ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM FELLOWSHIP - CLASS OF 2022
United Nations Academic Impact and MCN are proud to partner on the Millennium Fellowship. Over 31,000 young leaders on 2,400+ campuses across 140+ nations applied to join the Class of 2022. 200+ campuses worldwide (just 8%) were selected to host the 3,000+ Millennium Fellows.
UNITED NATIONS ACADEMIC IMPACT AND MCN PROUDLY PRESENT JAGANNATH E SHAHI, A MILLENNIUM FELLOW FOR THE CLASS OF 2022.
Government Model Engineering College | Kochi, India | Advancing SDG 5 & UNAI 6
" I love working with a team and making cool and socially relevant projects So being a Millennium Fellow will allow me to befriend people of similar interets and work together with them. It would also allow me to have a better reach on my community and would help me to teach and learn from them. "
Millennium Fellowship Project: Rainbow - LGBTQ+ Community App
Rainbow is a community application, specifically built keeping in mind the needs of the LGBTQ+ community. It is under active development and in alpha stage of development.
Our aim is to build a community so that people understand they are not alone, neither are they "just going through a phase". An inclusive community of people who
understand and support each other is what we strive to build. We would love to extend and scale the project to millions of users worldwide.
As a start we plan to launch it in the state of Kerala, then extend it towards the
country and gradually extend its reach. We also would like to conduct summits,
sessions, aimed at the LGBTQ+ community so that they get the recognition they deserve.
The app will serve as a social media platform (Open to all), A therapy centre for
people understand themselves, support groups, proffessional mental health support
etc.
My project is aimed at the upliftment of the LGTBQ+ community. With this project, we
are trying to provide a safe and inclusive space for the community members. Most
people in the society have a bad approach towards the LGBTQ+ people. They are not
considered to be normal. They are shamed and harassed in public and in the social
medias. So when a person finds out that they are not heterosexual or that they do not belong to the bigenders, they are scared to come out to the society. They lack a safe and inclusive platform where they can express themselves without the fear of being
judged or harassed. Even though the app is aimed for the LGBTQ+ community, anyone who supports them can join.
The project will be initially a web app which people can access using their google or
Apple ID. There will be provisions for finding counsillers and therapists who are
professionally specialized in dealing with LBGTQ+ members. This will help them find
the right mental health support. There will be a space for raising doubts to community and those can be answered by other answered by anyone from the community itself,
upvotes can help others find more legitimate answers.
There will also be features to share to their feeds like videos, life stories, photos,
thoughts , blogs etc. Notifications regarding job opportunities will be updated in the
professional tab. Another feature is help to find accommodation. Atleast in India,LGBTQ+ members finds it really hard to find accommodation facilities as most places as they aren't accepted as normal.
When someone starts an account in the app, they will be provided with 1 free session that might come handy for stepping their path as well as to address their doubts regarding determining their gender and sexual orientation.
Volunteer support will be provided along with counselling sessions. We will also try to get the support of relevant NGOs in this specific domain. Users would be able to share their life experiences and give advice based on it so that it would inspire other people to come out of the closet. THe initial profits gained from our app would be used to produce documentaries and other forms of mainstream media which focuses on busting myths and taboos on this subject and the to uplift the community members.
We will also host awareness campaigns to eradicate the bias and stereotypes against
LGBTQ+ members.
About the Millennium Fellow
Jagannath E Shahi is a young, curious and motivated pre-engineering student at Model Engineering College, Kochi, India. He was born in Kerala, India and has been residing in there to this day. He is currently pursueing bachelor's in computer engineering. He has a keen interest for technology and is also passionate about sharing his knowledge with others within his community. He also has a innate sense of social justice and is ready to strive for ensuring equality within society. He have also won several hackothons and ideathos for developing socially relevant projects such as Blind Guru(A web app which allows blind people to go through their social media) and Rainbow(A web platform where people express themselves irrespective of their gender identity)