About Sahaj Foundation
Sahaj Foundation was founded by Parul Chackungal in 2017. Parul and the board of trustees believe in empowering others to achieve personal and communal growth. They rely on the funds generously donated by organizations and individuals to run the campaigns. The whole team at Sahaj Foundation is volunteer-based. The campaigns are run with the help of volunteers drawn from local communities.
About the Fellowship
The Vriksh Fellowship is an initiative to support such social leaders so that they can continue the work in their beginning years and reach a point from where they can sustain it from their own side.
The fellowship aims to support the social leaders who are presently working for the benefit of economically or socially disadvantaged sections of the Indian society residing anywhere in slums, rural, or tribal areas of the country.
Their current focus is on initiatives in the Sustainability and Climate Change field, though social leaders working in other areas may also apply.
Eligibility Criteria
Any Social Leader who is presently working for the benefit of economically or socially disadvantaged section of the Indian society residing anywhere in slums, rural or tribal areas of the country, and who:
- is a founder or co-founder of his/her social initiative.
- is engaged in the social initiative full-time for a minimum of one year. The social initiative must be an original idea of the applicant and must be a non-profit.
- is willing to work full-time in his/her social initiative for the entire duration of the fellowship.
- envisions promoting a healthy value system, thereby encouraging compassion, social and economic equality, justice, secularism, cooperation, etc.
- is able to provide details on how he/she is sustaining at the time of making the application.
- is able to provide a realistic plan for how he/she will become self-sustaining at the end of the fellowship to continue the work.
The social leaders who have registered their own organization for their initiatives shall be given preference for the fellowship. For the ones who have not registered their organization at the time of making an application for the fellowship, the team shall either ask them to register or try to understand their reasons for not filing a registration, just in case they have any ideological reasons for the same. If the team finds the mentioned ideological reasons satisfactory, it shall consider the application for the fellowship.
Benefits & Duration
The purpose of the fellowship is to identify and support the social leaders by providing them a monthly financial assistance of Rs. 12,000 each for their daily sustenance for a period of 2 years (+1 year based on requirement and commitment); with an understanding that while they continue to work full-time on their initiatives, they would be able to find a practical way to self-sustain their efforts post the fellowship.
How to Apply?
Interested applicants may apply through the link provided at the end of the post.
Application Deadline
November 30, 2023
Contact Information
In case of any queries, please contact +91 98168 62327 or write to thevrikshfellowship@gmail.com.
Click here to apply.
Click here to view the official notification.
