The Child Leader Project INDIA team includes team members in both, Pondicherry and Bangalore, South India.

** Currently under construction for updating**

CLP-India (Trust for Youth and Child Leadership) currently works with 3 organizations in Pondicherry, engaging over 60 children/youth and 15 young adults in reflection, connection and action in the form of child collectives.

For current information and activities, contact CLP-INDIA Coordinator MDS Shiva at shiva@childleaderproject.org.

Or, see our videos online:

Summer 2010 Programming with India and USA Collaboration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR_AiCo0SHM

** Under Construction**

CLP-Bangalore is a new branch of CLP, collaborating with the South Indian Cell for Human Rights Education and Monitoring (SICHREM) and children/youth leaders from Shantinagar Slum.

For current information, contact the CLP Bangalore team:
clpbangalore@childleaderproject.org

More information coming soon!

CLP-INDIA began with an individual commitment made by Samantha Wilson at Clinton Global Initiative 2008 to establish a student-run leadership organization and scholarship program in a school run by a microfinance institution in South India. One and a half years later, we have successfully facilitated these programs for over 86 Indian students in Tamil Nadu with funding from a variety of generous local and national donors.

Beginnings in Summer of 2008

In August of 2008, three UC Riverside students hosted a 5-day leadership training camp at a rural, low-cost/no-cost school in Tamil Nadu, India. In collaboration with a microfinance institution (Activists for Social Alternatives-Grama Vidiyal Microfinance Lmtd.), UCR students led workshops and discussions on values-based leadership, conflict resolution and international peace-making, social service, and higher education in India and the USA.

We connected our leadership students to international peers in Riverside through a series of photography workshops in which they were challenged to express their understanding about peace, education, and leadership priorities through a creative medium that could then be shared in high schools in California.

From December 26, 2008 to January 10, 2009, a new team of UCR students returned to India to facilitate a “Leadership Mela” (Hindi for “festival”). Lights of India students attended a free field trip to learn about their opportunities in higher education and the civil service sector.

INDIA: Expansion in 2009

In summer of 2009, CLP volunteers returned to India to continue its work with ASA-GV, as well as expand to work with new organizations across Tamil Nadu: Victoria Matriculation School (operating in Kanchipuram) and Anbhagam International Street Children Education Center (operating in Chennai). These new partnerships provided us opportunities to expand our work and meet the needs of underprivileged youth across Tamil Nadu.