Did you know that a country's GDP is a predictor of performance at the Olympics? Higher income countries have consistently had a higher medal tally as compared to lower income countries. Hear this episode to discover how an organisation is breaking this trend. 

In this episode we celebrate Viren Rasquinha. Viren Rasquinha is an Indian hockey player. He is the former captain of the Indian hockey team and was a member of the team that finished 7th at the Athens Olympics in 2004. He pursued management studies and now is the CEO of an organisation called Olympic Gold Quest that is on a journey to build future Olympic champions. 

We speak about his journey of pursuing sports professionally, getting selected into the Indian team, playing at the Olympics. He speaks of his failures as defining learning moments. We then spoke of how Olympic Goal Quest is on a mission to beat the statistics and deliver on identifying and providing world class training for high performance sports. Listen to the episode to learn more about how Olympic Gold Quest has contributed to almost ~50% of the medals India won at the Tokya Olympics. 

Note - Conversation recorded over Zoom. For any podcast requirements write to [email protected]. For any guest recommendations reach out to [email protected] 

#leadership #celebrity #inspiration #motivation #highperformance #performance #sports #coaching #olympics #gold #goforgold #resilience #India

Did you know that 58% of global school age population are not attaining minimum proficiency levels in Reading and Math? That amounts to 357 million children. Of these 137 million children will reach the last grade of school and still not reach the minimum proficiency levels. The percentages are much higher for low income countries as opposed to high income countries. 

In this episode we celebrate Erin Ganju, Managing Director of Echidna Giving Fund, which invests in organizations advancing girls’ education in lower-income countries. Prior to her role at Echidna Giving, Erin turned a bold idea for advancing literacy and gender equality into an international NGO: Room to Read. Erin was a Co-Founder, former Chief Executive Officer, former Chief Operating Officer, and currently remains an Emeritus Board Member of Room to Read. During her tenure, Room to Read helped over 12 million children in 15 countries pursue a quality education. Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children in low-income communities by focusing on literacy and gender equality in education. Working in collaboration with local communities, partner organizations and governments, they develop literacy skills and a habit of reading among primary school children, and support girls to complete secondary school with the relevant life skills to succeed in school and beyond. Erin co-authored Scaling Global Change: A Social Entrepreneur’s Guide to Surviving the Start-up Phase and Driving Impact. The book is a how-to guide for social entrepreneurs who have a vision to change the world and need a strong organizational foundation to do it, utilizing Room to Read as an organizational case study. 

Erin was selected as the World Economic Forum’s Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur (2014); recognized as a Global Impact Featured Member for 2017 by the Young Presidents’ Organization; and awarded the Women’s Bond Club Isabel Benham Award (2014). We talk about her journey starting up, learnings from across different countries and some insights on balancing scale and depth (quality). 

Note - Conversation recorded over Zoom. For all podcast requirements write to [email protected]. For any feedback and suggestions write to [email protected]

#education #reading #literacy #roomtoread #scale #leadership #nonprofit #organisations

Did you know that India ranked last out of 52 countries for having the least favourable conditions for migrants. India has 456 million migrants, 99% are internal migrants and 1% are international migrants (immigrants). 

In today's episode we celebrate Naresh Sijapati. Naresh is the founder and CEO of Panah Foundation. Panah Foundation works in Ahmedabad to provide a multitude of services to migrant communities. Naresh started his journey as an immigrant from Nepal. He started working early and went through multiple jobs of working in factories, restaurants and an NGO before starting out on his own. 

We speak about his journey of starting work very early, his ambition and desire to grow, learn English, have a good job. He shares how his exposure to the social sector leading him to start his own foundation. We speak about all the innovations and various services he provides from Panah Foundation. 

Note - This was recorded over zoom. For any feedback on the episode, questions or takeaways or guest suggestions email [email protected]. For any podcast technical requirements please write to [email protected] 

#Leadership #Entrepreneurship #Local #Migration #Immigrant #Refugee #SocialBusiness #NGO

Have you been meaning to listen to one of our episodes but haven't found the time yet? Do you want to know the high level insights across the past episodes? Then this episode is for you, curated bookmarks from the past five episodes?

Our last five episodes have had guests who have spoken about educating girls in rural areas, alternative homes for children in institutional care, being a sarpanch, gender disparity in the police force and surviving a genocide. In this episode, Bookmarks, we pause and collect the rich insights and learnings from these five episodes.

In this conversation, Venil is joined by an educator, social sector professional and a dear friend, Kanika Saraff. Kanika Saraff has worked in the education sector for over a decade and currently works in a Child rights organisation. They both started their journey in the social sector in 2009 with the Teach For India Fellowship, teaching in neighbouring classrooms 3A and 3B in Govandi, Mumbai. They often discuss issues, ideas and theories and wanted to share some of their bookmarks on the patterns, ideas and insights that they took away from the five episodes with all of you.

We will resume with new guests after this episode and once again pause and discuss our Bookmarks after another five episodes. We would love to include your questions, reactions and thoughts in our next Bookmarks episode. So do leave us feedback and thoughts after you listen to any of our episodes. You can leave us feedback on any of our social media pages - Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, or you can email us at [email protected].

#learning #understanding #insights #leadership #lessons #wisdom #patterns #inspiration #trends

NOTE - This conversation was recorded over Zoom.

If you are thinking of launching your podcast and need consultation services or production/post production services you can write to [email protected] or [email protected]

How does one come out of experiencing a Genocide? How does it shape a person and their journey? 

In this episode, we celebrate Robert Kabera. Robert is a Rwanda genocide survivor, an Award-winning Stanford engineering grad and Entrepreneur and a resilience guru. He is the co-founder of  COO & Sync Energy AI, a no-code energy analytics startup. His background puts him in a unique position to make transformative breakthroughs in a variety of areas, from bringing credit scoring to unbanked farmers to building power systems that better prepare us for natural disasters. 

We speak about his experience of surviving the genocide, being a refugee. Education being his equaliser and ticket to a better future. We speak about where he gets his drive from. He talks about his innovative solutions around credit lines and using AI to help management of natural disasters. His motivation behind starting these projects.  A very wise and inspiring person. 

NOTE - This episode was recorded over zoom. For any podcast requirements (consulting, production, post production), write to [email protected]. For any feedback or guest suggestions write to [email protected]

The Indian Police force has around 6% women in the force. Of those women only 6% make it to an officer level. 

In this episode, we celebrate Sutapa Sanyal. Sutapa is an ex - IPS officer and has served as the Director General of Police in Uttar Pradesh. One of the few women who have held such a high post in the IPS. Sutapa Sanyal is an expert in Ending Violence against Women (EVAW), child protection, and anti-human trafficking. Currently she serves as Director General of Mahila Samman Prakoshth (MSP), an innovative police unit protecting the rights of over 13 million women and children in Uttar Pradesh. At MSP, she is credited with creating award-winning interventions for fighting VAW & enhancing Gender Equality. She has leveraged technology, mass media, citizen participation, community policing and in-house training to deliver a complete model for police transformation. Her interventions have been recognized by the Govt. of India, the Govt. of UK, INTERPOL & US Department of State. She was invited to the UK by the British High Commission as part of an Indian Women Leaders Delegation to share strategies for Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW). She has also represented India at the INTERPOL for the Specialists Group on the Protection of Children.

According to global statistics, 61% of rural girls do not attend secondary school. This is far higher than rural boys (55%), urban girls (41%) and urban boys (40%). Deficits in girls education leads to increased poverty, reduced family health, earlier marriages and pregnancies among other things. 

In this episode we celebrate Lopa Gandhi. Lopa Gandhi is the founder of Ugam Education Foundation. Ugam Education Foundation's mission is to use replicable frameworks to create model residential school for girls (KGBVs) in partnership with education systems through empowerment of people and processes to ensure girls are educated and empowered. Ugam Education currently works across multiple districts in Jharkhand. Lopa has more than 20 years of experience in the field of education. Her areas of focus have been teaching adolescents, curriculum design, HR management—including coaching, training, programme design, and evaluation. Previously, she has worked in various capacities with different NGOs like Akanksha Foundation, Kaivalya Foundation, Muktangan, Transform Initiative, Catalysts for Social Action, among others.

We speak about Lopa's journey in the development sector and her foray into founding an organisation which is working in rural India (Jharkhand). We speak about the similarities and differences in Education across different contexts like urban, rural, government and private settings. We also speak about the benefits and drawbacks of the model of Government Residential Schools for Girls (Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalay - KGBV). 

Episode hosted by Venil Ali, produced by Disoriented Penguin. If you are looking to start a podcast and need some help reach out to reachus@disorientedpenguin or kanishka@disorientedpenguin. If you have feedback for the podcast, do drop us an email on [email protected] or leave us a message on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.  

Globally, women make up only 25% of the parliament and only 6% are Heads of State or Governments. In India, in 2019, only 8% women contest the Lok Sabha elections. At the local government level, India has a 33% reservation for women. 

In this episode we celebrate Jabna Chauhan. Jabna comes from a humble background and through her immense determination, she became the youngest Sarpanch that India has had, at the age of 22. She worked on multiple issues like banning intoxication, cleanliness and women empowerment. She won many awards for her work as a Pradhan, she also inspired a women led movement in Himachal Pradesh against liquor and drugs. She now runs an NGO called Oriental Foundation that works on women empowerment across the state of Himachal. 

In the episode we talk about her journey, being the first girl from her village to go to college. The obstacles she had to overcome and how she managed to create a lot of change in the face of resistance. Listen on to hear this very inspiring story. 

NOTE - This conversation is in Hindi. The conversation has been recorded over zoom. 

Production, Original Music and Post Production (Editing) - Disoriented Penguin - [email protected] 

In India, 23.6 million children live without parental care, that is, they lack the overnight care of at least one of their parents. Only 1.4% receives any sort of formal alternative care.

In this episode we celebrate Dr. Kiran Modi. Dr. Kiran Modi is the founder and managing trustee of Udayan Care. Founded in 1994, Udayan Care runs innovative small group, family based children's home in India. In addition to this, they run education and livelihood programs for disadvantaged girls. They are the leaders in alternative care and after care of institutionalised children. Dr. Modi has a doctorate in American Literature. She is also the founding editor of an international journal, Institutionalised children, explorations and beyond. 

In this episode, we speak about Dr. Kiran's journey that led to the formation of Udayan Care, we speak about Alternative Care models, after care models for careleavers as well as the extensions of the work into education and skilling. 

NOTE - This episode was recorded over zoom. For any podcast requirements (consulting, production, post production), write to [email protected]. For any feedback or guest suggestions write to [email protected]

NEW FORMAT ALERT - Have you been meaning to listen to one of our episodes but haven't found the time yet? Do you want to know the high level insights across the past episodes? Then this episode is for you, curated bookmarks from the past five episodes?

Our last five episodes have had guests who have spoken about coaching, personal potential, civil services, governance, media for change, shaping youth behaviour, leading a movement, female genital mutilation, inclusion, different abilities. In this episode, Bookmarks, we pause and collect the rich insights and learnings from these five episodes. 

In this conversation, Venil is joined by an educator, social sector professional and a dear friend, Kanika Saraff. Kanika Saraff has worked in the education sector for over a decade and currently works in a Child rights organisation. They both started their journey in the social sector in 2009 with the Teach For India Fellowship, teaching in neighbouring classrooms 3A and 3B in Govandi, Mumbai. They often discuss issues, ideas and theories and wanted to share some of their bookmarks on the patterns, ideas and insights that they took away from the five episodes with all of you.

We will resume with new guests after this episode and once again pause and discuss our Bookmarks after another five episodes. We would love to include your questions, reactions and thoughts in our next Bookmarks episode. So do leave us feedback and thoughts after you listen to any of our episodes. You can leave us feedback on any of our social media pages - Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, or you can email us at [email protected].

#learning #understanding #insights #leadership #lessons #wisdom #patterns #inspiration #trends

NOTE - This conversation was recorded over Zoom.

If you are thinking of launching your podcast and need consultation services or production/post production services you can write to [email protected] or [email protected]