Sujatha Ramani, CEO, Pollinate Group
I recently experienced my first Pollinate Group program—a Student Fellowship in Bangalore—where eight students from across Australia worked alongside our team on household consumption patterns and cashless transaction implementation.
Observing the curiosity, enthusiasm, and ideas from this group inspired me to reflect upon the importance of involving young minds in the social sector.
The world’s population is young: 42% of people are under the age of 25. In 2015 South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa made up almost half of the global youth population (World Bank).
In a world that sometimes feels out of control, it has never been more important to provide opportunities for youth to drive social progress and renew our communities.
Young people should have a say when it comes to dealing with the world’s problems. They should have platforms to innovate and challenge how problems are solved, and to more deeply understand the interconnectedness of social, environmental and economic issues.
Around the globe we see youth taking action on climate change, women empowerment and standing up for the world they want to live in. There is a growing movement from youth with a bias to action. With access to more information than ever, young minds can also tackle problems like no generation before.
We see this first-hand at Pollinate Group, where youth have joined our movement to equip women to lead their communities out of poverty.
Students and young professionals’ direct involvement has helped us better understand the communities we serve, increased access to clean energy, tested and refined our product offering, improved our marketing in communities, introduced appropriate technologies, undertook impact assessment research, scouted new markets and have challenged us with different approaches to our stickiest problems.
Most of all, youth have challenged our thinking and assumptions, our model and our approach. You could say they keep us on our toes, and that’s a good thing.
The recent Student Fellowship was the 58th program Pollinate Group has hosted. Every one of these programs have been instrumental in accelerating our impact as an organization.
Frankly, I do not believe we would be where we are without them.
I congratulate every program alumni for their contribution to Pollinate Group’s impact and, on behalf of our team, communities and stakeholders, thank you.
At Pollinate Group we are incredibly proud of the ambassadors of our mission around the world, and the influence they carry in their networks. We have created a unique mix of a welcoming and safe, yet challenging and rewarding, opportunity for young minds and I cannot wait for our next program in June 2020!
Learn more about our programs here.