Media Release

Mangalore, Nov 5: Make A Difference (MAD), an Indian non-profit organization is one of 18 winners from over 700 entries from 99 countries in the World Summit Youth Award (WSYA). Make A Difference was announced as winner in the ‘Education for All’ category.

The WSYA selects and promotes best practice in e-content. It demonstrates young people’s potential to create outstanding digital content and serves as a platform for people from all UN member states to work  together in the efforts to reduce poverty and hunger, and to tackle ill-health, gender inequality, lack of education, lack of access to clean water and environmental degradation.

Jithin Krishnan, Public Relations head of Make A Difference, will be representing MAD at the event.

Last July, over 700 projects put down their names to be considered for the prestigious Award and in the month of August, a special panel of change-makers including 20 young leaders from 17 countries started evaluating the entries.

The challenge:

Finding youth-led organizations that are addressing UN’s  Millenium Development Goals by spreading the word, establishing platforms and actively pursuing these goals through e-content.

WSYA aims to empower people to implement the MDGs. The 18 winners and 15 runners-up will be honoured in Graz, Austria, from November 10th to 13th, 2011. Representatives from Governments, NGOs, private businesses and the United Nations will be present.

The World Summit Youth Award (WSYA) is a project of the World Summit Award network and organised by the International Center for New Media (ICNM) as part of its activities within the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development.

The WSYA is organised as a follow up activity of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) and its action plan towards the year 2015.

This year the Youth Award is being organised by the World Summit Award Network for the fourth time after 2005, 2009 and 2010.

Make A Difference (MAD) is a youth volunteer network that works with underprivileged children in India. MAD tries to empower children in orphanages, street shelters and poor homes with English, made possible by its education partner.

Right now, close to a 1000 Make A Difference volunteers teach close to 3500 kids in the Indian cities of Bengaluru, Bhopal, Chandigarh, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gwalior, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram, Vellore, Vijayawada and Vishakapatnam.

Make A Difference started off its activities in Mangalore in 2009. With a dedicated volunteer base of 96 students and working professionals, Mad Mangalore has been instrumental in 4 Centers namely Balika Ashram, Kankanady; Aloysius Boys Home, Ullal; Prajna Group of Institutions, Marnamikatte and CARDTS Nantoor.

Make A Difference works with the motto of 'Bridging inequality in society through education'. MAD want to bring about a situation where all children can select a career based on their aspirations and potential rather than on their financial situation or their background.

Only 13 percent high schools in India use English as a medium of instruction, yet a child's higher education and future job prospects depend heavily on having it. Access to the Cambridge curriculum will put children on a par with those educated in good schools.

Besides the English project, MAD also has a Placements project running. The Placements wing of Make A Difference focuses on both career specific and general exposure.

The basic aim of the Placements programme is to place the children in the same footing as children from regular homes with regards to experiences and interaction
with various walks of life.

A wide range of instructive and informative sessions including visits to hotels, factories, professional colleges as well as enriching experiences such as camps, arts and crafts workshops etc. are conducted.

MAD is the winner of the Ashoka Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition 2008, and was nominated as the best Medium Category NGO in the Indiya Shines initiative organized by GreatNonProfits.com in 2009. MAD is also a Noble Laureate of the Karamveer Puraskar awarded by ICongo, global fellow of YouthActionNet and
Cordes Fellow 2010.

Find MAD at:

http://makeadiff.in, http://makeadiff.in/blog,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Make_A_Difference, http://www.facebook.com/makeadiff, http://twitter.com/#!/
makeadiff.

For more details, contact:
Jithin Krishnan, 09176 55 38 45, publicrelations.national@makeadiff.in
Supraja Subramanian, 0900 841 8275 , publicrelations.mangalore@makeadiff.in