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Asia's largest crowdfunding platform, launched Ketto Awards 2019
In a bid to recognize and celebrate initiatives driving positive change in India, Ketto, Asia’s largest crowdfunding platform, launched Ketto Awards.
With a panel of three renowned judges across diverse walks of life, Ketto presented awards to prominent NGOs and individuals that includes celebrities like Rahul Bose and Ananya Birla as well organisations like Habitat for Humanity, for their role played in rebuilding Kerala after the tragic floods in 2018.
“We launched Ketto Awards not only to recognize the impactful work undertaken by the social sector but also to inspire others to get involved in creating meaningful and sustainable impact through their own endeavour, or through partnership, investment, and different pro-bono initiatives,” said Varun Sheth, Co-Founder & CEO of Ketto.
The awards were presented in ten different categories: Best Start-Up NGO, Best Indian NGO of the Year, Best International NGO of the Year, Best Social Entrepreneur, Young Changemaker, Social Media Influencer, Lifetime Achievement, Best Digital Media Campaign, Best CSR Campaign, and Best Social Celebrity. Three nominees were chosen from each category and the winners were declared after high-quality, meticulous evaluations depending on their effectiveness of development.
The jury comprised of Sheila Nair - Director of Resource Mobilization in the Cancer programme of Tata Trusts, Thomas Chandy Founder and CEO of Save the Children and Yashwant Deshmukh - Communications professional with an eclectic range of experience as a journalist, pollster, evaluation expert, and international observer.
Let’s meet the winners of the 1st Annual KettoAwards:
I. Best Start-Up NGO – ConnectFor
Established in December 2015, ConnectFor matches an individual's skillsets and time with suitable volunteering options in NGOs, which in turn helps those NGOs that cannot afford to hire people for ancillary. The start-up’s intervention has played a decisive role in enhancing hundreds of NGOs’ performance. Till date,ConnectFor has successfully matched over 11,323 volunteers with suitable organizations. These volunteers have clocked in over 29,000 hours of work and have saved NGOs over Rs 68 lakh.
II. Best Indian NGO of the Year – Aditya Foundation
Started in October 2013, the Aditya Mehta Foundation (AMF) aids differently-abled athletes to pursue sports while providing self-sustenance. They conduct national training camps across the country and provide counseling, funds, equipment to athletes and train them from the grassroots level which helps them grow in their sport, compete and win at various global sporting events. The foundation has helped Harish Varma, the only Para-Arm Wrestler who won two medals at the World Arm Wrestling Championship and Subramanian Balachandar, who finished the Bangkok Cup 2018 with a silver medal in the doubles category and bronze in the singles. AMF plans to train at least 100 para-athletes for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics as well as build two sports academies and open rehab centers for the differently-abled.
III. Best International NGO of the Year – Habitat For Humanity
Founded in 1976, Habitat For Humanity has been devoted to building simple, and affordable housing across the world. Through their exceptional work, they have created over 5 lakh homes in Nigeria, and nearly 2 lakh homes in the Asia-Pacific region. In the three years since the 2015 Nepal earthquake, HFH supported 45,829 families with relief and shelter interventions ranging from shelter kits to permanent housing with access to water and sanitation facilities. The organization carried out a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for victims of the Kerala floods which saw 540 supporters raising over Rs 25 lakh.
IV. Best Social Entrepreneur – Disha Mullick, Khabar Lahariya
Disha Mullick is currently the Director - Outreach and founding trustee of the Women, Media and News Trust, which produces the award-winning rural newspaper, Khabar Lahariya. It is India's first digital rural news network, run entirely by women. Published in nine different dialects, Khabar Lahariya has been weaving a strong feminist dynamic in rural corners of India, addressing issues of gender and education. In 2004, Khabar Lahariya was awarded the prestigious Chameli Devi Jain Award for Women in Journalism. In 2009, the newspaper was awarded the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize, followed by the Laadli Media Award for gender-sensitive reporting in 2012. The newspaper also went on to winthe prestigious Global Media Forum Award in 2014 given by the German media channel Deutsche Welle.
V. Young Changemaker – Ananya Birla
Ananya is the founder of Svatantra Microfinance, a company that provides microfinance to women in rural India. She is also the founder of CuroCarte and co-founder of Mpower. The young and energetic woman has been a crusader for creating awareness about mental illness. Her organization, Mpower aims to help create a society where people with mental health concerns and their caregivers receive professional support, care, and acceptance to facilitate their recovery without facing discrimination or shame. She’s striving to rejig the public perception of people coping with mental health concerns, and facilitate recovery without facing discrimination or shame, whilst simultaneously bringing change to policy and public life.
VI. Lifetime Achievement – Devika Bhojwani
She is the Vice President of the Women’s Cancer Initiative at Tata Memorial Hospital. Under her aegis, the TMH has supported hundreds economically deprived women with breast cancer to complete their prescribed treatment with chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, radiation therapy, surgery, and rehabilitation therapy. The foundation has undertaken numerous initiatives to create awareness and emphasize the importance of early detection. Her path-breaking guidance has led over 25,000 new cancer patients registering in TMH every year, the majority belonging to the underprivileged sections of the society. The Initiative's core activity comprises material support of socially and economically disadvantaged women who are diagnosed to have breast and gynecological cancers.
VII. Best Digital Media Campaign – Goonj (Odha Do Zindagi)
This Delhi-based NGO Goonj, through their “Odha Do Zindagi” programme, has been able to reach out to hundreds of underprivileged people on the streets of New Delhi providing them with winter essentials such as woolens, blankets, mats and other material. Over 10,000 people on the street died in the past decade during winters. The organization has worked relentlessly to bring down this number, by raising funds through its crowdfunding platform. Goonj has also reached out to far-flung villages of the country by providing the needy with urban underutilized materials.
VIII. Best CSR Campaign – Godrej-Track the Bite
The app, Godrej-Track the Bite, was launched in 2015. Godrej-Hit came up with this initiative for people to register themselves as donors and in doing so, they launched an online community of platelet donors for dengue patients. The mobile app delivers real-time information on dengue and malaria based on the user’s location in vulnerable places. A timely and personalized message provided on the app leads to higher engagement and persuades people to take effective action against dengue and malaria. The first-of-its-kind innovative application has been able to build awareness as it disseminates information available and sharable in one click.
IX. Best Social Celebrity – Rahul Bose
The Bollywood actor and rugby player’s contribution to society is well-known. He started his own non-profit organization called ‘The Foundation.’ It is an NGO dedicated to the removal of discrimination from all walks of life. In 2008 he was one of twelve international thinkers, politicians, economists and social activists to inaugurate the 'In My Name' initiative against global poverty. Bose is strenuously urging the country to 'go green'. Bose was Oxfam's first Global Ambassador from the Eastern Hemisphere and launched their India initiative on climate change in March 2009. Post the 2004 Tsunami, he was a part of the solidarity network. He made 23 trips in over 30 months and provided relief and was involved in rehabilitation work. For his unrelenting efforts in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, he was awarded the Godfrey Phillips Prize for Bravery in Social Service. Working with NGOs on the mainland, he has also helped provide materials, vehicles, mobile phones in islands Deep South in Nicobar.
X. Social Media Influencer – Bilal Zaidi
After more than a decade of Journalism, Bilal now works in the intersection between journalism and campaigning for social change and impact. His start-up CrowdNewsing.com is a campaign community that helps journalists, political activists and change-makers build an online community that supports them financially and amplifies their campaign. Prior to CrowdNewsing, Bilal was based out of New York working as a Global Campaigner with Avaaz Foundation, where he was focussed on community mobilization on campaigns like climate change, the war in Syria and the Rohingya crisis. In New York, Bilal also volunteered with the Bernie Sanders election campaign, observing closely the role of crowdfunding in politics. His organization’s main aim is to make political funding transparent and leaders more accountable to the people.
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