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YOUTH KI AWAAZ

ACTION NETWORK

Take your advocacy campaigns to the next level to create greater impact.

 

While the world is facing some of the toughest challenges we've ever seen - from climate change to inequality - young people are leading the way to creating a better, more just world. From path-breaking national movements, conducting powerful journalism, to creating social enterprises, the true power to positively influence and impact the world lies with young people.

The Youth Ki Awaaz Action Network is a programme to enable such changemakers working on key Sustainable Development Goals to scale the impact of their existing projects and campaigns.

As a part of its 3-day residential bootcamp, you get to learn how to mobilise and organise more young people to join your movement, build a media and public narrative around your issues, create effective and engaging campaigns, as well as create decision-maker engagement that leads to policy impact and action.

The programme is currently looking for young changemakers who are working on climate action, through projects, campaigns, citizen's movements, or as journalists and highlight the need for policy action. If you are eager and enthusiastic to act on the climate crises and want to learn key campaigning, policy action and public narrative building skills, this is an opportunity for you to be a part of a network and amplify your impact.

Apply Now

What You Stand To Gain


Designing A Campaign

From conceptualising an effective campaign to launching it, learn the ropes of how campaigns with a tangible call-to-action align with potential policy change and community impact.


Content Creation and Amplification

Leveraging different digital media platforms and creating content that communicates in the most powerful manner - moving people from information to action.


Understanding The Policy Instrument

Understanding how existing and potential policies impact your work, and building a solid knowledge base to draw linkages between local policies, political commitments and global moments.


Decision Maker Engagement

Identifying relevant policy stakeholders and power mapping to build influence decision making.


Influencing The Public Narrative

Working with and managing the local media to change popular public perceptions on issues and highlight aspects that need attention.


Get Support

After the completion of the workshop, you will be offered an opportunity to be among the 10 best projects to receive a seed grant to launch your projects and campaigns to help scale your work.

 

Learn from some of the best campaign, media, and public policy experts in the country.

Who Should Apply

 

Applicants must be under 35 years of age, who are either running their own projects/organisations/campaigns, have worked extensively on this issue with another organisation. You can also be a journalist covering the issue, or someone with a bold idea.

 

Should be committed to carrying out their project for at least 6 months with a minimum of 10 hours per week.

 

Should have an active social media presence on at least one platform with a basic understanding of how platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat work.

 

Must possess a working knowledge of both Hindi and English - sessions can be bilingual.

Ongoing Action Networks

Climate Action

Apply Now

Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights

Apply Now

Upcoming Action Network Workshops

The Action Network is an all expense-paid opportunity, so everything from your application to the workshop are free of cost!

Once you apply, you will be a part of an all expense paid workshop-training programme for two days - your meals, travel and stay will be on us! We're also on the lookout for committed changemakers, who will spend time on building their project after the workshop - we're talking 6 months or more!

Quick tips to make your entry stand out:

  1. Make sure that the issue you wish to tackle is specific and localised
  2. Keep your plan to highlight solutions to the issue handy - if you have a clear idea as to which decision maker you want solutions from with your campaign, nothing like it!
  3. Your plan should be realistic. Set an achievable goal for yourself.

PS. Not every issue around climate change needs to be addressed to the Union Minister! The more specific, intersectional and localised your plan of action, the higher chances of impact!

Your application only covers your participation in the workshop and only you are eligible for the grant, should you be selected. However, if you have someone in mind who would be interested, we urge you to spread the word and have them apply for the Action Network too!

Upon completion of the workshop, you will be eligible for a seed grant of ₹50,000 to kickstart your campaign. The process to apply for the grant will be made clearer after you've attended the workshop training. There are some prescribed benchmarks you would have to meet to qualify!

If you have another question, don't hesitate to drop us a line here!

 

Are you the changemaker we are looking for?

Apply As Climate Action Fellow

Apply As Menstrual Health Fellow

For queries, write to us at action@youthkiawaaz.com

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We promise not to spam or send irrelevant information.

An ambassador and trained facilitator under Eco Femme (a social enterprise working towards menstrual health in south India), Sanjina is also an active member of the MHM Collective- India and Menstrual Health Alliance- India. She has conducted Menstrual Health sessions in multiple government schools adopted by Rotary District 3240 as part of their WinS project in rural Bengal. She has also delivered training of trainers on SRHR, gender, sexuality and Menstruation for Tomorrow’s Foundation, Vikramshila Education Resource Society, Nirdhan trust and Micro Finance, Tollygunj Women In Need, Paint It Red in Kolkata.

Now as an MH Fellow with YKA, she’s expanding her impressive scope of work further by launching a campaign to facilitate the process of ensuring better menstrual health and SRH services for women residing in correctional homes in West Bengal. The campaign will entail an independent study to take stalk of the present conditions of MHM in correctional homes across the state and use its findings to build public support and political will to take the necessary action.

Saurabh has been associated with YKA as a user and has consistently been writing on the issue MHM and its intersectionality with other issues in the society. Now as an MHM Fellow with YKA, he’s launched the Right to Period campaign, which aims to ensure proper execution of MHM guidelines in Delhi’s schools.

The long-term aim of the campaign is to develop an open culture where menstruation is not treated as a taboo. The campaign also seeks to hold the schools accountable for their responsibilities as an important component in the implementation of MHM policies by making adequate sanitation infrastructure and knowledge of MHM available in school premises.

Read more about his campaign.

Harshita is a psychologist and works to support people with mental health issues, particularly adolescents who are survivors of violence. Associated with the Azadi Foundation in UP, Harshita became an MHM Fellow with YKA, with the aim of promoting better menstrual health.

Her campaign #MeriMarzi aims to promote menstrual health and wellness, hygiene and facilities for female sex workers in UP. She says, “Knowledge about natural body processes is a very basic human right. And for individuals whose occupation is providing sexual services, it becomes even more important.”

Meri Marzi aims to ensure sensitised, non-discriminatory health workers for the needs of female sex workers in the Suraksha Clinics under the UPSACS (Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society) program by creating more dialogues and garnering public support for the cause of sex workers’ menstrual rights. The campaign will also ensure interventions with sex workers to clear misconceptions around overall hygiene management to ensure that results flow both ways.

Read more about her campaign.

MH Fellow Sabna comes with significant experience working with a range of development issues. A co-founder of Project Sakhi Saheli, which aims to combat period poverty and break menstrual taboos, Sabna has, in the past, worked on the issue of menstruation in urban slums of Delhi with women and adolescent girls. She and her team also released MenstraBook, with menstrastories and organised Menstra Tlk in the Delhi School of Social Work to create more conversations on menstruation.

With YKA MHM Fellow Vineet, Sabna launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society. As a start, the campaign aims to begin conversations on menstrual health with five hundred adolescents and youth in Delhi through offline platforms, and through this community mobilise support to create Period Friendly Institutions out of educational institutes in the city.

Read more about her campaign. 

A student from Delhi School of Social work, Vineet is a part of Project Sakhi Saheli, an initiative by the students of Delhi school of Social Work to create awareness on Menstrual Health and combat Period Poverty. Along with MHM Action Fellow Sabna, Vineet launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society.

As a start, the campaign aims to begin conversations on menstrual health with five hundred adolescents and youth in Delhi through offline platforms, and through this community mobilise support to create Period Friendly Institutions out of educational institutes in the city.

Find out more about the campaign here.

A native of Bhagalpur district – Bihar, Shalini Jha believes in equal rights for all genders and wants to work for a gender-equal and just society. In the past she’s had a year-long association as a community leader with Haiyya: Organise for Action’s Health Over Stigma campaign. She’s pursuing a Master’s in Literature with Ambedkar University, Delhi and as an MHM Fellow with YKA, recently launched ‘Project अल्हड़ (Alharh)’.

She says, “Bihar is ranked the lowest in India’s SDG Index 2019 for India. Hygienic and comfortable menstruation is a basic human right and sustainable development cannot be ensured if menstruators are deprived of their basic rights.” Project अल्हड़ (Alharh) aims to create a robust sensitised community in Bhagalpur to collectively spread awareness, break the taboo, debunk myths and initiate fearless conversations around menstruation. The campaign aims to reach at least 6000 adolescent girls from government and private schools in Baghalpur district in 2020.

Read more about the campaign here.

A psychologist and co-founder of a mental health NGO called Customize Cognition, Ritika forayed into the space of menstrual health and hygiene, sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights and gender equality as an MHM Fellow with YKA. She says, “The experience of working on MHM/SRHR and gender equality has been an enriching and eye-opening experience. I have learned what’s beneath the surface of the issue, be it awareness, lack of resources or disregard for trans men, who also menstruate.”

The Transmen-ses campaign aims to tackle the issue of silence and disregard for trans men’s menstruation needs, by mobilising gender sensitive health professionals and gender neutral restrooms in Lucknow.

Read more about the campaign here.

A Computer Science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate sector, before realising she wanted to work in the development and social justice space. Since then, she has worked with Teach For India and Care India and is from the founding batch of Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), a one of its kind organisation creating leaders for the development sector through its experiential learning post graduate program.

As a Youth Ki Awaaz Menstrual Health Fellow, Nitisha has started Let’s Talk Period, a campaign to mobilise young people to switch to sustainable period products. She says, “80 lakh women in Delhi use non-biodegradable sanitary products, generate 3000 tonnes of menstrual waste, that takes 500-800 years to decompose; which in turn contributes to the health issues of all menstruators, increased burden of waste management on the city and harmful living environment for all citizens.

Let’s Talk Period aims to change this by

Find out more about her campaign here.

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A former Assistant Secretary with the Ministry of Women and Child Development in West Bengal for three months, Lakshmi Bhavya has been championing the cause of menstrual hygiene in her district. By associating herself with the Lalana Campaign, a holistic menstrual hygiene awareness campaign which is conducted by the Anahat NGO, Lakshmi has been slowly breaking taboos when it comes to periods and menstrual hygiene.

A Gender Rights Activist working with the tribal and marginalized communities in india, Srilekha is a PhD scholar working on understanding body and sexuality among tribal girls, to fill the gaps in research around indigenous women and their stories. Srilekha has worked extensively at the grassroots level with community based organisations, through several advocacy initiatives around Gender, Mental Health, Menstrual Hygiene and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) for the indigenous in Jharkhand, over the last 6 years.

Srilekha has also contributed to sustainable livelihood projects and legal aid programs for survivors of sex trafficking. She has been conducting research based programs on maternal health, mental health, gender based violence, sex and sexuality. Her interest lies in conducting workshops for young people on life skills, feminism, gender and sexuality, trauma, resilience and interpersonal relationships.

A Guwahati-based college student pursuing her Masters in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bidisha started the #BleedwithDignity campaign on the technology platform Change.org, demanding that the Government of Assam install
biodegradable sanitary pad vending machines in all government schools across the state. Her petition on Change.org has already gathered support from over 90000 people and continues to grow.

Bidisha was selected in Change.org’s flagship program ‘She Creates Change’ having run successful online advocacy
campaigns, which were widely recognised. Through the #BleedwithDignity campaign; she organised and celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day, 2019 in Guwahati, Assam by hosting a wall mural by collaborating with local organisations. The initiative was widely covered by national and local media, and the mural was later inaugurated by the event’s chief guest Commissioner of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Debeswar Malakar, IAS.

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