Sujata Sahu, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, 17000 ft Foundation

Sujata Sahu, Founder & CEO,17000 ft Foundation.

On another inspiring episode of The Brand Called You, we have with us a professional is the corporate world and a contributor of the social world, Mrs. Sujata Sahu. Mrs. Sahu is the Founder and CEO of an initiative called 17000 ft Foundation. She is the winner of the Nari Shakti Puruskar of 2015. 

Podcast

Overview

On another inspiring episode of The Brand Called You, we have with us a professional is the corporate world and a contributor of the social world, Mrs. Sujata Sahu. Mrs. Sahu is the Founder and CEO of an initiative called 17000 ft Foundation. She is the winner of the Nari Shakti Puruskar of 2015. 

17000 ft Foundation is an initiative dedicated to transforming the lives of children and communities of remote and inaccessible parts of India. Her initiative works towards providing education and changing the lives of children. After spending fifteen test years in IT in the US, Mrs. Sahu moved back to India to contribute to the social sector. She became a social entrepreneur with her initiative, 17000 ft Foundation. A visit to the remote sections of Ladakh and seeing the state of children and the villages overall, changed Mrs. Sahu’s perspective. She decided to change the status of such remote villages in the high mountainous regions of Ladakh. The main focus of her foundation is to strengthen existing systems and provide growth facilities and opportunities to these indigenous communities. Her team helps generate interactions of these people with the outside world. 

Mrs. Sahu mentioned that technology, funding, transport and team framing were some of the major challenges that she faced while setting up the foundation. She explained how she is gradually incorporating technology in education and enhancing basic mobile networking in these areas. Mrs. Sahu described the complete remoteness of these villages with only three hours of electricity per day and zero mobile network and connectivity. She believes that people over there deserve the basic amenities and that it is her duty to give them that.

MEA. Sahu’s Foundation has changed lives and bettered the situations in remote villages. She encouraged youngsters and all viewers in general to get involved with her foundation to experience the simple act of helping fellow humans and knowing their struggles!

#foundation #ladakh #social entrepreneurs #knowledge #experience

Profile

Sujata Sahu is the Founder Director of 17000 ft Foundation, an organization that has been working relentlessly in remote mountainous hamlets across the UT of Ladakh, with a primary objective to enhance education, strengthen the Government School System, and sustain the villages that are facing a desperate migration of young families and children to faraway towns in search of good education. Having worked in various Indian and American firms to lead their large technology systems, Sujata gave up her corporate career to pursue her passion to work with children. A trekker and an outdoor enthusiast, a particularly difficult solo trek into Ladakh brought home the challenges faced by the people of remote region which then led her to found 17000 ft Foundation in 2012. 17000ft Foundation today has a presence in 220 villages in the most inaccessible and remote parts of Ladakh across its two districts – Leh and Kargil. The Foundation has implemented various programs such as Commissioning of Solar Powered Digital Learning Solutions, Transformation of Govt. Schools and Anganwadi Centers, Capacity Building of Teachers and Promotion of Tourism in off the grid remote villages. Frequently mentioned in the media for her work, Sujata Sahu was awarded the prestigious Nari Shakti Puraskar 2015 by the Hon’ble President of India, Late Shri Pranab Mukherjee, an award constituted by the Ministry of Women and Children and presented to her for her work with disaggregated children of Ladakh. Recently, she has also received the Women Transforming India 2019 Award, constituted by Niti Aayog. She is a TedX and Josh Speaker and speaks at multiple forums to carry the incredible story of a remote, ignored and inaccessible region that she has now brought to the forefront through the power of people and technology.

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