“If every young person gives even one or two hours a week to society, this country can progress faster than we imagine. I believed that early in life and didn’t want to wait for someone else to prove it. The thought began in my childhood and became real during my intermediate days, when I watched a program about children battling cancer. It stayed with me. At home, my aunt asked me, ‘What can we do for them?’. I didn’t have an answer then, but I knew I had to find one.
In my first year of Engineering, I started volunteering. By my second year, I wanted to do more than just be part of something, so I started an initiative in my college. We began with a simple idea: placing donation boxes in college canteens for students’ small change. By the end of the month, we reached nearly 2 lakhs. We didn’t wait for requests; we went straight to hospitals like Basavatarakam and Gandhi, identified patients, and paid their bills directly. One moment has stayed with me: a four-year-old girl couldn’t be discharged because her family lacked ₹22,000. Her mother had been crying for hours. We simply paid the amount and left. That day, I understood what it means to act when it matters.
From one college, the work grew into multiple chapters across Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, with over 3,400 volunteers at one point. We conducted health camps, supported cancer treatments, and distributed food by collecting surplus from canteens and nearby restaurants, serving it in places like MGBS and surrounding areas.
Alongside this, I built a distinguished and wide-ranging career in aviation. As an Avionics Engineer, I spent years mastering the field, maintaining aircraft systems and ensuring safety standards for various domestic and international airlines. My expertise involved designing software for aeroplanes. My day would start at 3:30 in the morning to balance these rigorous professional demands with my social work. During my engineering, I spent two and a half years in the United States through a student exchange program. Life there was comfortable, but it didn’t feel like mine. Even from there, I raised funds and sent them back to support the work here. I returned because I knew where I belonged.
Eventually, I transitioned from my long-standing professional career to focus entirely on social work. Today, I serve as the General Secretary of the Telangana Development Forum, an organization that started in 1999 and is spread in all countries across the world. I am the youngest one who became General Secretary from its inception. I also serve as the president of the Association of Social Workers, which connects around 1,600 NGOs and nearly 40,000 social work students across India. To sustain the work, I built ventures across software, construction, events, and other sectors, where every profit goes back into social initiatives. I personally contribute around 85 percent of my earnings.
One initiative close to me is Mana Panta Mana Vanta. We have connected with 86 villages across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha. We work with farmers practicing organic farming and help revive native seeds, having preserved over 64 varieties of rice along with millets. At a larger level, we focus on CSR through a structured CSR Summit. After the CSR mandate in India, we observed that a significant portion of funds remained unused every year. We wanted to bridge that gap.
We designed a model where we take corporates directly to districts instead of keeping discussions in boardrooms. On the first day, called Sankalp Yatra, corporate representatives go to the ground to see real conditions and understand where support is needed. On the second day, we conduct the CSR Summit where NGOs, government bodies, and stakeholders come together. In Srikakulam alone, we facilitated commitments worth ₹56 crores. This approach is now expanding into tribal areas in 12 states.
The most challenging phase came during COVID. We started 56 COVID care centers, including ICU facilities exclusively for police personnel across Telangana. At one point, we were serving 20,000 to 30,000 meals daily and helping with cremations when families couldn’t be present.
I’ve been honored with 16 Governor medals and several recognitions for this work. For me, money is just a need, never the purpose. If every young person gives even a little time to society, progress will not remain an idea; it will become a reality. And I chose to be part of it.”
- Vinil Reddy Adudodla