Goonj Setu Fellowship 2024 -25

Last date of the Application: April 22, 2024

Goonj is turning discarded & underutilized material of cities into a tool to bring ignored issues to light & convert it into resource for rural development.

Embark on a transformative journey with Goonj Setu Fellowship, celebrating 25 years of impactful work. Join a diverse cohort of fellows from across the country in a year-long experience, from August 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025, filled with enriching learning milestones. Dive into the multifaceted world of Goonj’s initiatives, spanning women’s health & hygiene, School, environment, sanitation, disaster response, and urban events like the Joy of Giving Week and Chaupal.

As a fellow, you’ll have the opportunity for hands-on rural immersion, exploring the vast landscapes of 27 states & union territories. Engage in self-driven projects aligned with your passion, gaining practical experience and contributing to meaningful initiatives. The curriculum is designed for interdisciplinary learning, featuring skill labs, mentorship, and ecosystem exposure throughout the fellowship year. Elevate your knowledge, make a difference, and be a part of Goonj’s ongoing journey towards positive impact and sustainable change.

Goonj Setu Fellowship
Do you often find yourself wondering how you can make change happen and work towards impact? Or do you feel the urge to become a driving force in society? Do a positive mindset and optimism entice you too?

Change your thoughts into action, Goonj is working on spreading happiness and is looking for young, passionate individuals to join us in this venture. Its Setu Fellowship offers a ‘world of possibilities for individuals who aim to become doers rather than remain thinkers. It provides an opportunity for individuals to understand themselves but also the larger social ecosystem, the
dynamics, innovations, and how small things can bring about significant changes.

Fellowship Eligibility

• Age – you ought to be 21 to 30 years old by July 31, 2024
• Education – we expect you to have graduated by July 31, 2024
• Languages known – basic understanding of English / Hindi
• Adept with technology – basic computer knowledge: Ms Office and other tools
• In the era of ChatGPT and AI, we are looking for genuine, personal, and original responses. Please respond on the basis of your personal experience.

Expectations:

❖ North-west-south-east, you could be anywhere

• You could be placed in any of Goonj city offices in the fellowship journey. The location is subject to change during the Fellowship. You would majorly work in the urban front of the organization, with periodic exposure to rural areas.

❖ Ready for challenges?

• As this Fellowship is about evolving you and taking you out of your comfort zone, we expect you to come with an open mind to accept the challenges relating to immediate travels, multi-tasking and rural set-ups

❖ It’s all about language and lenses

• The Fellowship cohort has Fellows from across India with diverse backgrounds. We expect you to have humility and empathy for each other. Come with lenses of acceptance and a language of respect

❖ We embrace and encourage all

• This is an all inclusive fellowship. We consider applicants from all walks of life, regardless of their gender identity, sexual orientation, or other minority groups.

❖ Not everything that shines is gold

• The stark realities are often unexpected. We expect you to come with a mindset which will assist you in exploring and understanding the rawness of society and the sector

❖ From bullock-carts to tongas, adventure is on

• The journey of 12 months is tough, where you would be expected to travel in the most local mode of transportation and indulge in responsibilities with the team.

❖ Not an occupation but vocation

• We consider ourselves as a movement, therefore, working with Goonj is more about working with ideals and values than having a job mindset

Why this fellowship?
Goonj Fellowship gives you an opportunity to comprehend what reality looks like for many when basic issues are neglected for generations. Fellows are not only able to understand the urban and rural perspectives; they are also able to work on scenarios that they feel passionate about within the thematic areas of the organization. A journey that compels you to step out of your comfort zone and build an empathic lens about issues that prevail along with realizing your own potential.

Goonj, given its deeply entrenched pan India work with urban and rural masses, is in a unique position to provide you with a wide-ranging experience and exposure to urban and rural issues, as well as some of the resources needed to design and execute your own
ideas and plans. It is about shifting your mind from the thinking mode to the doing mode. As our founder, Anshu Gupta, says, “This world doesn’t need any more thinkers right now. We need more doers.“. The fellowship activities are meant to fine-tune your values, skills, and questions, reframe some of your notions, stretch you mentally and physically, and build your entrepreneurial skills. It is also your chance to get introduced to another India, living in our villages, and to witness and engage first-hand with grassroots innovation. In the end, it will culminate in you developing your own action plan, with mentoring from Goonj and some experts from the field of the social sector.

The Goonj Setu Fellowship is our way of engaging with youth more deeply. We are looking for people who are done looking around and are ready to do something. This fellowship is about engaging with some real-life challenges, tasks, and timelines, to give hands-on experience and immersion into urban and rural India’s realities. The curriculum gives you in-depth exposure to Goonj’s work, specifically designed to build and nurture specific skills and values that we take pride in.

The Fellowship involves

• Getting engaged in a unique pan India urban campaign – Joy of Giving Week, involving strategic thinking, logistical management, communication, people handling, and outreach. This will be supplemented by in-depth exposure to the
  Goonj model and its core objectives, such as bridging the rural-urban divide, valuing local-traditional wisdom, and a strong belief in a bottom’s up approach to development.
• Working closely with an experienced team on various thematic verticals including volunteer engagement, menstrual health and hygiene, neglected urban & rural communities, partnership building, disaster management, communication, and media strategies for internal & external campaigns/interactions.
• An immersive phase, where Fellows will be engaged in Goonj’s rural programs and operations to learn from grassroots knowledge and traditional wisdom, the very foundation of our objectives.
• Planning and executing time-bound ideas and projects, addressing an urban/rural problem, in the thematic areas in which Goonj has core competencies, with the guidance and support of Goonj team members with diverse backgrounds in critical
  operations and thematic tasks/projects.
• Self-exploration phase: a unique window of time to explore some self-churning, and identify interest areas or domains one is passionate about.

Please note: This is a broad-dynamic curriculum, Goonj reserves the right to change or alter it during the course or as deemed necessary.

How will the fellowship function?

• Fellowship is for 12 months and a tough one!
• Fellows will be given 20 leaves a year + regular national holidays
• The fellowship stipend will be a fixed amount ranging between Rs 20000 – Rs 22000 per month, depending on the city.
• City & Field travel allowances will be reimbursed based on actual

How will rural exposure work? Are we expected to go and work on our own in villages? What about our safety?

Your rural visits will be well-coordinated to be in the areas where Goonj is directly or indirectly working through its pan India network of grassroots organizations. At no point will you be left on your own. The safety of our fellows and team members is our priority.

Our teams will be taking care, but if you still have any specific concerns, you can let us know at the interview level.

What sort of rural exposure will the fellow have?

The rural experience is broadly divided into two phases. At first instance, Fellows will have an exposure visit to get deeper insights into the impact areas Goonj works on, i.e., water, sanitation, infrastructure, education, menstrual hygiene, and livelihood. In the next phase, Fellows will prepare a project based on the insights from Goonj’s work, and the same will be presented to a panel of experts who will help fine-tune it, after which Fellows will get a chance to implement it, working closely with the Goonj team.

What if I have to leave the program in the middle due to various reasons?
If you leave at any point before the completion of the fellowship, you will not be given a certificate. Additionally, there is a lock-in period of the first 6 months in which if you leave, you will not get a fellowship certificate, and a month’s stipend will be held back. This is only open to consideration in cases of health emergencies.

Is this a residential program?
No, this is not a residential program.

What is the applicant selection process?

• Start by filling out the online application form.
• If your application is shortlisted, you will be called for an assessment and panel interview at the nearest Goonj office.
• Upon selection, you will receive an offer to join the Goonj Setu Fellowship program.

What if I have already done a fellowship like the Gandhi Fellowship, the Teach for India Fellowship, YIFs, or any other liberal studies program, Can I still apply?

• Applicants from social work, liberal arts, entrepreneurship studies, and people who have done other prestigious fellowships like the Gandhi Fellowship, Teach for India Fellowship, YIFs, and Jagriti Yatra can definitely apply but will not be given any extra preference or advantage.

What are the locations where I can be placed for this fellowship?

Goonj works in parts of the 27 states and UTs in deeper rural pockets and has city offices in Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Rishikesh, Chennai, Kochi, Patna, and Mumbai.

Based on the need, you will be placed in any of these locations.

Important Points to Note

• A Goonj Fellow cannot pursue any online/offline course during the Fellowship period
• A Fellow can be placed in any city/rural setting for a short/long time during the Fellowship
• The issues and ideas you will be working on during the Fellowship will be aligned with Goonj’s ongoing work/projects
• If you have a specific passion/idea that you want to work on in life, please bring it up in the application and interview, Goonj will look into the possibility of support
• For any queries, please write to us at fellowship@goonj.org

Click here to know more and APPLY

Application-:
https://lnkd.in/evrenWrM