Leadcap founder Sangeeth Varghese on Global Shapers

Gramothsavam Media reports - a facefeatures compilation

SAP Labs management experts in Leadership Village

“The present system of education is more or less futilefor the Indian villages. It has no relevance to Indian life, much more less to the rural life. It has to suit the needs of the rural society, it shall have to be reorganized and change in many respects.”

from  Rural Sociology – K. Singh, Published by Prakashan Kendra, Lucknow

Leadership Village celebrated its fourth anniversary of inception in Wayanad, one of the least developed districts of Kerala State, India. As part of the celebrations, which was aptly christened “Gramothsavam 2012” – Festival of the Villages, a group of expert managers from the world`s largest software and development organization SAP Labs reached Wayanad to learn about the management strategies applied by LV and also to train the students and help develop LV with further planning.

The SAP team was led by Mr.Sabareesh, the only malyalee of the team. The team spent two days in Wayanad to research about LV. The event is first of its kind in Wayanad as it explored novel pathways of communication and leadership.

The Leadership Village project was founded in Wayanad by the world renowned leadership thinker and author Sangeeth Varghese, journalist and trainer Laila Saein and educationist and communication trainer Anil Emage in 2009. The driving force behind Leadership Village is LeadCap - Bangalore and AFRC INDIA – Wayanad. The project was started with the noble aim of identifying and developing the leadership and management skills of students in the villages of Wayanad.

Holding strong to the words of the father of our nation, Mahathma Gandhi, “India lives in its villages” Leadership Village has entered its fourth eventful and adventurous year of existence. Member of Legislative Assembly Shri.MV Shreyamskumar inaugurated the project in 2009.

“Gramothsavam 2012’ was conducted in the first ever high school in Wayanad, S K M J High School. As part of the celebrations panel discussions involving SAP Labs managers, LV trainers and YLPs were held. Through Living Libraries, a leadership tool developed by Leadership Village, the managers interacted with the young dynamic and vibrant village students freely, without barriers.

During the programme children and SAP managers performed various village art forms. On 25^th May the Jubilee Hall of S K M J High School witnessed the union of a miniature India. The future of Leadership Village and its incomparable Young Leaders training Programme strengthened and reached to a higher level with the Outbound programme and the entire team behind LV is looking forward to further developments.

Gramothsavam 2012

Leadership Village YLP Wayanad 

celebrates fourth anniversary 

Media partner - Wings Minavet Balussery, Kozhikkode

My Space - Anil Emage

Life without a compass

The Chinese invented the compass as early as 200BC. A simple instrument to show you which way the North lies. One end of the needle is often marked `N’ for north, or colored in some way to indicate the direction.

Between 1295 and 1302, the Italians invented the compass card, marked with 32 points of direction. This made the job of explorers much easier. For the pre –compass era explorers, life was more difficult, dangerous and less predictable. But, of course the new discoveries must have been more joyful to them and their fruits of labor gifted seeds of inspiration for the later, compass carrying explorers.

My first ever exploration in life happened as a freelance reporter for a magazine published from Wayanad. The very first job I was assigned was to go to a village called Chekadi, hitherto unseen, unheard by the media and which offered a lot of interesting case studies and research possibilities. Nature must have taken special care and planning to make the hamlet entirely alienated from the outer world. Three sides the wild forest formed a formidable wall and the only approachable side was blocked by the river Kabani, resembling an untamed often violent daughter of the wild.

I take this opportunity, not to talk about my reporting experiences, but about the exploration I did in the landscape of journalism. I never got any training in media, but jumped into the arena without a compass. Since I was not trained, I didn’t have any mental frame regarding the job at hand. With enthusiasm I explored all possibilities of print media, from reporting, photography, designing, page layout and editing. It was a great learning experience and the result was an exclusive investigative report from the border of Wayanad. Not a single journalist has ever touched the topic so far, and I was happy to see the rapid results. The Human Rights Commission has taken my report as a social issue worth considering and called the editor and I for a sitting. The media too started publishing stories about the village. The media too started publishing stories about the village. Even after 14 years, Chekadi still is a hot news for the media in Wayanad

I have touched my hands on whatever I liked doing. Most of the times, without a compass. But the joy was great. Each creation , be it a photograph, a design, a training session, developing ideas for stories and novels, leading a nomadic life teaching children and youth…everything was based on first experiencing, then pondering over it, then developing strategies and then implementing, the starting point is the journey I decided to set out. A life without a compass. But it doesn’t mean that, I am aimless and go after everything that comes or jumps across the muddy track. I simply love to explore without a compass. It is  adventurous, rewarding, educative and creative.

Story Cirlce - what we learned

Hi friends !! I am Litty.

Welcome to Story Circle session. The other day Anil Emage said the story of Sarah, which he got from the book Cool Women, Hot Jobs.

This story was very attractive to students. Main character of the story is Sarah. She is an innocent girl. From this story we collected much feedback from my class mates. During Story Circle session we share stories from the books we read and discuss over it and share our ideas. We try our best to follow the lessons we learned from the books we read.

Students` observations:

Mumtuaz: “ Sarah wanted to achieve something from her life desperately. Lifelong no one said she could achieve anything in life.”

Sumami: “Sarah didn’t want to fail in life”

Ajas: “Failure will achieve success”

Alsad: “We need a goal in  life, like sarah. The we will work hard to achieve in life”

Amrutha: “ Sarah didn’t bother about her broken leg, when she wanted to achieve in life”

Shoby: “We have to show courage and face our problems and reach our goals”

Simi: “ We have to be good decision makers like Sarah.  

There will be many problems in life, but we have to overcome this to be a winner”

Navya: “Sarah is a very intelligent girl and used her opportunity wisely, by overcoming her severe pain with the power of decision making”

Farsana: “ We have to identify our problems, and find solutions for it and become good sitizens”

 At last we concluded that we all have only one life. We will face our [problems boldly. The best way to overcome a problem is to become bigger than the problem.

Best wishes.

With love from Leadership Village!!

Cheers J

Story of a village librarian

Leadership Village Young Leader Ramsheena writes

Photographed by AnilEmage

In my village there is every facilities. But there is not a library. Anybody was not interested in reading. I felt really shame to say that there is no library in my village. This thought disturbed my mind always.

Then I deided to strt a library in my home itself. At the first time I was very confused whether I can do it or not. Then I told this matter to my trainer Anil emage. He said that it is a great thing and he offered help too. I was so happy when I heard his words The next morning I met my friend Rasmiya who is very energetic and supporting. She was ready to join with me. Then we visited all the houses around us and told the matter. Most of them was so much interested. 

On that day we arranged a meeting in my home. We talked a lot about the advantages of reading and the need of a library in our village. Many parents and children attended the meeting. In the meeting we decided to collect old books as my trainer told. First day we collected 40 books Now the library is going well and we have now more than 120 books and 36 members. We charge a small subscription fee to buy magazines and new books.

I am so happy. Because of this I can make any change in my village, I will be so happy. Reading is not only a habit, it is a wonderfull world. The world of letters, the world of imagination, dreams, life and experiences. I have gained all this leadership, courage and inner strength becaue of my dear trainers and my Leadership Village.