Giraffe Heroes India

Giraffe Heroes India (GH/India) aims to bring Giraffe vision, strategies and tools for change to the 1.3 billion people on the Indian subcontinent – making it potentially by far the largest Giraffe global affiliate launched to date. Like all Giraffe Hero affiliates, GH/India will tell the inspiring stories of the country’s heroes, motivating others to become heroic too. GH/India will also offer practical tools citizen activists need to succeed, as well as Giraffe civic engagement programs in schools, helping young people build lives as courageous and compassionate citizens serving a vibrant India.

The two newest Indian Giraffe Heroes will be introduced to the nation at an event in Delhi on January 22, 2015 at the School for Inspired Leadership. They are:

Subhash Chandra Agrawal. Your brave but self-less acts of utilizing the RTI Act, for public good and sticking your neck out despite innumerable challenges has made/is making, we feel a significant impact on the governance of our various organisations

Sister Lucy Kurien. With this Commendation, we salute your brave but self-less acts of combating domestic violence prevalent in the society, providing shelters to victims of the same, rescuing abandoned women and kids who were/are victims of trafficking. 

A Giraffe Hero is a person who sticks his or her neck out on sustainable basis, for public good, at huge personal risk. Giraffe Heroes India Program is an off-shoot of non-profit Giraffe Heroes Project which was started in USA in 1984, by Ann Medlock. The aim of starting this Project was to find out unknown heroes of the society, commend them as Giraffes for sticking their necks out & get their stories told on radio, television & in print. Giraffe stories would tell the people that there was headway being made on the problems of the world, that there were individuals who had solutions & the courage to move into action. The stories would move people`s souls & get them moving on public problems that mattered to them.

 

Background

Giraffe Heroes India was launched following the visit to India of John Graham, Director of Giraffe heroes International. 

B.V. Rao, Editor of the magazine Governance Now; Giraffe Hero Bunker Roy;
John Graham, Director of Giraffe Heroes International; and
Giraffe Hero Vijay Saluja, now Director of Giraffe Heroes India.

Graham and Giraffe Heroes/India Director Vijay Saluja visited dozens of India’s leaders in government, business, media, education and the world of NGOs, seeking their advice and support. Everyone they talked to was very enthusiastic and offers of help have been pouring in. A two-hour meeting with the Maharaja of Jodhpur was important, but the Giraffe idea seemed to resonate among Indians of all ranks, who see the need for building more of the public-spirited courage necessary to take on the country’s daunting challenges.

GHI Director John Graham, Maharajah of Jodhpur, GH/India Director Vijay Saluja,
social activist and educator Varun Arya, taken in the Maharajah's palace

They were gratified by the offers of support and Graham came back very excited by what he saw, and by the energy that Saluja and he were able to generate, even in a short time. One of the many high points for Graham was meeting with traditional village leaders (sarpanches) in the Rajasthan desert, explaining how bringing into their villages stories of Giraffe Heroes—people from all over India solving the kinds of problems they all face—could help them generate enthusiasm and action for local change. Saluja and Graham gave three public presentations, combining Saluja’s inspiring story of his own anti-corruption fight with Graham’s stories of thirty years of working with and learning from Giraffe Heroes.

from left first row: Saluja, Varun Arya and Graham with village leaders

A solid beginning was made with India’s major media, including well-placed articles in major newspapers.

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