The YDP-B officially turned 5 this year. Over the years, we have conducted several events that reflect our flexibility and diversity- clean-up drives, movie screenings, inter-cultural interactions, salsa workshops and self-defence lessons, to name just a few.

So at the end of this 5 year stint, we sat down and asked ourselves some questions that we thought were important – how has our identity changed from then until now? What are our current objectives, and how are they different from our initial ones? Do we have a goal for the future, and if so, how do we see ourselves getting there?

These are the questions that the members of the new Steering Committee have been trying to find answers to since they were elected to their positions a month ago. This year’s SC sees Nirupama as President, Daniel as Vice-President, Amrita as Secretary, Anushri as Operations Head, Amatullah as Fundraiser, Shankrith as Treasurer, Rahul as Head of Public Relations, and Diya and Sahel as Board Members.

Additionally, the President of FSL-India, Rakesh Soans  joined us as a mentor as we navigated  the course we charted for this year. Some of our broad plans for this year include expanding to set up a YDP chapter at Mysore, organising a Youth Summit in collaboration with other volunteer organisations, and publishing a bi-annual YDP-B newsletter, among others.

Each role comes with a set of responsibilities – some defined and some still undefined – that each member will discover and explore throughout their tenure. Beyond this, however, the lines between these roles have always been blurred and will continue to be so as we work as one team, helping each other out whenever needed, to create the impact we wish to experience with each of our initiatives and to ensure that the YDP spirit is always burning bright.

Nirupama Rajan