Sonu S Shibu - Nominee - Social Volunteer Awards 2021

Sonu S Shibu, a native of Alappuzha, the nature hub of Kerala, is a 23 year old student currently pursuing his graduation on B Tech Food Technology from TKM INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, Kollam under Kerala Technological University. He is an active public speaker cum orator who firmly advocates for youth empowerment towards national development. He works as a catalyst for many social service organisations and NGOs indulging in many socially committed strives. Sonu was awarded as one of the best youth parliamentarian of Alappuzha district and was a recipient of international youth exchange program organised by ministry of youth Affairs and Sports. He is the volunteer secretary of National service scheme at KTU NSS and Currently works as the UN 75 global ambassador of climatic action on behalf of Albertian foundation.

VOLUNTEERING FOR ME Being a young citizen of a nation with such a diverse population and legacy, I firmly believe that each and every student while pursuing their education should firmly consider the fact that personality development, and social responsibility should be attained simultaneously during the period of their education through volunteering and that exposure should be nurtured to develop socially committed endeavours throughout the journey of life.This will indeed reflect towards national integration. VOLUNTEERING STORY I started my volunteering journey way back in 2014 when i was studying at ninth standard, Now that journey reached a time span of 7 years. Throughout these years i have collaborated with a few government and non government organisations including NYK, NSS, UNV, Samoohika Sannadasena, STAR etc. The initial spark that guided me towards volunteering occured when i visited an old age home as a part of a charity visit from school. I talked with the grandparents at the old age home and all they have to tell us was the story of ignorance that made them reach there. Those tears had fallen on my mind which made me to start a new journey. Always my inspiration has been evolved out of my responsibility and commitment.The inner force inside me have guided me to a journey of compassion, self reflection and mutual respect. VOLUNTEERING JOURNEY My volunteering journey focused mainly on identifying socially and economically vulnerable sections and communities of the society, initially trying to understand their needs and what really they lack, thereby providing a strive to dissolve the deficit that they face when compared to others social backgrounds. Apart from such works my secondary concentration lied on social awareness on different topics. Me and my team tried to provide a sense of addiction towards life among the youths simultaneously a sense of social responsibility boosting among the elderly ones. My initial volunteering days passed through my school days which predominantly focused on charity works and sanitation projects. Me and my friends initiated crowd funding for the needy ones and have identified public places which lacked proper sanitation facilities, we converted unused barren lands to productive ones and have tried to embrace agrarian path my creating vegetable gardens at schools and government owned lands.The crucial and productive part of my volunteering happened during the recent years especially for the past there years that too in my college life. There i joined hands with organisations like NSS, NYK, UNV.I took responsibilities to lead a team of many socially committed volunteers. I was appointed as the volunteer secretary of NSS unit in my college and hold positions of regional student coordinator of University NSS cell's blood wing, Natural resource protection force etc. During this time i joined hands with NYKS and collaborated the activities of NSS team with NYK. As a leader i drafted and implemented many projects including Ezhukone Edakkidam SC colony adoption and renovation, സ്നേഹാക്ഷരം project which focused on educational assistance to the economically backward students, MISSION CLEAN KOLLAM SAFE KOLLAM, PINK INITIATIVE for women empowerment, Environment conservation projects, cleaning projects, and a wide range of awareness projects. As the pandemic struck i joined Covid brigade under Samoohika Sannadasena and became the area coordinator of Support Team for Action and Readiness under District administration, Alappuzha and have completed more than 800 hours of active volunteering in a time span of past one year till now. Throughout this time me and my team had become an integral part of vaccination drives, massive awareness projects, crowd management and surveillance. As a great honour towards my initiatives on environment conservation , I was appointed as the student ambassador for climatic action at the UN global dialogue organised by UN and Albertian foundation in the month of June,2020. I conveyed my socially committed ideas through national youth Parliaments, Regional summits and declamation contests during the period of my volunteering which have provided so many assistance to my team's initiatives. As a firm acceptance towards my work, i was awarded as the best NSS volunteer recently at the university level and was nominated for higher level awards. I am still continuing my volunteering journey with new social endeavours with an aim of attaining social equality to everyone around us. PROJECT COMBINED PROJECTS UNDER NSS TENURE (2019-2021)0 ORGANISATION NATIONAL SERVICE SCHEME MISSION & VISSION Combined projects under the NSS tenure envisioned upon personality development of the volunteers through social service. The mission mainly focused on identifying the existing social problems or drawbacks and evolving out a solution through the enormous work force which the organisation posses. We categorised our projects into three namely unit level, regional level and state level. The unit level projects focused on the problems faced by the nearby localities of the college. These includes adoption initiatives, awareness campaigns and renovation works using the technical knowledge of volunteers. Regional and state level project focused on massive awareness drives and coordinated activities. PROJECT DESCRIPTION 1) സ്നേഹാക്ഷരം

This project was specially drafted for understanding the problems faced by socially and economically backward students in the educational sector and was committed to provide a solution for the problem. We have identified that the major reason towards ineffective education among such sectors was due to lack of proper awareness to the parents, unavailability of gadgets ( especially during pandemic ) and the mindset of students. We have provided initial counselling to the parents and students along with discussions with the officials. A preliminary identification of the number of gadgets needed was done and they were produced to the needy ones. Every weekend during the pre pandemic period we appointed volunteers to the nearby government schools and provided them extra academic classes on personality development and social aspects. Along with this we drafted syllabuses for respective categories and had took classes on a regular basis. During pandemic we utilised the online medium to continue our strive. The main aim was to ensure Right to education for every children in our locality. This mission got the assistance of 40 volunteers from our unit.

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