A ceremonious start was made on 15th December 2006 when iVolunteer organized an intercollegiate competition titled “Pagdandi - An Insight into Rural India” at Venkateshwara College, Delhi University. This event marked the official launch of the India Fellow 2007 rural fellowship programme and aimed at sensitizing as well as bringing to the fore village culture and traditions for the city bred youth to appreciate.

With marketing efforts well under way in the New Year, over 250 applications came in from young socially driven youth, keenly expressing their interest in a rustic summer holiday. Alongside, rural NGOs across the country were gearing up for these young enthusiastic student volunteers identifying diverse projects in the fields of education, health, women, self help groups (SHGs), watershed management, right to information (RTI), tribal welfare and livelihoods.

By April, all applicants had been put to the test, and 55 emerged out of it successful. With our India Fellow 2007 batch in place, a 2-day pre-departure orientation programme was organized at each of the centres to prepare the selected Fellows for their 6-week rural stay.

The Fellowship began from April end with the West India Fellows, followed by South and North India Fellows. The midterm reviews done 3 weeks into the fellowship acted as a much needed break for the Fellows also encouraging them to reflect over their first 3 weeks and plan the remaining leg of their journey. In no time, the remaining weeks flew by and Fellows were gearing themselves to bid goodbye to their new found rural friends.

The grand finale of India Fellow 2007 was a 3-day event comprising a debriefing end point meet and a convocation ceremony. Held on an all India level in Mumbai, 40 Fellows shared their learnings and experiences over a period of 2 days. The end point meet fostered interaction amongst the fellows leading to close friendships and common understandings about each other’s experiences.

The Fellows’ hard work was felicitated at a formal convocation ceremony at the NCPA, Mumbai where guest speaker, Dr. Nachiket Mor, Deputy MD, ICICI Bank, handed over the India Fellow certificates.