Jitesh Kumawat

Living in a village near Sikar,Rajasthan Jitesh never had any second thoughts about the common practices in his rural setting and way of living. He had been a person who took everything as a rule, be it child marriage, a fairly common practice in the villages of Rajasthan or anything else. He came to Jaipur for graduation and there it was the first time he started looking at things differently. He was introduced to Pravah by a friend who had been a volunteer for the various programs of Pravah Jaipur Initiatives (PJI) and after that Jitesh has been associated as a volunteer for the last 10 months.

On discussion he tells that the motivation to join PJI was an exposure in this field and a chance to learn and interact with some good people. As he wanted to do an MBA from a good institute after his graduation he required to come out of that ‘village feeling’. “After getting connected with Pravah my outlook changed completely. Now I am not the same person who used to take everything happening in village for granted. Involvement with Pravah and presence in all the programs gave me a sense of development I never thought of in village”, thinks Jitesh.

He has been an active volunteer for Youth Jumbish, the annual youth program held at Jaipur. The most memorable activities of all was the rally in Sambalpur, Orissa which he attended a few months ago. The most inspiring feature of it whole was the unity with which the whole village stood together. That unity has inspired him like anything and he now wants to build that unity in his own village. He wants to go back to his village and start changing what he didn’t see before. “I am preparing myself. I am learning how to actually create interventions so that people understand what I have to say. This is the aim of my life now”, says Jitesh with determination.

He says, “Prior to these activities like theaters in kacch bastis, discussions and exposure visits I could not understand what was happening at my home… but now I know exactly what to do. Being with Pravah has greatly helped me build a strong personality”. Jitesh feels more confident while speaking in public now and wants to open a Youth Resource Centre, similar to the one he saw in Sambalpur, Orissa.  He wants to bring children from all over the village to come over and learn, from each other, from the teachers which will be present there and from the mother earth. He feels more energized to take this task seriously because now he has started to realize its importance.

Bhavya Soni

A final year BBA student and an MBA aspirant, Bhavya has been actively involved in the development sector for the past five years now. He had started with an organization called Muskan working on road safety for three years and is now with Pravah for the last one and a half years. His outstanding contribution to poetry was recognized by the prestigious Rajasthan Sahitya Acadami and his book on Ghazals is soon to be published. With an active involvement in public speaking and debating he says that he had a natural inclination towards this sector.

He started with a six month internship with Pravah where he worked in youth mobilization sessions with different colleges in Jaipur using his public speaking skills to the fullest. He says that prior to joining Pravah his primary reason to get associated was networking and exposure of a different kind, now after working for 18 months the primary reason has become secondary and its place has been taken by more important issues like real development of the society.

Over the years he remembers Youth Jumbish (an annual event at Pravah Jaipur Initiative) as a turning point. While working with a team of young, bright and enthusiastic people he realized the importance of working in a team. “It was then that I learnt the various techniques of handling conflicts, working as a team member and negotiating with others. I know that these experiences will help me go a long way on this path”, says Bahvya.

He puts beautifully his overall experience in Pravah by saying that “In Pravah I started seeing the line between reaction and response, between fun and indiscipline, between a boss and a leader. Working here brings to me a sense of responsibility which I as a young person had never had before. This responsibility is the one which gives me the satisfaction when my friends are hanging out at malls and I come here and work. I enjoy this responsibility.”

With this enthusiasm Bhavya shares that he wants to work in the development sector in future after completing his MBA. He would like to start with youth awareness and then move on to the other sectors as well.

Charu Jhalani

Charu is an MBA student from Jaipur currently in her second year and is very enthusiastic about the development sector. She came to know of Pravah from her friend and in a bid to explore more she came to join in as a volunteer. Her enthusiasm can be judged from the fact that apart from the hectic college schedule and committee work she is able to manage to work in two other NGOs in the city and is handling them all properly.

She enjoys interactions with people and going out to the slums and working with the specially abled children. According to her Pravah has given her a platform to work and channelize her energy to proper use.  She had always felt like something was missing in her life until she came into development sector. She enjoys working here because the B-school crowd is totally different from what one finds here.

Padmaja GunGun

Pursuing her passion for theatre and photography she came to know about Pravah at an NGO in Udaipur in which she was volunteering. It was her craze with theatre which made her come to Pravah as she saw a great chance of using it for the benefit of both. She has been associated with almost all the theatre activities which Pravah Jaipur Initiative has taken up in the city.

She was the master mind behind the youth café which is successfully functioning at PJI. “All I wanted to do was to give people a place to talk, a place where they can start thinking and speaking out. One major problem with the world is that we think a lot but then never speak; once we start speaking we may also start acting. I wanted to create such a space for youth, a place where without any worries they can speak their mind out”, says GunGun, was the idea behind Youth Café.

She started with the community building workshop in no other than theatre activities and slowly started volunteering in other programs as well. For her good work she was awarded as a Young Changemaker in Youth Jumbish. She feels that competition and money in today’s world is holding us back and not letting people speak up and this she wants to overcome in future. She wants people to start sharing and expressing themselves. To some extent she is working for her aim through theatre and Youth Café and that is what according to her is the specialty of Pravah, it gives people space and freedom to explore new avenues. It gives the opportunity to speak up.