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Our Fellows
Every day around the world, Leaders' Quest Foundation fellows are addressing global issues through community projects. More than 200 fellows are at work in disadvantaged communities making a positive impact on the lives of more than 322,000 people across four continents.
SHARDA ARONDEKAR, Mumbai, India Individual Fellow 2008, ActionAId India
Sharda is uniting Mumbai's waste pickers to secure better working conditions and financial security.
A typical waste picker sifts through rubbish from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. for less than 70 pence a day. The waste pickers of Mumbai have no water, no toilets...and no choice. These vulnerable women and girls are forced by poverty to earn their livelihoods by scavenging.
With help from Sharda, local waste pickers have united to improve their working conditions, their finances and their health – and ultimately the welfare of their families and communities.
Some 200 waste pickers created 16 self-help groups under Sharda’s leadership. They have secured their rights to on-the-job accident insurance and worksite improvements including shelter, drinking water and toilets. Together they have established an employment cooperative allowing them to negotiate better working conditions and earn more by cutting out the “middle man”.
Pooling their resources, the waste pickers have created a credit cooperative providing low-interest loans which allow them to maximise small business opportunities or combat crises– health and domestic.
PAN QING, GuangxiZhuang Autonomous Region, China Fellow 2008, Centre for Leadership, China
 Pan Qing is introducing ecotourism to rural villages to generate livelihoods.
Pan Qing 23, is combining her interests in protecting the environment and helping poor people in a project to introduce ecotourism to rural villages in her home district of GuangxiZhuang Autonomous Region.
"Ecotourism can help the villagers to have more revenue than simply planting or growing wheat or rice," says Pan Qing.
“I will plan the project, carry it out and make evaluations of it, so I think I can learn much from this programme,” she says. “I think my experience here will be very important for me to carry out either a job in the development area or further studies.”
ANIL JADHAV, Mumbia, India Fellow 2009, CORO; Mentor 2009, Centre for Leadership, India 
Anil is rebalancing the scales of justice in the slums of Mumbai.
Anil Jadhav is working to improve the criminal justice system for Mumbai's most disadvantaged citizens as part of his LQF fellowship. A project coordinator at LQF’s partner organisation CORO, Anil is producing publications for Mumbai’s slum-dwellers introducing them to their legal rights.
A fellow since 2007, Anil spent the last year gathering information and interviewing police, judges, prosecutors, criminals and human rights commissioners. He is using his experience to help other fellows benefit from India’s new Centre for Leadership (CfL) . As a CfL mentor, he shares his leadership skills and provides guidance to emerging grassroots leaders.
Anil believes that if people understand police procedures, they try to seek justice. So far his work has resulted in the strengthening of police-citizen forums and increased advocacy on domestic violence and women’s rights.
DJALMA DOS SANTOS, São Paulo, Brazil Individual Fellow 2009, Children at Risk Foundation
Djalma runs a centre for young people at risk from drugs, violence and abuse.
 Djalma dos Santos is putting his leadership skills to the ultimate test. Turning his own disadvantage upside-down, Djalma has opened a community centre for young people faced with the same grinding deprivation he is conquering – the poverty that pervades Brazilian shanty towns.
He runs his own centre in one of São Paulo’s most deprived and violent communities to protect young people from drugs, violence and abuse. Part of the Hummingbird Cultural Network, Djalma’s centre is one of many now reaching more than 700 vulnerable young people in a programme supported by the Children at Risk Foundation (CARF).
“Djalma represents not only the team of youngsters who follow him, but the future of a more equal society in Brazil.” Gregory Smith, CARF director
ZHANG FAN, Zhang Bei, Hebei Province, China Fellow 2009, Centre for Leadership, China
Zhang Fan is helping rural women conquer poverty with a micro-enterprise project showcasing their traditional skills.
Handmade cushion covers, rugs and purses are creating a path out of poverty for disadvantaged women and their families in Hebei Province, China. More people live in poverty in Hebei than any other province in Eastern China. Here communities contend with extreme weather, the constant threat of an earthquake, and blatant deprivation.
LQF fellow Zhang Fan is uniting local women to conquer disadvantage by generating livelihoods through the Colourful Cloth Project. Employing traditional skills, rural women at the local Women’s Learning Centre are transforming their vibrant textiles into practical products attractive to national markets.
“This project allows the women to earn money by producing craftworks in their own home so they can look after their families at the same time,” says Zhang Fan.
LUCIOUS MUSHWANA, Soweto, South Africa Individual Fellow 2009, Khulisa
Lucious provides drug, crime and HIV/AIDS prevention programmes to thousands of vulnerable young people.
 Reformed convict, thief and drug addict Lucious Mushwana, 28, is developing drug, crime and HIV/AIDS prevention projects in Soweto, South Africa, with help from a Leaders’ Quest Foundation fellowship.
Less than two years since his early release from prison, Lucious founded and directs a community development organisation aimed at reaching thousands of young people at risk of drugs and crime that springs from boredom, unemployment and poverty. He works with two other ex-offenders to offer dance, poetry, music and drama classes for vulnerable young people. He also offers HIV/AIDS information, life skills and motivational talks to schools and churches.
Growing up in a deprived community and an unstable home, Lucious plunged into the world of drugs and crime by the age of 9. At 20, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for armed robbery. There he trained as a Peer Drug and HIV Education counsellor through Khulisa, an NGO providing education, training and personal development in communities, schools and prisons. Lucious and other offenders reached over 2,000 prisoners and 5,000 learners through the peer education programme.
“I have demonstrated through my own life story that the circle of crime can be broken and that through adversity, great dreams can be achieved,” says Lucious.
VAISHALI, Mumbai, India Fellow 2009, Center for Leadership, India
Vaishali is confronting the violence suffered by women.
Tackling violence against women in the slums of Mumbai is the focus of Vaishali’s fellowship at the Centre for Leadership in India. Through her project, she aims to raise awareness, provide resources and foster self-help groups for abused women.
“Whenever violence happens to women, which may be in the middle of the night, they can’t go to the police station, so a women’s self-help group is the best place to get support,” says Vaishali.
She plans to publish a booklet listing resources available to women in her community, as well as helping them to understand their rights under the domestic violence act.
TU BIN, Chong Li, China Fellow 2008, ActionAId China; Mentor 2009, Centre for Leadership, China
Tu Bin is helping emerging grassroots leaders maximise their learning at China's Centre for Leadership.
Tu Bin 23, is sharing her newly-honed leadership skills with fellows at LQF’s new Centre for Leadership in China. Completing her own LQF fellowship in Chongli, China recently, Tu Bin is helping emerging grassroots leaders like herself to get the most out of their learning at the centre where she is now a mentor.
Tu Bin used her own fellowship to research a new trend in China which sees the closure of village schools and rural children being sent to boarding schools. She studied the impact on children and their villages. Tu Bin developed new policies for boarding schools giving students access to psychological support. She also found ways to rebuild communication between parents and children. She hopes that other organisations or the government will support similar projects.
Leaders' Quest Foundation's leadership development work takes place primarily through our Centres for Leadership, 'virtual' training institutions where fellows participate in an intensive year-long programme culminating in community projects they design and implement themselves with help from a mentor. LQF also sponsors individual fellows in areas or communities not engaged at the level of Centres for Leadership.
If you would like to know more about our Fellows and Centres for Leadership, contact us on: +44.208.948.5220 or email Jessie.Finch@Leadersquest.org |
