Founder of Teach for Change, selected as a young leader by Obama Foundation to attend the town hall with President Obama

Hyderabad, December 2, 2017: Honour to a City NGO Chaitanya MRSK, Founder and CEO of Hyderabad based NGO Teach For Change, invited to attend the Town Hall with President Barack Obama in New Delhi. The young founder of the NGO attended the meet yesterday in New Delhi.

The Town Hall was organised by Obama Foundation and brought together young Indian leaders from across the country for a conversation about what it means to be an active citizen and how the Obama Foundation can help support emerging leaders in this work. This year President Obama has hosted events with young people in Germany, Indonesia and Brazil, now it was held in India

This was the fourth international event President Obama has hosted with young leaders with the Obama Foundation. He previously held events this year in Berlin, Germany; Jakarta, Indonesia; and São Paulo, Brazil. Additionally, the Foundation’s international team has traveled to South America, Africa, Europe, and Asia to meet with young leaders and stakeholders to discuss how the Foundation’s programs can best support local emerging leaders. Recently, the Obama Foundation hosted an inaugural Summit in Chicago that brought together young leaders to discuss how they can tackle the issues facing their communities. This Summit included a large contingent of international young leaders from around the world.

Teach For Change is an NGO formed in 2014 to address the educational inequity in India and provide quality education to all children .

Chaitanya is a young activist from Hyderabad, India working towards quality education for students from low income communities. He is the Founder and CEO of Teach For Change Trust. He won the prestigious Global Young Leader Award given out by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council in the US and the
Youth Excellence Award for Community Service at the Youth Assembly in the United Nations, New York in 2007. He was a speaker at the 30th year celebrations of the Right Livelihood Award Youth Conference in Bonn, Germany in 2010.

Sharing his experience Chaitanya MRSK said “I am honoured to be selected as a young leader by Obama Foundation to attend the town hall with President Obama”. The purpose of this town hall was to have a conversation about what it means to be an active citizen and making an impact?—?and how the Obama Foundation can support emerging leaders in this effort. During the town hall, President Obama spoke about how important it is that each one of us get engaged to shape a better future. He also talked about how he is personally inspired by meeting with the young leaders that are taking their own crack at changing the world.

I was most interested in hearing what President Obama had to say about social change. He said "Change is a slow process. It took 20 years to see the effects of ending racial segregation in the US after a Supreme Court verdict. We have to accept that change is hard. So divide your problems into bite-sized pieces and make sure you are listening to the people you want to help.”