By Humra Laeeq
It wasnt multimillion makers that brought home the World Cup to India for impacting social change, but a group of young college graduates. Team India, comprising students of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies Delhi, were deservingly titled Enactus World Cup 2017 winners, beating Team Canada, Team Puerto Rico and Team Kyrgyzstan.
Enactus-for the underprivileged
Enactus is a global non-profit organization of students and community leaders that work towards impacting active social change by undertaking community projects. Since its inception in 1975 in the United States, Enactus has dedicated itself to inspiring young students to be community leaders by exposing university spaces into entrepreneurial action. Today, the global organization is a conglomerate of 36 countries and 1730 universities that impact a population of over a million.
Some of Enactuss success stories
In 2013, the Enactus Team at the University of Melbourne launched Street Stories, a project that aimed to enable homeless individuals into becoming Melbourne street tour guides. Project Mulher enforced by Enactus Team at Rio de Janeiro helped abused and victimized women recover by taking part in crafts projects as a means of therapy and livelihood. Unemployed women are now making regular incomes, which have shown an increase of 35% over the years. In Kazakhstan, where gender disparity ratio remains unfortunate, the University of International Business Enactus aimed to employ women as babysitters, governesses and housekeepers earning an average $400 a month.
A global race for social betterment
The Enactus World Cup is an annual awarding event that gathers 3,500 student, business and academic leaders globally that showcase creativity in the undertaking of projects. The World Cup is handed after a thorough judgment carried out by a panel of business leaders and entrepreneurs. The Ford Motor Company Fund this year announced that the four Enactus finalist teams will receive a total of $90,000 USD in the new annual Ford Better World Award, recognizing excellence in social impact.
The World Champions and their projects
Grabbing the title of World Cup winners, Ford awarded $50,000 to Team Enactus India. The achievement lay in its Project UDAAN and Project RAAHAT. Initiated in 2015, Project RAAHAT was launched in collaboration with Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board and undertook the improvement and provision of sanitation facilities to urban slum dwellers of Delhi. Project UDAAN was started to promote digital literacy in rural India through reallocation of discarded computer devices. It particularly aimed at providing a potential source of livelihood for rural women-given the fact that male to female ratio of digital literacy needs to be boosted in these areas.
Canada taking $25,000 from Ford, worked with researchers to develop an environment-friendly growing system to produce high-quality, affordable fruits and vegetables year-round. Team Puerto Rico developed a program that teaches entrepreneurial skills to students in public schools to boost the states leadership growth. Team Kyrgyzstan is using business innovation to increase access to alternative energy sources.
New leaders and new governance
With our passionate and goal-driven youth emerging as new global forces, it is high time we reconsider the role of our state in impacting the lives of people around us. The failure of state machinery is giving way to these new, alternative sources of administration that is not only drastically changing the face of the world but signifying the rise of power from below. The rise of students, community leaders unaffiliated to the state is perhaps another step forward in shaping a new world order that might go a long way into rectifying our state inadequacies.
Featured image source: Wikimedia Commons