Thoughts on YOUWECAN

With the launch of his YOUWECAN Foundation, Yuvraj Singh stood up and embraced what we think of as an ‘Innovaid’ style of philanthropy.  His initiative aims to combat cancer in India by spreading awareness about the disease itself, advantages of early detection and fighting the stigma attached to it.

This comes as a refreshing change from the earlier version of the Foundation which, no matter how well intended, seemingly lacked purpose and any clear programs.

At the core of Innovaid’s approach to celebrity philanthropy is ensuring that the work of the clients foundation is firmly built around a core passion of the client – something synonymous with who they are and what they stand for in life.

Yuvraj has found his mission for philanthropy through his own personal battle with this disease, which kills up to 80% of sufferers in India due to a lack of early detection, making India home to one of the highest mortality rates for cancer sufferers in the world.

“Having experienced cancer personally, I can totally empathize with the pain and difficulties faced by a cancer patient and thus we have launched ‘YouWeCan’, I feel extremely passionate and motivated about using this platform to appeal to everyone, to come forward for early detection, as I have myself benefited from it and it is key to saving your life.” Yuvraj said, at the time.

Hats off to Yuvraj for focusing his philanthropy, making a stand and leveraging his almighty sphere of influence, here in India, to make a difference on this crucial social issue.

Who is Innovaid?

Innovaid was conceptualized by Emily Harrison, a young Australian woman who wanted to revolutionize the way that celebrities, HNWI’s, Companies and international Foundations ‘made a difference’ in India.

Emily grew up on a cattle station in rural New South Wales and spent 10 years working in grassroots community development in Outback Australia, specializing in rural and remote communities. Living and working in tiny communities (population 100 – 4000) all her life, she worked in Local and State Government, helping these small communities get better access to services that their small populations could not sustain (health, education, sport & recreation, arts, disability, aged care).

She first came to India in 2007, leading a team of volunteers doing community development work in a village on the outskirts of Ooty, Tamil Nadu. Living with a local family and working on a variety of projects at the local school, with village youth and women, she soon fell in love with India and decided to make it her home.

It was during this time that the concept of Innovaid first took shape. Emily had met a celebrity talent manager in Sydney prior to her move to Ooty, who had outlined the need of some of his high profile TV and music stars, to have guidance and advice in undertaking their philanthropy in developing countries.

Encouraged and supported by a young entrepreneur from Coimbatore, Emily made the commitment to move to Mumbai and start her own business. With no business experience and having never lived in a city before in her life, Innovaid was developed in a very organic way – putting one foot in front of the other.

Emily Harrison of Innovaid Advisory Services

With the generosity and support of many Mumbaiker’s, Innovaid Advisory Services Pvt Ltd was registered in May 2009 as a private limited company to help celebrities and high net worth individuals make a significant impact with their philanthropy and to provide people with a simple and trustworthy mechanism to invest in social projects. In these early days, high profile clients such as the Rajasthan Royals and The Steve Waugh Foundation, gave Emily the faith that the service was indeed needed and the business evolved to present a range of products and services to meet their needs in this area.

With corporate social responsibility emerging as a sophisticated tool to help companies become more sustainable, Innovaid extended its reach into this area to support companies in managing their foundations and devising and implementing holistic CSR strategy, and today is sought after by many medium size enterprises in helping them to set up Foundations and strategise their CSR.

Innovaid continues to grow and aims to deliver a holistic range of services in this sphere to make a marked difference to those affected by social issues in India.