sustainability imnfluencer – Innovation for Equality

‘ IMPACT HOUR ‘ 13 With Vandana Vijay

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Written by Sahithi Divi as told by Vandana Vijay

Founder, CEO – Offbeat tracks

Vandana Vijay is the founder of a sustainable tourism platform that creates experiential travel aiming at promoting eco tourism through exploring diverse destinations in the world in addition to her special inclination to the mountains. She is not only fostering experiential travel but also understanding the local communities to benefit their economic supply chain through her organisation. She has a unique vision to create an inclusive affect on the traveller as well as the local community upliftment and catalyses the process of culture preservation.

Vandana hails from a progressive defense family with strong role models. As a child she remembers no adversity due to gender in fact narrates how her mother pushed her at public speaking. Although every girl child would have been through a certain amount of societal conditioning about her dressing or being stated as reckless venturing yet she boldly enamoured to be an army officer. She fought through the cross roads by re defining her journey. Vandana then continued to work at Facebook for few years when she happened to travel as a volunteer to Ladhak. Exposure to rural mountain communities , their ways of life, indigenous resources and regional challenges created a large impact on her.

She then decided to create a platform to empower the mountain community. She identified the entrepreneur spirit showcased by women and saw the power behind using women as the main agents of change in her journey. She believes in the blend of equality whereas also enjoys the beauty of an all women core team that brings empathy and skilled feminism into the thinking frameworks. She began making a deeper research and connected with women on all levels to create a dialogue of communication for executing her idea of experiential travel platform .Vandana is working in alignment to Sustainable Development Goal 11, 8 and 7 using 17.

Vandana expresses that women in India have the opportunity to enjoy an innate sense of network to fall back on. She travels to understand , creates to boost communities and believes in inclusive growth. When asked about the hardest thing to let go she said, ‘ Comfort zone is stable’ . She continues that people assume that dressing is an ideology of independent personality whereas this a just a false myth. She defines woman as creator, democracy as unity in diversity and love as passion.

Written by Sahithi Divi ( source : http://www.impactscientist.com )

Freedom

Featured By Impact Scientist

Poem Written By Sahithi Divi

Subject : Gender is a construct but freedom is not. Society is not going to provide you the personally entitled environment. It is a complex inclusion of social and economic systems. Writing this poem with a hope to meet that part of your soul which always looks for Freedom, of every kind.

Your birth is a narrative ,
Deposits of generations,
Traces of yesterday are felt,
Whoever watches you can see,
Reflections from years that existed,
Find your freedom before you leave.

Perform for your nation in this era,
Don’t rest during the emotional epidemic,
Lift away the suffering,
Search your soul relentlessly,
Find that spark which makes you tremor,
Find your freedom before you leave.

When the light falls on you,
Your story embarks in people,
Before devoting the sacred oneself,
Prolong the diameters of knowledge,
Think about what you can give,
Find your freedom before you leave.

Wherever is your place ,
When ever your time comes,
Whoever you become,
These are not for you to think,
Your life is not waiting for something,
Find your freedom before you leave.

Empower the art in your instinct,
Gather integrity from rebellious armies,
March forward, no less like a soldier,
Own this mission,
Together sing for the country’s past,
Find your freedom before you leave.

Talk to that inner self,
The timeless liberation you hold,
Democracy will not stand by you,
Risk your life for unconditional progress,
Be the one who is ready to hear,
Find your freedom before you leave.

This nation is old enough ,
Millions of priceless sacrifices,
Unless you are free ,
You are unutilized in danger,
For the country is pleading you,
Find your freedom before you leave.

– SAHITHI DIVI

Written by Sahithi Divi (Source : http://www.impactscientist.com)

‘ IMPACT HOUR ‘ With VIYA QU

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Written by Sahithi Divi as told by Viya Qu

Social Entrepreneur, Peripatetic ( person who travels and works ) Business Consultant, Sustainable Development Goals Influencer

Born in the facet of democratic far sight , Viya as a child often searched for liberating role models. Divided between boundaries of inbound and regulated society , she wished to be validated as a child. Drawing bridges to the journey of a little girl from China who is today a social entrepreneur who lives out of a bag. Her purpose is to connect and inspire in order to understand herself better through every travel or person while making an impact as a social entrepreneur.

My conversation with Viya is a collective insight and experience of more than 25 countries she travelled solo. After travelling for nine months , making every new place her home she was drawn back to China. She explained that the meaning of success is being taught to majority of the people in a rigid culture, which makes everyone go for money. This creates a wide gap between education, self discovery, global awareness and sustainable productivity. Social innovation means simplification concretely. She headed back to China for establishing her start up which broadly educates children about Sustainable Development Goals using collaborative platforms.

Acquaintance of diverse cultures broadened her spectrum of acceptance and also supported her in creating a globally relatable and scalable solution to enlarge the affect of SDGs to students at a young age for maximised impact. She also partnered her travel with volunteering experiences to understand social fabrics in stimulated conditions.

When asked about the safest countries to travel , she emphasises that safety is entirely based on self awareness. Although in her travels she found Europe and Lebanon compatible to external safety conditions still one has to be conjunctionally careful, she says. For her, the hardest thing to let go is the feeling of exploring the untapped.

She continues that, letting go is the greatest part of living out of constant travel but at the same time leaving one place is an opportunity to discover. Automating her learnings for a larger purpose, plants the motivation to move forward with conviction for her. Viya is looking forward to her Indian chapter in order to attain Yoga certification and also to conduct events for promoting SDGs in Indian schools.

Viya states that network , knowledge sharing and collaboration are open solutions for creating an effective ecosystem to lay foundation for newer learnings included with equal and sustainable future. Solutions can be as simple and power as creating awareness.She aligns her work majorly to SDG 4 and SDG 17 . Defines Gender as no biological limitation/ nothing, Democracy as a freedom of speech and Love as actions, acceptance and opposing your ego.

Written By Sahithi Divi as told by Viya Qu ( source: http://www.impactscientist.com )

‘ IMPACT HOUR ‘ With Dr. Apoorva

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Written By Sahithi Divi as told by Dr. Apoorva

Doctor ( Anaesthesiologist, Critical Care Physician ) , Mother, Vegan, Sustainability Influencer, Education Volunteer

Apoorva’s story tunes back to childhood embraced with everything she needed as a kid. Hailing from a family of doctors and mother being a lawyer , she often comprehended ways to be able to use the resources for a larger purpose. As a child she travelled through books and conspired boundaries to being exposed to pain. Her parents compassed her confidence towards restoring healthcare. She remembers being a child who only knew the world confined to her books.

She is a an Anaesthesiologist, Critical Care Physician who started to look at the cancer chemotherapy as a painful process of healing or eradication of cancer. She explains how intense and draining the palliative therapy can be. Expressing her deepest desire is to work towards improvising the healing process for cancer patients.

Being a doctor it is equally important to be updated and create awareness about the same, to uphold a continuity in transforming knowledge into something useful with the help of digital platforms. She said every individual has the collated power to act. “Segregating your target group and begin educating them”, she said. Broadly saying, her intention was to create awareness about prevention and sustainability while curing it.

Motherhood not only brought an internal change but she also realised the importance of sharing her experiences and gave birth to a new her called Dr . Mommy’s Son. She found herself making an impact by turning a sustainability influencer and took a leap for turning into a conscious vegan. Every person’s ability to push the dial is underestimated with prefixed roles assigned even before someone is born. Dreams are for oneself but what is the point of not including the ecosystem we live in ? she stares ! A community of common thinkers is a strong force , then imagine the strength of doers. As a doctor she understands the affect of suffering on a person’s life and how lifestyle changes with-hold long terms concerns of sustainable overall wellbeing.

When asked about her perspective about women, she said most of the women do not go to sleep with the contentment of being able to do what they want , as their aspirations might not match the social standards of the leverage given to a girl for dreaming, precisely of carrying no emotional regrets. She says , ” death is inevitable, meanwhile don’t throw away your life to the comfort of anyone except you”. Turning into a vegan was an enlightenment which helped her develop a resourceful relationship with nature. At the same time she is attributing herself in the journey of Makers Of Milkshakes founded by her spouse, Rahul.

Dr. Apoorva has managed to navigate her learnings towards an inclusive network of people. She created a platform to share her blog stories about sustainable living, motherhood, health and wellness and emotional intelligence. She also actively volunteers and is associated with organisations like Animal Mark and community teachings. She defines Gender as discrimination, Democracy as paralysed and Love as life.

Influence to create an impact is a tool to understated humor behind somebody’s will to bring upon a change. Apoorva is a spark of light who is on her journey to collaborate her learnings and invest her time in improvising the networking standards in India , which she feels is the key step before amplifying the elements of changing social structures.

Written By Sahithi divi as told by Dr. Apoorva ( source: http://www.impactscientist.com )