Empowering Youth with the spirit of Sewa

Sewa is probably one virtue that attracts youth in good number. On the other hand most of the
voluntary bodies experience paucity of human resources. There are two programs that we are
looking at, one aiming to draw youth from abroad provide them with opportunity of serving
while the other aiming at the local youth and encouraging them to serve the society. Yuwa for
Sewa is drawing youth from abroad to Pune while Youth for Seva is working in Bangalore.

‘YOUTH FOR SEVA’ At Work

‘Youth for Seva’ is started in 2007 by a few volunteers who felt the need for a platform for
youth with strong desire to serve the underprivileged and the needy. The project is aimed at
inspiring youth to volunteer and to connect them to the grassroots NGOs which are selected on
the basis of their track-record and ability to efficiently utilize time and talent of the volunteers.
‘Youth for Seva’ is a project of the ‘Hindu Seva Pratisthan’, which has been in the forefront of
social service for nearly three decades in the state of Karnataka. ‘Youth for Sewa’ conducts
orientation programme for student volunteers before deputing them on various projects or to
organizations. An orientation program was held on 12th September, 2007 which received
overwhelming response. 84 girls registered for the programme which was organised in
collaboration with the NSS chapter of a local college. On the 29th September, more than 50
students from another college registered for volunteering. ‘Youth for Seva’ is working hard to
engage more NGOs and initiate more projects in the near future.

“Yuwa for Sewa” Exposes Youth to tangible Indian Life

University students from USA and Europe have participated and completed their terms of 3
months of voluntary service in one or the other project in and around Pune city in Maharashtra
till now. Two Amercian students are presently working in Pune. Here is a comment from Sarah
Elswik that speaks for her program in India. She writes, “So much to say about this village
visit. My focus of study in anthropology provided with the facts about the life of villagers of a
tribal group. But this field visit provided the opportunity to see, smell, taste, hear and learn first
hand what tribal life is about. I thought it was a chance of a life time, and the family was so
generous. Of course, but I also experienced cultural shock, and missing home because it is so
different. I know that tribal life is a different matter because they are so close to nature that I'm
envious, and so kind to everyone. Life is so simple in my terms in the village, but they ask for
nothing more because really they have what the basic human needs are , which are food, water
and shelter. I have a much different perspective from this visit.”
Responding to Interactive session during the initial orientation program Katherine Pierson
writes: “I liked these sessions because we got to actually leave the flat and go out to see where
these people work and what they do. They were easily able to show us pictures, power point
presentations, etc. because they had the resources right there in their office. These sessions
were really good because they taught us specifically about what we would be doing on our
individual projects, and allowed us to ask questions to better understand them.