New Delhi: The Obama Foundation announced the first edition of selected fellows for its prestigious fellowship on Monday. Indian national Preethi Herman, Global Executive Director of global social change technology platform Change.org, secured a place on the list of 20 civic leaders chosen by former US President Barack Obama’s foundation.
Change.org is an open platform (with over 80 lakh registered users) where anyone can start a campaign/petition on any issue. So far, the website has managed to help petitioners achieve success in their campaigns such as ‘Government regulates sale of acid to protect women from attacks’, ‘Karnataka government issues guidelines to make schools safer for children’, ‘TRAI pledges to protect net neutrality’ to ‘Passport rules eased for children of single parents’.
Preethi Herman and the other fellows “will collaborate, exchange and inspire a wave of civic innovation,” the foundation said. She was earlier named as one of the 25 women transforming India as part of the #WomenTransform initiative by the Niti Aayog, MyGov.in, and the United Nations.
An Indian-origin man from the US, Navdeep Kang, is also one of the 20 people selected for the Obama fellowship.
The foundation said Herman is equipping a new movement of female leaders to engage their communities in addressing India’s toughest problems. “I’ll be working with a group of civic innovators from around the world to inspire people to get involved in their communities. I can’t wait to get started,” Herman tweeted.
When Barack Obama visited India in December last year, he said his trip was part of his single-biggest post-Presidency mission: to help form the next generation of leadership, not only in the US but across the world. Obama addressed close to 300 young leaders from across the country at a town hall. “The single most important thing I want to focus on is the next generation of leadership. That’s the central goal of the foundation,” he had said.
