RECOGNITION
I am grateful for a number of friends, colleagues, and family members in encouraging me to start the work, persevere with it and finally, to recognize it.
In the year 2002 the national daily The Telegraph selected me as Calcuttan of the Week. Prayasam’s work has been appreciated both by the masses and the classes and the print and electronic media have supported our work by projecting features of our events and projects on a regular basis for the last 14 years. Most of the time I have used media as a vehicle to carry my children’s voices to the policy influencers / concerned authorities.
My ideas about education have been recognized worldwide as both timely and important. In 2006, Ashoka Innovators for the Public, an association of the world’s leading social entrepreneurs recognized me as an individual whose innovative solutions to social problems have the potential to change patterns across society, and awarded me the title of Ashoka Fellow.
In the year 2008 I received the highest honors of Visthar, a Bangalore-based human rights NGO. Serving as a facilitator for Visthar’s gender and media workshop, I was publicly lauded for my strong communications skills and participatory style. Participants of the pan-South Asian workshop, a joint programme with the Xavier Institute of Social Sciences, were present at the felicitation, which presented me with the State award.
In the year 2010 I have been awarded Indian Achievers’ Award for Social Service from Indian Achievers Forum, New Delhi.
In the year 2011 I have been awarded the Ford Fellowship by the Ford Motor Company Fund and the Picker Center for Executive Education at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
In July 2013 I was announced as the Man of the Month by the Disruptive Women in Health Care http://www.disruptivewomen.net/2013/07/25/july-2013-man-of-the-month-amlan-ganguly
In the year 2013 he was selected as one of the finalists for the Gleitsman International Activist Award, an initiative of the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
In the year 2014 the Revolutionary Optimists bagged the Popular Choice Award in the Take One Action Film Festival in Scotland. I was invited as a Guest of Honour to Scotland to witness this.
In the year 2015 Adobe Project 1324 has awarded Prayasam as a Creative Catalyst. The only recipient from entire Asia and I with 2 of my colleagues were invited to Los Angeles to attend the Sundance Next Fest to get oriented about the responsibility as an Awardee. And to collect the award.
In 2016 Prayasam’s Grassroot Film making concept was lauded by the Norwegian Government agency, FK Norway, and a youth exchange was initiated by them between Prayasam and Slum Dwellers International, Kenya for Prayasam to impart its Visual storytelling skills to the Kenyan youth. I visited Nairobi and Oslo to get oriented and present our exchange process to the other participants as well as to SDI Kenya in Nairobi.
In 2018 the concept of Community Visual News Network was lauded by The Overseas Foundation Limited and supported the first-ever Grassroot News Studio.
In 2020 concept of Duo Ranir Sansaar, upcycle bank, got appreciation from the local and national media to use Fashion as a tool for Youth Personality Development.
In the year 2001 the Rotary Club of Calcutta Inner City awarded me the Vocational Excellence Award.
I believe that the idea of forming ‘Area Health Minders’ from amongst local children have been established as a model, this was further strengthened by the recognition received by members of my first group when they were chosen as the sole representatives from India in Unicef’s global publication ‘A Lifelike Mine’ a book showcasing innovative programmes on children’s right to participation and the changes it can bring across the world in the year 2003.
In July 2007, I was invited by the Rockefeller Foundation to attend the Global Urban Summit on Innovations for an Urban World in Bellagio, Italy. Amlan’s award-winning Area Health Minders were subsequently cited as a a successful local solution to public health in Century of the City: No Time to Lose, a Rockefeller Foundation publication.
In March 2009, I was selected as a public health leader to be profiled in The Revolutionary Optimists, a documentary film a project headed by Stanford University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics, Program in Bioethics and Film.
I have been invited by the Stanford Program in Bioethics and Film to attend the Bay Area Video Coalition’s Producers Institute for New Media Technologies from May 28 through June 6, 2010, in San Francisco, California, as a guest of the Institute. The Producers Institute for New Media Technologies is a ten-day residency for eight creative teams (independent producers or public broadcasters) with a shared goal of developing and prototyping a multi-platform project inspired by, or based on a significant documentary project. The intention of the Institute is to develop socially relevant media projects for emerging digital platforms. I was invited as a guest of the institute because of my work with The Revolutionary Optimists the film project, which was selected for the Institute, as well as my impressive record of innovative programming to provide education, nutrition, preventive health, mentoring and media training in different municipalities and districts of West Bengal.
In the year 2012, I was invited to speak at the annual Skoll World Forum in Oxford; alongside such luminaries as former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, pop star Annie Lennox and billionaire George Soros.
In the year 2013 I have been invited by the Gates Foundation to attend the TED X Talk. My two mentees were interviewed by Melinda Gates at the Gates’ Foundation Headquarters, Seattle on positive disruption.
In the year 2013 The Revolutionary Optimists was broadcasted on the Emmy-Award winning series Independent Lens in the United States. It has been featured as part of the new ITVS series Women and Girls Lead Global, where it was screened on national television in 9 countries around the world bringing the inspirational story and model for change to countries including India, Bangladesh, Kenya, Egypt, Peru, and El Salvador. The film received rave reviews from the media - http://revolutionaryoptimists.org/reviews
In the year 2015 me and 3 of my ONTRACK Grassroot Human Resource Management Institute mentees were invited by Slum Dwellers’ International, South Africa to visit their communities in Capetown, South Africa and replicate the ideas of Area Health Minders of Prayasam to the youth of the communities over there.
in 2015 on the occasion of the UNESCO’s 16th World Teachers’ Day I was felicitated by the Hon’ble Governor of West Bengal.
In 2017 my concept of Ahlladi, the cherished ones, was appreciated by The Overseas Foundation Limited and supported the Kalanjali, art offerings, Art Studio, an open platform to hone your artistic skills.
In 2019 the menstrual movement, PERIOD got worldwide recognition and we started PERIOD Education for ALL in the communities, schools, and colleges.
To be continued...