iVolunteer Awards 2019: Celebration of Exceptional Volunteering & Leadership in India!
Added: (Thu Feb 28 2019)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
On 26th February 2019 the top public servants, corporate leaders, HR and CSR professionals joined leaders from NGOs and volunteers for iVolunteer Awards to reward, promote and celebrate the most inspiring volunteers from across India. India’s only recognition for volunteers, the Awards, now in their seventh year, felicitated the finalists and winners in New Delhi for the first time. The awards ceremony would be held in Mumbai for the previous editions. iVolunteer Awards 2019 have been most special as not only pan India audience were in attendance but global guests from more than 30+ countries witnessed the stories of Indian change makers.
“The 2019 iVolunteer Awards was also special since it shared the day with Points of Light Global Summit on Corporate Volunteering. Points of Light is the world’s largest organisation dedicated to volunteering and with iVolunteer it brought together top professionals on corporate volunteering, CSR and HR in India (representing Indian and multinational companies) with the leading providers of volunteering service from 30+ countries spread across 5 continents. It was, therefore, a truly unique opportunity where the champions of volunteering in India had an audience of global change makers and opinion leaders”, said Mr Shalabh Sahai, convenor of iVolunteer Awards and co-Founder of iVolunteer - India’s foremost social enterprise for volunteering.
Volunteering is fundamental to the inclusive development of any society. India, a country of 1.2 billion people with stark contrasts between the neo-rich and the disadvantaged communities, had 'seva’ traditionally embedded in its culture. However volunteering and its contribution to nation building had received minimal representation in the mainstream. iVolunteer Awards, India’s sole volunteering award, aims to change this with a simple motto – ‘Celebrate, Reward and Promote Volunteering in India’.
iVolunteer Awards has made a statement by focusing on the stories of passionate change makers. Prominent leaders of business and community, celebrities and people representatives had joined in previous editions in awarding the Volunteer Heroes. Even so, the convenors are proud to have retained the focus on volunteers and organisations that promote volunteering, staying clear of any commercialisation.
In 2019, the awards were presented in four categories:
A. Volunteer Hero – the flagship category, it recognised Volunteers whose exemplary voluntary contribution inspired others to volunteer (hence the title ‘Hero’!)
B. Youth Champion – recognised Youth of the age group 18-23, whose exemplary voluntary contribution inspired others to volunteer.
C. Leader in Volunteer Engagement - recognised NGOs engaging volunteers in innovative ways.
D. Leader in Employee Volunteering - recognised Companies with the best employee volunteering practices.
The awards process was designed to widely share the inspiring stories of ordinary volunteers and had an outstanding reach of 4 million+. People from all around the country voted for the nominees they found
most inspiring. These coupled with ‘experts pick’ formed the finalists for the Awards. A national jury selected the winners who were announced on awards night.
“I was inspired by the passion, dedication and creativity exemplified by the finalists & winners. It is through their leadership and lives that I was able to see what is possible for the world, especially for
solving our greatest social needs. These individuals, organisations & companies represent what we can all aspire to be and do”, said Mr Gared P Jones, representing the National Jury. Gared is Chief Network Officer of US based Points of Light Foundation.
Shishir Joshi received the coveted ‘Volunteer Hero’ award for his initiative ‘The Mumbai Plastic Recyclothon’ which involves voluntary participation of people across the region to make the community and city cleaner & healthier.
Mahindra & Mahindra won the ‘Leader in Employee Volunteering’ award for their exemplary contribution in the field of CSR.
eVidyaloka, a Bangalore based NGO, bagged the award for Leader in Volunteer Engagement for the exceptional work that focuses on imparting education to the rural students in India by crowdsourcing volunteer teachers
The Youth Champion award was given to Anju Verma from Haryana while Jasper Paul won Jury’s Special Mention award in the Youth Champion category.
About iVolunteer
iVolunteer Awards are an initiative of India’s largest development organisation focused on volunteering – iVolunteer. Founded in 2001, it directly engages over 15,000 volunteers every year, and works with 350+ credible NGOs in a range of causes across India. Its known for its ability to create distinct programs suited to different volunteer profiles and choices. It also has the unique distinction of being the only Indian initiative sending volunteers to serve in other developing countries. It counts marquee Indian conglomerates and MNCs as its partners.
Shalabh Sahai, Co-Founder of iVolunteer, is a member of the Global Council for Global Pro Bono Network; member of Network Assembly of Points of Light Foundation - worlds largest organisation dedicated to volunteering service; and, member of Pro bono task force of CII-India@75. He is an alumnus of Institute of Rural Management Anand and was India’s 1st Commonwealth Professional Fellow.
For further information on the awards as well as to nominate volunteers, please visit
www.ivolunteerawards.org
Sincerely,
Surbhi Tiwari
Marketing & Communications Manager
Email: surbhi@ivolunteer.org.in
www.iVolunteerAwards.org
PH: +91-22-26105235 | +91-8860295575