AID Jeevansaathi Dr.Balaji Sampath and AID-Chennai are the recipients of the MIT Global Indus Technovators Award for their innovations in the applications of technology at the grassroots level.

In their acceptance speech, read out by AID Boston volunteers at the award ceremony, they wrote, “Very large structural changes are often built on such small but effective changes. […] We start from the perspective that the poor are poor because they have been cheated and not provided equal opportunities. All our programs therefore focused on issues that look at ensuring equality and building up confidence in the poor. […] Sometimes constructive programs that help the poor organize better can make a difference, but at other times it becomes important to organize the poor to struggle and to stop them from losing the rights they already have.” For more details, and a full-text version of this speech click here . On January 28, The Hindu carried a story about the award, profiling AID Chennai and its work.

Balaji Sampath and AID Chennai volunteers