Saturday 28 November, 2009

In Loving Memory Of.


With the deepest of grief, we share with you the loss of someone who has brought immense life, joy and colour to our core at TYPF.

We lost Purple Malik today morning, after a brief and highly unexpected struggle with Blood Cancer two days ago. Purple came to us two years ago, as a young college student and journalist, and we have known her in multiple roles since, as a Friend, Graphic Designer, Events Curator, Staff Member, Colleague amongst many others.

We are at a loss at what to say, other than the fact that her voice and her art are still etched so clearly infront of us, when we look at the voice she gave our work through these past two years, in her digital story, her art work, 2 years worth of 4am online conversations on everything from poster designs to sound to our future dreams. She always took us to new heights, with her trademark intense hard work and easy going nature, becoming a part of each of us in different ways.

I last spoke with Purple a few days ago. She was taking some time off to heal and take care of herself, and mentioned to me that in these past few months that had been hard and challenging for her, coming to YP to all of you, kept her going and had helped her cope. 'It's been my happy space' are words that still resound in my mind. I feel somewhere, she would have wanted everyone at TYPF to know that.

We know and love Purple for her wild eccentricities, her brilliantly curious mind, her vision of the world, her sense of humour, her individualistic sense of dressing, the strikingly talented artist she is and her poetic heart. Some of my most life changing conversations and arguments, in art, on life have been with Purple, at early morning hours of working together, almost every second day for weeks on end in the last two years. She taught me how to see life a little differently, a second vision that we found in her art and in her hopes and dreams for what she wanted to do.

We cannot imagine not having her with us anymore. She is so many things for so many people, and this institution owes her so very much. We wish that she finds peace and knows how much she is loved, and how much we owe her, for how she brought us together and the laughter and light she brought to this organization.

We will keep you informed of when there is a prayer meeting held for her, TYPF is planning to hold a meeting at a time her family finds appropriate, where the organization can come together. We're also setting up a wall in office that's going to be hers, with messages for her, her art work, with the spirit that's just uniquely Purple, so do feel free to share any thoughts and messages you'd like to.

We also want to acknowledge Purple and highlight her video and art work at our upcoming concert in December, she was to have been the graphic artist who was going to design our first institutional brochure and it was a project that she and I had been working on for many weeks now, she was incredibly excited about it.

We celebrate and miss her, she will always be the most beautiful part of us.


- Ishita C.

Wednesday 25 November, 2009

Raising Decibel Levels - Support Youth Led Action!

Raising volumes for youth led action in India.

The YP Foundation.
Raising Decibel Levels.


The YP Foundation in New Delhi has, for the last 7 years, supported 5,000 young people directly; setting up over 200 projects in India, reaching out to over 3,00,000 youth in Delhi and to numerous youth across the country. Pilot projects have run from Mumbai, Pune and Chhattisgarh and we partner with a number of youth led organizations in Asia and the Pacific, as well as Internationally.

Now, we need your support!

On December 10, 2009, at the Ashoka Hotel Amphitheatre, we are hosting our first ever fundraiser concert, featuring British Folk Sensations Laura Marling (www.lauramarling.com) and Mumford and Sons (www.mumfordandsons.com), with East India Company’s Papon Angaraag Mahanta (www.papon.co.in).

Proceeds from the concert will support 6 of our programmes at The YP Foundation for 2010, where 1,000 young people will come together in New Delhi to conduct over 40 public programmes on understanding HIV/AIDS, Gender and Sexuality, Promoting Independent Music, Exploring Film, Life Skills and Mental Health and Education and Healthcare Initiatives for Street Children.


Date: 10th December, 2009

Time: 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Venue: Amphitheater, The Ashoka Hotel, B 50, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi

Tickets: Rs 200/-

First Come First Served!

Call us for details/block your passes now at +91 11 46792243/ 9811073010/ 9910337160

Email: tickets@theypfoundation.org

Sponsored By
Power Grid Corporation, Rosmerta Technologies Ltd., Sareen Estates Ltd., Videocon

Supported By
The British Council, Only Much Louder, The American Center, Spiral Seed, Media Offline, Music Basti, Students for the Promotion of International Law, Indian Youth Climate Network, Artistes Unlimited

Online Partner
DelhiEvents.Com

Venue Partner
The Ashok Hotel

Media Partners
Hit 95 FM, Rolling Stone

About the Artists

Laura Marling is a folk singer-songwriter from Hampshire, England. Marling has toured with a number of well-known indie artists in the UK and beyond including Adam Green and Jamie T, whoinvited her on tour with him in 2006 after he attended her second-ever gig. She performed at the 2007 O2 Wireless Festival and also performed at the first Underage Festival in August 2007 at VictoriaPark, East London. Her television appearances include The Late Show with Craig Ferguson in the US, and 'Later With Jools' in the UK. Her debut album Alas, I Cannot Swim was released on 4 February 2008 and was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Prize.

http://www.lauramarling.com/videos.php


Mumford & Sons are a folk n roll band from London. The band is made up of Marcus Mumford (vocals, guitar, drums), Winston Marshall (vocals, banjo, dobro), Ben Lovett (vocals, keyboards, organ), Ted Dwane (vocals, double bass). They formed in late 2007, rising out of London's folk scene with other artists such as Laura Marling, Johnny Flynn, Jay Jay Pistolet and Noah and the Whale. In February 2008, the band completed an extensive UK tour with support from Alessi's Ark, Sons of Noel and Adrian, Peggy Sue, Pete Roe, The Cutaway and more. They have been long listed for the BBC's Sound of 2009. BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe made "Little Lion Man" his "Reaction Record" on 27 July 2009, before naming it the "Hottest Record in the World" the following evening. Mumford & Sons won Best Band at the 3rd Annual Balcony TV Music Video Awards in Dublin on 3 July 2009.

http://www.mumfordandsons.com/video

Papon (Angaraag Mahanta), East India Company - As a talented offspring of illustrious parents in the arena of Assamese music, he is not the only one. Yet, Angaraag Mahanta, son of singers Khagen Mahanta and Archana Mahanta, has managed to create a separate identity with his debut album Jonaki Raati, which recently hit the stalls in Assam. Inspired by the wide array of sound that he has been exposed to from the traditional Vaishnavite devotional songs of Assam to new-age electronica, Papon's music is new and free. Free to be confined by any genre, new to be identified with anything that already exists.

http://papon.co.in/

Save The Date - Spread The Word - Support Our Work

Saturday 7 November, 2009

Vikalp – Searching for Alternatives: A Youth Festival for Social Change!



Venue Partners: The American Center, India Habitat Centre and Management Development Institute


Media Partners: HIT 95 FM, DelhiEvents.Com and Tehelka Magazine



200 young people. 20 organizations. 1 Day.

Challenging. Understanding. Connecting. Inspiring!


‘Vikalp – Searching for Alternatives’ is a youth forum for social change for you to promote youth led dialogue and action in India.

The forum on November 14, 2009 will bring together young change makers to share best practices and examine strategies on how young people can build youth action in an inclusive and cohesive manner. Vikalp will focus on the four specific issues of gender and sexuality, education, disability and HIV/AIDS.

Vikalp is conceptualized by UNESCO, The YP Foundation and UNFPA, and will run from 10am to 10.00pm on the 14th of 2009 at The American Center and India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

The festival will feature capacity building sessions, round table consultations, film, art, photography and music as well as You Speak: An Art Exhibition and Vikalp: A National Film Festival and Concert, featuring The Raghu Dixit Project LIVE! At the Amphitheatre, India Habitat Centre.

Children’s Day is a significant day for the city to come together to support positive dialogue on inspiring and building young people’s skills.


Save the date & Spread the word!



Festival Schedule


Part 1 - Time: 10am-6pm


Venue: The American Centre

Registration & Opening: 10.00 am


Young People and Gender in HIV & AIDS Responses

Time: 10.30 am-11.30 am

Share models of how you intersectionalities between HIV & AIDS and Gender in youth led or youth focused peer education work. The session aims at highlighting key challenges, best practices as well as provoke thought on how work with young people on HIV & AIDS and Gender and be more inclusive as well as effective.


The Road Less Taken - Urban and Rural Youth Routes for Change

Time: 12.00noon-1.00 pm

Creating interactions between diverse youth groups from both rural and urban backgrounds to share the strategy, challenges and relevance of their work. The session aims at highlighting multiple models employed, lessons learnt as well as potential collaborations and partnerships that are needed, to create sustainable youth networks.


Break for Lunch: 1.00pm-2.00pm (We apologize, lunch cannot be provided as part of the forum!)


Teach Whom? Innovative Strategies for Working with Young People


Time: 2.15 pm-3.15 pm

Individuals and institutions that work with education challenge what it means to different groups of young people. Examining multiple strategies used in formal as well as non formal spaces, the aim of the session is to share existing strategies; examining successes and failures, to understand the possibilities of where mainstream and non formal education can intersect. We hope to challenge and refresh, methodologies for teaching as well as the contexts in which young people work.


The ‘Beauty’ of Perception – Sexuality, Disability and Young People

Time: 3.30pm- 4.30pm


How do we see Sexuality and Disability? How does youth led work understand or include the intersectionalities between both in the work that they do? Sharing different models of work being done by diverse activists, researchers and organisations. It also attempts to understand the challenges of accessing sexuality education and training for disabled people, in an attempt to highlight the way forward in maintstreaming the sexual and reproductive rights of disabled youth in India’s programmes and policies.


Special Session: The Elephant In the Room: Finding Youth Friendly Funding

Time: 5pm - 6pm

This is a pre registered session for interested youth led organisations, bringing together donor and funders for an honest and open conversation on the how, where, when, what and why of funding decisions for youth led work in India. We hope to highlight key strategies and pointers for accessing institutional and corporate funding and create a open and interactive exchange of thought, opinions and strategies for supporting youth work in the country. To register, email us at vikalp@theypfoundation.org.


Capacity Building Sessions (these sessions will run parallel to the 4 roundtable sessions)


Think Out of That BoxDesigning and Managing Youth Led Projects

(Facilitator: Akshay Sharma, The YP Foundation) Time: 11.30am - 12.30 pm


The Tao of Scale - Scaling Youth Led Work in India

(Facilitated by Surya Prakash Loonker, Catalyst) Time: 2.00 pm-3.00 pm


Taking IT Online - Online strategies for youth work

(Facilitated by Surenderan, India Youth Climate Network) Time: 3.15pm - 4.15 pm


Part 2: Vikalp – The Film Festival & Concert


Venue: The India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road

Time: 7.00 pm- 10.30 pm


A National Film Festival and Music Concert that highlights, challenges and ponders on our understanding of disability, education, sexuality, gender, rights and HIV & AIDS, featuring The Raghu Dixit Project LIVE!



You Speak: Art & Photography Exhibition / 7.00pm


Vikalp – Film Screenings /

7.00pm


Koshish - Dir. Mohit Gupta / 02:21 mins
Story about Koshish, an NGO working in Delhi with urban street and slum children.

Felicia - Dir: Surya Balakrishnan /13:12 mins
The film narrates the true story of Felicia, a 9-year-old girl, sold by her father into prostitution. Rescued by a police officer, the film is a recollection of Felicia's memories.

Flying Inside My Body - Dir: Sushmit Ghosh, Rintu Thomas, Sumit Sharma, Ajeeta Chowhan/ 35:34 mins
Flying Inside My Body explores how the form of the body can become a powerful physical language to express dissent over societal norms and conventions.

Being Male, Being KotiDir: Mahuya Banduopadhyay / PSBT/ 30 mins
Shot in Kolkata, the film explores the experience of growing up gender variant and not being able to understand, let alone explain the difference. The experience of a world where there is 'no one quite like me' is an intensely lonely, fractured and troubled one.

Children of the Same God Dir: Nupur Bansal /03:14 mins
A young girl’s moment of inspiration whilst volunteering at a hostel for orphaned boys.


Vikalp – The Concert/ Featuring The Raghu Dixit Project LIVE! / 9.00pm


Entry to both venues is free. Please carry a valid photo ID to enter the American Center.

Queries/Roses/Brickbats: vikalp@theypfoundation.org or +91 11 46792243/44

Vikalp – Searching for Alternatives.

Spread The Word.


Thursday 5 November, 2009

Save The Date - Young People Unite on November 14, 2009!


Vikalp – Searching for Alternatives is A Youth Forum for Social Change that brings together young change makers from across India.

Vikalp promotes youth led dialogue and action in India by sharing best practices and examining strategies on how young people can build youth action in an inclusive and cohesive manner. The forum will focus on the four specific issues of gender and sexuality, education, disability and HIV/AIDS.

The forum will host a public National Youth Festival on November 14, 2009 that brings together youth led and youth focused organizations. The festival will feature capacity building sessions, round table consultations, film, art, photography and music.

Vikalp is conceptualized by UNESCO, The YP Foundation and UNFPA and will run from the 13 to 16 November 2009 at The American Centre and India Habitat Centre, New Delhi and Management Development Institute, Gurgaon.

Save The Date - Ask Us for Details!

Email: vikalp@theypfoundation.org