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  • Shifa Thobani (second from right), a Chief Minister's Fellow for Maharashtra, has been working for rural development through initiatives such as sustainable waste management and menstrual health education.
    Sanika Merchant | 11 August 2020 | India

    Igniting Change, Inspiring Hope: Stories for International Youth day

    Shifa Thobani (second from right), a Chief Minister's Fellow for Maharashtra, has been working for rural development through initiatives such as sustainable waste management and menstrual health education.
  • Armaan Jena (second from right), a former Chief Minister's Fellow for Maharashtra, is currently exploring issues of maritime security and sustainability while working with the Mumbai Port Trust.
    Sanika Merchant | 11 August 2020 | India

    Igniting Change, Inspiring Hope: Stories for International Youth day

    Armaan Jena (second from right), a former Chief Minister's Fellow for Maharashtra, is currently exploring issues of maritime security and sustainability while working with the Mumbai Port Trust.
  • An SBI Youth for India Fellow, Roohi Patel worked in Orissa with the NGO Gram Vikas to assist tribal women in creating sustainable market linkages for their micro-enterprise of handmade soaps.
    Sanika Merchant | 11 August 2020 | India

    Igniting Change, Inspiring Hope: Stories for International Youth day

    An SBI Youth for India Fellow, Roohi Patel worked in Orissa with the NGO Gram Vikas to assist tribal women in creating sustainable market linkages for their micro-enterprise of handmade soaps.

Since 1999, with endorsement from the UN General Assembly, the 12th of August has been celebrated every year as International Youth Day. This day gives us the opportunity to celebrate the voices, actions, and impactful initiatives of our youth, and recognize their role in shaping our social, economic, and political institutions. The theme of this year’s International Youth Day is “Youth Engagement for Global Action”. In line with this theme, the Ismaili India is proud to share stories of three of our young achievers, whose work in the field of public policy, governance, and development, is truly serving to ignite change and inspire hope.

Meet our first young achiever, Shifa Thobani! Originally from Chhindwara, Shifa is currently based in Palghar as a Fellow of the highly selective Chief Minister Fellowship Program with the Government of Maharashtra. Her work includes extensive data analysis for effective decision making while implementing policies and the consolidation of the work of multiple CSR efforts and NGO initiatives. Shifa is also spearheading Covid-19 relief measures such as equipping health centers to deal with the crisis as well as the training of frontline workers. In addition, she is a proud Ambassador and Menstrual Health Educator for Ecofemme. An engineer by training, with a degree from the prestigious Vellore Institute of Technology, Shifa’s initial dream was to pursue a career in medicine.

However, her volunteer work while at college sparked her passion for policy and development. When she won a scholarship to attend ‘Jagriti Yatra’, a train journey across the nation to explore social enterprise, she knew she had found her calling.  When she graduated, Shifa was selected for the SBI Youth for India Fellowship in 2017. As part of the Fellowship, she worked with the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, India (AKRSP,I) in Mangrol and Dangs, Gujarat. Here she worked with the local community to develop a  sustainable waste-management mechanisms for villages in her area. In 2019, Shifa was selected for the prestigious Chief Minister Fellowship. Her future aspirations are to  drive policy level change through work with a State or Ministry level Department or with international organizations such as the AKDN.

We are proud to introduce you to our next young achiever, Armaan Jena, who hails from Chennai and was raised in Pune. Armaan is proud of his multi-faith and multi-cultural background and upbringing. His main goal in life is to contribute to nation building and world peace. Armaan works in Mumbai Port Trust where his focus is on Cruise Tourism in Mumbai and India. Alongside his professional engagement, he is pursuing a  Masters in Security and Defence Laws from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University in Hyderabad.

In 2012, Armaan earned a Bachelor’s Degree of Business Administration and Management, but found his calling in  policy studies and practice instead. He went on to pursue a  Masters in Urban Policy and Governance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in 2015 which was a turning point in his life. He was also selected for  the Maharashtra Chief Minister Fellowship Program with the Government of Maharashtra. During his fellowship he was deployed at the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking and Department of Transport and Ports at Mantralaya where he contributed to transportation pilot projects such as electrification of  buses in Mumbai and equitable mobility initiatives in Pune.

Armaan believes in the transformational value of  lifelong learning as a pathway towards self-development and the achievement of goals. He endorses a multi-disciplinary approach to education as it lends one a unique perspective and  a diverse skill set.

Our third youth achiever is none other than Roohi Patel, from Ahmedabad, who is currently working as a professional with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Cooperative Federation . Inspired by her father’s volunteer work with the Aga Khan Social Welfare Board for Tanzania and her mother’s efforts to empower entrepreneurial women in the community, Roohi decided to pursue a professional career in the field of development. When she graduated from college, Roohi also got selected for the SBI Youth for India Fellowship in 2018, through which she worked in Orissa with the NGO Gram Vikas to assist tribal women in creating sustainable market linkages for their micro-enterprise of handmade soaps.

Roohi’s exhilaration on successfully helping these tribal women pay back a loan and the appreciation she received for her phenomenal work sparked her passion to continue working for the empowerment of women. Subsequently in 2019, Roohi joined the SEWA Federation to further her work in this space. Roohi aspires to pursue a Masters Degree in public policy, through which she hopes to acquire skills that will help her continue making a difference in the communities around her. She strongly believes that observing and learning from senior professionals and being patient at every step of her journey has been instrumental in helping her further her work.

We are proud to celebrate the phenomenal achievements of our youth achievers and we hope that their leadership, dedication, and determination will encourage more young professionals to pursue their passion and to ignite change and inspire others!