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Garvita has started several initiatives and here are some of them -

Why Waste? -
1)The #GlassHalfFull campaign - This is what led to the birth of Why Waste? and today supported by NRAI has reached over 1 lakh restaurants in India and 6 cities globally and we’re going to take this as far as we can!
2)Our current work in Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore - helping societies, appartenemtns and schools to face the issue with grit and come forward and help themselves through our collaboration with Fever 91.9 in Chennai and Bangalore.
3)DIY modules - created to help anyone in the world start their version of Why Waste? In their own city.
4)App - Your Water Footprint - an app that helps you calculate your water footprint and reduce it in a holistic and sparse out manner. It works like health apps but is extremely beneficial for the environment and you of course!
5)Urban Water Challenge - competition for young school kids from low income private schools/ govt schools. We bring 5 finalists together and help them grow their ideas. They are usually from underprivileged backgrounds and have a greater sense of appreciation of their resource.
6)The Sustainability Stories - Our book, for kids between the ages of 1-5grades. These are like fables, with similar characters, but the morals imbibe a sustainability mindset. We want to distribute these for free in places across India. We are having them translated too.


Ecotonix-
A series of cartoons that talk about social issues in a subtle and humorous manner.
Published by some of the top media houses.

Lead Young at Schools -
partnered with Ashoka to build the Lead Young at Schools movement.
This initiative primarily focuses on helping young school-going kids realise their potential to make a difference in this world. We do this by sharing stories of other Young Changemakers who have broken stereotypes and overcome barriers to make a difference. The stories we share are of Young Changemakers who come from a wide range of backgrounds so we can touch a variety of youth and their passions.
We give them a module with stories and creative activities based on each story that can instigate a changemaker mindset.
The schools are free to chose how they want to share the stories with their students. A few common ways in which it happens include -
1)During class assemblies
2)As plays (performed by the student group)
3)In social innovation clubs
4)as part of life skills class
5)any other independent ideas to get the stories across.

I have taken the Lead Young idea to educational magazines where they publish a story in every edition, catering to the students, parents and teachers. I have been working on more collaborations with media houses and organisations to share these stories.




The Changemakers Society - (founder)
We the changemakers believe that it is very important that each and every student be informed and aware of the issues in our society and act towards it. It also is important that they are actively applying it in their daily lives. This is what The Changemakers’ Society hopes to inculcate. We are all engineers and are currently at the pinnacle of innovation. It is important that these new innovations and discoveries are all environment-friendly, otherwise, it is just destruction to this planet. We at The Changemakers’ Society will make sure this comes through and produce the most efficient engineers who are there to keep up with the ever-changing and progressing world and at the same time preventing its deterioration.
Being the youth of this country if we made small changes in our lifestyle it could go along a long way in sustaining the planet. With the growth in the number of educational institutions in India the burden of sustaining them falls on the shoulders of the municipal bodies to an extent where it makes matters worse sometimes. We realised that it was high time that these institutions took matters into their hands. Our aim behind CMS was to spread the word on self-sustainability starting right at our own college.


With Ashoka I am also championing “Your Kids” which is helping parents understand the importance of supporting their kids and imparting values to create an empathetic mindset in them. I’ve spoken to over 1000 parents for this and helped design the Ashoka sessions and modules.

Beyond this, I have co-lead the creation and growth of the Ashoka Young Changemakers (Ashoka’s fellowship program for youth) across 4 countries - USA, Indonesia, Brazil and now India. (I was one of the first AYCers globally and the first one from India)
Overall, apart from building awareness and immediate action for water conservation, I am deeply rooted towards helping other young people realise their potential to be changemakers and helping them in their process of becoming one.
I have mentored several youth at their starting stages, few of which first gained understanding working with Why Waste? to more forward. I was also recently chosen as a mentor at Global Changemakers (global-changemakers.net) in their first mentor cohort of 10 GCMs from across their alumni since 2007. (I became India’s youngest Global Changemaker and the only one for 2018)
Beyond this, I have trained 15 select students from my university as an SME on “Social Entrepreneurship 101” and have built their curriculum completely for the same as a 4 week subject course.
I also revamped this course for a group of govt. schools in Bangalore & Delhi which is being used by orgs like Mantra4Change and Edifice Foundation extensively. It is targeted of students of grade 9-12.

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Ashoka Young Changemaker, Change.org fellow, Global Changemaker

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Earth Company - Youth Award

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YourStory - Youth Award, Young Changemaker of the Year 2018

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Youngest in the 40 under 40 environmentalists of India list -2019

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Keynote Speaker at various events including IKEA Foundation's 10th anniversary celebrations - in front of UN High commissioner and top foundation CEO's

About Garvita X Close

Garvita graduated from National Public School, Koramangala, Bangalore, India in 2017 where she was a diligent student, hardworking all-rounder and one of the most successful captains. She is currently pursuing her B.Tech degree in Electronics and Communications engineering going into her 3rd year.

At the age of 15, Garvita embarked on an entrepreneurial journey founding Why Waste?(www.whywaste.io)-an organisation that provides simple yet effective solutions to change behaviour & mindset of society around water as a resource. Thanks to her efforts, Why Waste? is today operating across the country and has international outreach and impact. She started her journey as a changemaker at the young age of 13 and since then has championed many ideas to solve societal problems. Her key initiative #GlassHalfFull is today inspiring people from several different countries to look at water with a more positive perspective. In addition, Garvita launched a country wide initiative “Lead Young at Schools” to inspire students to be changemakers across different cities in India which has impacted over 2.5 million students from 600+ schools and is sparking global initiative. Her passion, dedication and perseverance won her spots and recognition as a speaker and awardee at several prestigious international platforms. A Social Entrepreneur in her own right, last year, Garvita was named Young Changemaker of the year. Her efforts have been featured by almost every media house in the country and she was also a part of India Today’s young changemakers national documentary. For her initiatives, Garvita has been recognised as an Ashoka Young Changemaker, a Global Changemaker and a Change.org Fellow.

A budding photographer and avid swimmer, Garvita is a professional calligraphy artist and combines the style beautifully with her pen &ink fine arts skills.

Beyond this, at the tender age of 19, Garvita holds a bachelors degree in the Indian classical dance form Kathak from Prayag Sangeet Samiti, topping her batch.
Beyond this, she is also an exceptional contemporary and hip hop dancer, performing and leading teams to victory ever since her school days, as a choreographer and performer.


More on her and her achievements - linkedin.com/in/garvitagulhati

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