My Days with the Award

The Young People of today are vocal. They want to talk about their experiences, their likes and dislikes and interests. The Award Programme encourages Young People to speak their minds. Let us hear from Dev Suri, Gold Award Holder about his experiences...

I am immensely grateful to my school Jodhamal Public School, Jammu for initiating me and motivating me to participate in the IAYP programme. After going through assorted adventurous journeys, village visits, conducting events and developing distinct skills I was beginning to see myself as a teacher or trainer in the IT sector.

It was a memorable day for me when I received the prestigious Gold Award in 2014 at Delhi, awarded by former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Dr SY Qureshi .Throughout the programme I welcomed the exposure to different lifestyles via the village visits and developed a positive perspective towards the development of society - overcoming the negative attitude that I had earlier. I realized that it is programmes like the IAYP that really make the difference and challenge others with the question: "If we can, then why can't you?", thus creating a web of people who care for preserving the ecosystem. I myself motivate others to take up this programme which helps in the development of life skills and as a way to render services to the society at a young age.

All around us we see that the growing corruption, scams, violence and other issues have created pessimism in people; but these are the people who mostly stand and stare. It is time for the young minds of our nation to take some action by being a part of this programme, for nurturing optimism towards the eradication of such evils, for developing a character or combination of skills and emotions that will create better human beings as light of hope for our planet. It is necessary to realign our perspective towards life and to find the meaning of our existence in the ecosystem, to strive for the betterment of our future and conservation of environment and its inhabitants, and this is where the IAYP programme has definitely helped me, because a change of perspective is all it takes to see the light.