Saraswathi Sankaran
Founder and Vice-Chairperson, Deepam Educational Society for Health
India
AWARDS / RECOGNITION 51 most impactful Social Innovators (Global Listing)”, 2019 NGO Excellence Award–“Best NGO/Trust Award-India”, 2018 SKOCH Challenger Award for Social Inclusion, 2017 Polestar Awards, The Polestar Foundation, 2017 ALL Grassroots Women of the Decade Achievers Award, 2014 The Peaks Achievers Award by National Integrity Cultural Academy, 2009
Certificate of Honour by Government of Hospital of Thoracic Medicine, 2008 Government of India‟s nomination as a Member of the National AIDS Council and also as a Member of the Working Group for Adolescents, Children, Youth and Gender, 2005 “Rajiv Gandhi Rashtriya Ekta Award” from National Awareness Forum, 2004 Nehru Yuva Kendra State Award for DESH for Youth Programs, 2003 State Award “Best Social worker in the field of HIV/AIDS for the year 2003 EXPERIENCE Initiated Prevention work in HIV/AIDS in India even before the first case of HIV was diagnosed in the country
Worked since 1985 advocating Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) and „no risk‟ lifestyle to prevent HIV/AIDS Worked for two decades as a counselor in areas of “„Level of Living‟, „Welfare‟, „Substance Abuse‟ & HIV/AIDS