Global Shapers Community is a network of young people working together to improve our world by addressing the challenges of our local community. The community spread across 156 countries, currently has 381 city-based Hubs and one among those is the Dharamshala Hub.

Active since the past 4 years, the Global Shapers Dharamshala Hub consists of young, energetic individuals from diverse fields who have come together with a vision to address key issues in the local community and change our city for the better.

The year 2018 has been different from the previous years for our Hub. In a first, Nivedita Rana, curator of the Dharamshala Hub, represented our community at the Annual Global Shaper Summit 2018 and had an awesome time meeting Shapers from across the world and exchanging ideas.

Also, this year saw an impressive turnout of volunteers who supported us in various activities and quite a few volunteers have been lined to become members soon. The number of meetings held have been more than the previous years and accordingly the number of interventions have increased. The best part is, the collaboration and coordination between the members has grown.

Here’s a look at the various activities taken up by our Hub in 2018:

1. Community Activities:

Dharamshala Shapers keep engaging with the local community on a continuous basis through its on-ground activities and projects

Projects initiated in 2018:

Shape Vision

Shape Vision is aimed at creating awareness about eye-care and reducing vision impairment among the poor and marginalised. To this end, the Hub organises eye-care camps in which free eye examination is conducted and spectacles provided to those needing them. The camps also focus on creating awareness about eye-care, nutritional aspects, eye exercises to improve vision and do’s and don’ts for a healthy vision. This year, we conducted 8 camps in locations such as schools and monasteries and more than 450 people benefited from the initiative.

Treelionaire

Another project initiated this year, Treelionaire was a tree-planting drive. An initiative of Dhaka Hub, the project was envisaged as a friendly challenge for the other Hubs to plant as many trees as possible. The Dharamshala Shapers planted more than 250 saplings of trees native to the region. The saplings were planted in empty slots and vacant areas that was being used to dump garbage. The areas were first cleaned up, after which the saplings were planted.

Projects being continued from previous years:

Techshala:

TechShala is an exclusive initiative by our Shapers, mainly the IT geeks, to educate the youth about computer technologies, its scope and future perspectives. Under this programme we have been training youngsters on web development technologies such as HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Jquery, Bootstrap, etc. Currently, around 17 students are being trained under the initiative.

Warm Up:

After a successful implementation in 2017, in which jackets were distributed to the needy, this year we decided to distribute sweaters to help people combat the extreme cold. The initiative is very important for our local community as Dharamshala is known to experience freezing temperatures during the winter season.

2.  Annual Global Shaper Summit:

The Annual Global Shaper Summit 2018 was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from August 31st – September 3, 2018. Various new ideas were presented at the meet. Nivedita Rana attended the meet and on her return appraised the Hub members about the meeting. The Dharamshala Shapers also signed a protocol which covers basic code of conduct.

Plans for 2019:

In addition to the projects which are being implemented currently, the Hub looks to taking up the Book Donation initiative in a big way in the coming months. A project on gender equity is also in the works.

” You are the first generation to suffer the full impact of the sins of your predecessors, and you will be the last generation that can do something about it.”

Prof. Schwab, founder of World Economic Forum at Annual Global Shaper Summit 2018, Geneva

With this thought, we hope to inspire more volunteers to come together to drive change locally and thus globally as well. For, only with the help of energetic youngsters can the Hub take on more initiatives for a larger social impact.

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