Two speakers that come to my mind when I think about the Grassroutes Day 0 2009  are Vishal Talreja (Dream A Dream) and C Sharada Prasad (Arghyam). They both had very different stories but they had something in common- they experienced something very powerful that made them do what they are doing today.

Sharada Prasad shared the story of his 92 day long road-trip across the country the water problems of India’s people. He spoke of water related issues, devastation it causes and the effect of corruption in our system on the people living in the rural corners in India. His talk left us all thinking about the need for someone to take the unheard voices of the country to the decision makers of the country.

Vishal Talreja spoke about the concept that solving a person’s problems alone is not enough and that we need to look at empowering a person in order to actually change their world. He also spoke to us about the need for bringing about happiness in someone’s life in order to empower them.

Day 0 left me thinking about the work that I do. It reinforced in me the power of Grassroutes and the need for a large scale movement to sensitize the youth of the country. What makes CSP and Vishal make such a huge impact on the world is the experiences that they have had and that is exactly what Grassroutes does. It provides the opportunity for young people to have those experiences. However, we believe in taking it a step further. Grassroutes is not just about experiencing the world but also taking your first step towards changing it. A young person would get to meet people from rural communities, get to know them and then use their skills and networks to improve lives as well.

The reason I love working with young people is because of their belief in large scale change and their willingness to actually do what it takes to make that difference. I believe we need to get the youth involved if we plan to change the world at any time. Just imagine if 20,000 young people got to have powerful experiences at the Grassroutes Fellowship Program, better still just imagine if 1 million young people got to experience it. Imagine if young people saw the struggles of people, shared those stories and worked on finding solutions for them and were being mentored on change.. Where would our country be today????

We need a mass movement towards sensitization and leveraging the power of young people…