Plustrust works to encourage people who make choices based on their inner voice. It was founded to honor the memory of Gowri Sukanya Iyer (1986-2008) and works on themes that were close to Sukanya’s heart like inclusive education and animal welfare.
Our support is through fellowships where we build a close relationship with the individuals and includes one or more of these aspects (as required):
- Guidance to develop a project idea
- Initial support in starting off
- Some financial support as seed capital
- Organising further types of support when needed
- Networking and contacts relevant for the project
Changemaker fellowships
Our changemaker fellowships started out of surplus from our first inclusive education projection for UNICEF hyderabad. The idea was to support the work of young people in testing and working out their ideas for change. We offered have 32 fellowships to individuals between 2009-2015 and 18 have gone on to become well known changemakers and social entrepreneurs .
In 2014, we started the Pre-incubation workshops to enable applicants to clarify their ideas and come up with a coherent plan for testing out their ideas. By the end of the workshops, participants create the first version of the project and present it for peer review and trustee inputs. After some reflection and consultation with local stakeholders, participants send in a more detailed proposal with a monthly action plan. Team Plustrust then reviews and the proposals and finalizes the fellowship details and amount. Clearly we were able to handle more fellowships with the workshop approach and the involvement of all three trustees.
To bring in more perspective and develop longer term resource support for the fellows, we began to find mentors who could become go to persons for the changemakers as they grew beyond Plustrust. As we progressed, we often relied on our former fellows to take up mentoring.
RWE’s ( Rural Women Edupreneurs)
When we completed the batch of 2015, we observed that our fellows from small towns were able to shift to a social enterprise which they could sustain without grants or other handholding. We identified three major strengths of our approach:
- The Pre Incubation Workshop,
- Focus on rural and small-town youth especially women,
- A ‘light touch’ and low overheads
For the first batch, we were thrilled when we received 70 applications from across the country within 15 days of the announcement of our fellowships in July 2016. Most candidates came to know of us through NGO staff or volunteers or former Plustrust Fellows. We got a range of applicants, some of them with experience and some footprint on the ground. We have continued to offer RWE fellowships every year since then and worked with 34 women across four states and 25 have been able to stabilize their work.
Anchor Program
This new program has been developed with the purpose of expanding our coverage without diluting the quality and nature of contact with our fellows. This will help us grow the RWE program exponentially while continuing to offer a personal touch and effective mentoring and networking.
The mentors, coaches for this work will be identified and briefed by Plustrust.
Our Well Wishers
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Caring Friends , Mumbai
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Sophia Akash Foundation, U K