A former US President, a fellowship and 30 ambassadors of India-US cooperation in development

Cal Brackin had served in the US Peace Corps in Mongolia for two years before he signed up for the

William J Clinton fellowship

. The 30-year-old from Wyoming armed with a masters degree in international development found himself in

Kanchipuram

at the Kattaikkuttu Sangam - an NGO where children live on campus and engage in academics and theatre art training.

Brackin says the 10 months spent at Kanchipuram has evolved his passion in illustration. " Illustrating is a way I experience , share and capture moments of my life. I carry the tools of my trade in my left pocket on most days. In this experience, I tended to draw scenes drawn in the moment, with the scents of food, honking of horns, crowds of onlookers and expressions of the people imbued into each drawing. My drawing practice dramatically improved as well as took the shape of a tool I can use in community development practices. My next dream is to start using graphic facilitation in development meetings between professional strategists and community members."

On Friday, Brackin and 29 others graduated from the 16th class of AIF Clinton fellows - serving across 13 Indian states with various non-profit organisations in the fields of livelihoods, education, public health and technology or innovation.

"Since 2001, more than 422

AIF Clinton fellowship

alumni have become transformative leaders, representing a collective force and organised network dedicated to change in India and elsewhere,"

America India Foundation

(AIF) country director Nishant Pandey said.

The fellowship provides a select group of young professionals from the USA and India the opportunity to work with social enterprises in India on projects that are replicable, scalable and sustainable. The best practices learnt are shared in this network to advance a larger, organised social change agenda.

AIF's president and CEO Alex Counts said: " We are incredibly proud of the individual journeys and contributions the fellows make very year during their 10 months of service in India. They are an inspirational testament to possibilities that arise from building bridges between United States and India."

Speaking at the event in New Delhi, Mark A White, USAID's India Mission director said: "India is considered a trendsetter in developing nations. It is a peer-to-peer relationship, we are partners in projects here and not just donors. In discussions in Washington, India is cited as an example because of innovations and high technical capacity."

India-US ties have significantly grown in recent years. Bilateral trade stands at more that $114 billion and there is unprecedented people to people exchanges. An example of that is that over 160,000 Indian students went last year to study in America.

In his speech to the American Congress last year, PM Modi had described India and the United States as 'natural allies'. This mood was also seen in his recently concluded visit to Washington, the first after President Trump assumed office.


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