction work from 21 September at the village. While Welham Girls provided the financial input for raw material and the labour to complete the project, HESCO empowered the girls with their technical input. Toilets are built with bathrooms- an essential hygiene empowerment tool. Identified beneficaries say that through this initiative by HESCO and WGS, Welhamites learn about the need for and the importance of sanitation in villages, and the local people are encouraged to work for better living conditions. 

The 5 day project was attended by Kunwar Singh Rana and Jaipal Singh Chauhan from HESCO, WGS teachers Sonia Bawa, Sapna Sharma, Sudhir Kailthola, Vishal Rawat and 20 Gold Award participants from WGS.  At the concluding ceremony, the founder of HESCO, Dr Anil Joshi, praised the work done by the students. He pointed out that the poor faced a range of difficulties in obtaining a better life, which is why it was important to work in the rural environment. One needed to use one’s resources for the good of others.


It is important to note that Alumni and Award Holders from WGS have been active in Volunteering and Exploring Opportunities with The International Award Programme in India. Since the set up of the National Office in Delhi, Gold Holders and Welhamites have spearheaded the Open Awards Centre campaign, provided invaluable support in Digital and Print media for the Communications team and in operations and monitoring of the Award Programme in India. 

- Excerpts from The Garhwal Post (26/09/2011) and from National Office Archives and NAA team feedback

Apply for the Global Changemakers Asia Youth Summit

British Council India will be hosting the first ever Global Changemakers Asia Youth Summit in July 17-23. 60 young social entrepreneurs and community activists (54 from Asia and up to 6 from the UK) will be chosen to attend -- full details on the attached 1-pager. For more details go to http://www.global-changemakers.net/uncategorized/asia-youth-summit-2011-call-for-applications.

Award Partners- INME present 'The Great American Bicycle Ride' from Seattle to San Fransisco

The Great American Bicycle Ride

This May and June, 15 Indian teens will travel the length of the US Pacific coast – 1600 km’s on a self contained, self sufficient cycling expedition. Along the way they will..

1. Camp on stunning beaches in Oregon

2. Test their skills sand boarding on the dunes

3. Explore the Redwood forests and see the tallest trees on earth

4. Go rafting down the Klamath river

5. Visit and explore the fish markets of Seattle and the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco

This trip has the potential to be a watershed event in any teens life, three experienced facilitators lead the learning outcomes of this trip around the following critical areas

1. Cross cultural awareness and appreciation

2. Belief in abilities of self and the team

3. Learning to lead and be led.

The cost of $5300 covers to and fro airfare, boarding and lodging for 30 days and to top it all the participants get to bring back the cycle as a trophy.

A memory of a life time - a story they will tell their grand children!!

For enquiries please contact anand@inme.in or call him at +91 9810097627.

Introducing Dhruv Bahl as Intern of the Month for January 2011

Dhruv has been an Intern at the Award Office since 29th November 2010. A Bronze Award participant, Dhruv brings fresh energy and professionalism to Preserve the Award Programme in India. Currently a student of Bachelors of Financial and Investment Analysis at the Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, University of Delhi; Dhruv aspires to be an investment banker.

An integral member of the Office Team, Dhruv is now heading the Gold Internship Programme project. The Gold Internship Programme or GIP aims to give Gold Award Holders the much sought after exposure in a working environment. The GIP will place interested Gold Award Holders in internship programmes with partner companies. Dhruv believes that the GIP will address the "Life after Gold" issue for Gold Holders by providing them a platform to receive professional practical training and also allow them to promote the Award actively.

In the month of January, Dhruv has successfully completed and sent license agreements to Award Partners and provided exemplary support to the Award Database Management Systems. Through the learnings from his brief internship with the Design Team at Ernst and Young, Dhruv has contributed to design and communication needs too.

In his leisure time, he reads non-fiction books, works out and listens to music.

La Martinere Girls challenge themselves at 11000 feet

On 11th December, 2011 a group of 37 Bronze and Silver awardees of the La Martiniere for Girls, Kolkata accompanied by a team of Instructors, left for an IAYP expedition to Dodital, Uttaranchal. After completing the necessary journey up till Uttarkashi, where a day was spent in acclimatization, the trek commenced from a point called Sangam Chhati at an approximate elevation of 4000 feet above sea level.

The day’s destination was a small village called Bebra (7900 feet above sea level) about 10 kilometres from Samgam Chatti. It was a gradual uphill trek and took about 7 hours to be completed. After reaching Bebra the students were served a small snack and tea followed by some briefing for the next day’s trek which was to be a difficult one in terms of gradient. The students enjoyed the campsite in the moonlight and the soft sound of the stream flowing by. After dinner the team retired in tents for the night with the approximate night temperature of the place freezing below subzero.

The next morning the team set off for Manjhi: the next destination which was again about 10 kilometres from Bebra. This gradient was slightly steeper than the previous day and took about 8 hours to be completed. On the way the students were made to indentify many species of high altitude trees like the Pine, Spruce and Rhododendrons and its Gurus flower. Some uncommon birds like the Monal and Cons hell Eagle were also spotted. The team also caught a glance of the Yellowtooh Peak which is a snow capped peak at an elevation of 5740 metres from sea level. The trek was moderately difficult and quite tiring for the students but they enjoyed it for the panoramic landscapes, log bridges and green valleys on the way. The night at Manjhi was the coldest with temperatures freezing at about -7 degrees centigrade. The campsite however was beautiful by the moonlight and the clear sky where numerous constellations could be spotted. After dinner and a hot drink by the fireplace the team retired in tents for the night.

The next morning was bitterly cold and it could be seen that the streams around the place had semi-frozen. With sunrise one could catch a glimpse of the shining Bandarpunj Peak which is again a snow-capped peak at a height of 6320 metres above sea-level spotted only from around the Manjhi campsite. After breakfast and a quick briefing the team set out for their final destination Dodital which was a gradual gradient trek of about 7 kilometres from Manjhi. Destination Dodital was reached around 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The vicinity of the vast expanse of the lake mesmerised everyone. Popularly known as the Angler’s Paradise the sight of Dodital was an absolute treat to the eyes. The exhaustion of three days of uphill walking was forgotten and everyone seemed to breathe fresh again. The team was briefed about Dodital and some interesting facts about the lake came to be known. The name Dodital comes from the word ‘Dodi’ which means Trout fish in Hindi and ‘Tal’means Lake. The Rainbow Trout is an exotic specie of fish which was first brought to India by the Britishers. It is usually found in extremely cold climate and is rare in India at the moment. Dodital is home to numerous such fishes. This perennial lake is fed by the glacier located on the Darwa Top at a height of about 12000 feet from sea level seen clearly from the Dodital campsite. The Dodital itself is a virgin lake situated at 10850 feet above sea level that leads to the river stream called Osi Ganga which flows around the Uttarkashi region. It is believed to be a sacred lake of the locals and also has a temple situated by it. The Jungle Crow, Monal and the Cons hell eagle are some commonly found birds there. The rest of the day was left to the students to explore the place, the frozen streams, to catch a glimpse of the beautiful black Rainbow Trouts and to get some get shots for their cameras. In the evening there was a campfire for the students followed by dinner and retiring in tents for the night.

The team set out early next morning on its trek back to Bebra this time leaving Manjhi on the way. It was a long trek of nearly 17 kilometres comprising mainly of downhill trails. It was however not very easy since the path was narrow and moderately steep.

The following morning the team wrapped up its stay at the Bebra campsite and left for Sangam Chatti where the trek was suppose to finish. It was by far the most tiresome 10 kilometres of downhill trekking owing to its narrow trails, jutting boulders, steep shortcuts and muddy paths.The team hereafter also spent two days doing local trekking around the Ganges in Haridwar and Rishikesh.

Finally the team reached New Delhi Airport on 21st December morning amidst fog and a biting cold. After a few hours of wait the team flew back to Kolkata reaching the same in the evening. The team dispersed on a positive note of having accomplished a fairly difficult trek and having withstood extremely rough weather. It was great to see their spirit of self discovery! Thanking the Almighty it was all good in the end.

- Contributions by Dr. Tapti Dasgupta-Award Leader at La Martinere Girls School, Kolkata and Meghali Gupta-Gold Holder and Expedition Assessor