What is Deshpande Foundation ?
Deshpande foundation was founded by Mr Gururaj Deshpande in 1996. Since then, It has operated in United States, Canada and India. Deshpande foundation started with a vision to encourage the use of entrepreneurship and innovation as catalysts for sustainable change. They have launched various programs aiming towards nurturing the young talent with innovative ideas. Students who need the guidance or funding for realizing their innovative ideas look up to being associated with the foundation.
In India, Deshpande foundation works with Sandbox bottom-up approach. Sandbox connects brilliant minds who can find innovative solutions to challenges like poverty, income inequality and lack of basic facilities. Through Sandbox, Deshpande Foundation India is able to equip the talented rural and semi urban youth with necessary skills, grants and infrastructure to experiment, putting them through the right networks, and maximizing their potential by constantly engaging them. A number of educational and mentorship initiatives such as LEAD, Sandbox Startups and Grantmaking have been launched to enable entrepreneurs and innovators to be the change.
What is Leaders Accelerating Development (Lead) ?
Leaders accelerating development, LEAD is a youth leadership program. It is an annual leadership journey for youth aged between 18-26. It works with college students by fostering innovative, empathetic and entrepreneurial thinking and providing them the needed mentorship to work towards sustainable social change. LEAD allows students to identify social issues and develop projects to solve them.
LEAD Prayana, A Journey
LEAD recently organized a two-week journey, LEAD prayana. It’s aim was to “unleash your leadership potential”. The journey was for youth aged 18-26 based in Karnataka and Telangana, Hyderabad, Narsingpally, Secunderabad, Dharwad, Belagavi, Sagar, Doddaballapur, Bengaluru, Mysuru, Manipal, Dharmasthala and Kuppam of Andhra Pradesh.
It was a memorable, fun-filled 1800km journey in which students came in contact with 10+ inspiring role models and speakers, their extraordinary work, visited 8+ destinations, engaged in panel sessions, explored 12+ unique organizations, institutions, MNC’s and industries, and created their own groups to share their hands on experiential learning. Students got the opportunity to develop their leadership qualities in this journey. LEAD is currently functional in 5 states including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. It is actively involved with more than 25000 leaders across 110 colleges and has successfully delivered 6000 projects. LEAD has reached 160,000 people with student led projects. The LEADers are implementing innovative solutions to issues within their communities while simultaneously building their self-confidence and developing their leadership qualities.
Agastya International Foundation Founder Ramji Raghavan said, “It’s always very energetic to be in the presence of so many young people, and I see the LEAD Prayana students asking a lot of questions, not easy ones, about the system and about how to advance their own careers and passions. These are all subjects of great interest to me … If there is any words of advice I can give to Prayana participants it is to keep an open mind, be open to interesting stimuli, and with your openness of mind you can come up with creative ideas and translate all of them into innovations that benefit yourself and society.”