Spanning borders, Melbourne-based Aruna Venkatachalam has worked across the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India in various fields, wielding the force of social entrepreneurship to effect real change.
Over Zoom from Shillong in remote northeast India, where she is currently working to lay the grounds for a path breaking initiative, Venkatachalam seeks to ensure the narrative continues to thrive.
Earlier this month, Young Change Agents, an Australian award-winning social enterprise, of which Venkatachalam is the General Manager, Partnerships and International, signed a landmark agreement with AVENUES Meghalaya to create a world-first partnership between India and Australia around entrepreneurial education that focusses specifically on First Nations youth.
Basking in Shillong’s cool air, Venkatachalam says, “I am laying the groundwork on this trip so that we can build a two-year and beyond partnership, where we create a knowledge exchange between First Nations young people across Australia and Meghalaya. This provides an opportunity to not only share and showcase First Nations cultures and knowledges, but also to spark entrepreneurial mindsets across both countries in ways that celebrate the excellence that already exists.”
It is an exciting project for Venkatachalam whose professional journey has been defined by her commitment to creating positive change through social entrepreneurship and community-led empowerment.
Navigating through countries can be tough, but Venkatachalam says she has a philosophy of “seeking to understand before being understood” that guides her work across various sectors.
Venkatachalam began her career in the corporate sector, specialising in leadership development within large multinational organisations such as Unilever and Nestle. “This experience provided me with invaluable insights into working with substantial resources. Moreover, it crystallised my belief that businesses have a responsibility to contribute to societal good. My purpose within this environment became clear: to explore avenues for aligning corporate endeavours with positive social impact,” she shares.
Transitioning to the nonprofit sector after a stint in the corporate world provided her with many more meaningful opportunities. Working in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India, she witnessed firsthand the power and potential of social entrepreneurship in empowering communities to drive change from within.
Venkatachalam also served as a representative of the Australian Government with a placement at The Christian Foundation for Persons With Disability in the Philippines. In this role, she supported the organisation to make the transformative changes they identified were important.
“I was supporting their staff and their board to shift to a community-based model for supporting and identifying people with disabilities. I also helped the organisation develop a programmatic approach to how they could make the best use of international support and local resources to build up their organisation. I assisted them in developing a fundraising strategy and worked with their board on ways to ensure sustainability as an organisation.”
The success of this work would lead to it expanding to a few other organisations across Bacolod City in the Philippines.
A pivotal moment in Venkatachalam’s career came during her tenure with Save the Children in Bangladesh, where she collaborated with youth volunteers from under-represented communities, who were advocating for policy changes through initiatives such as the Child Parliament.
This experience highlighted the importance of young people leading responses to community challenges and exercising self-determination to effect the changes that were important to them. Through a number of life skills programs she was supporting in Bangladesh, Venkatachalam also saw first-hand the power of microenterprise, particularly when women and refugees are at the helm.
Subsequently, her role in humanitarian emergency response with RedR Australia deepened her understanding of the evolving narrative within the humanitarian sector, that increasingly emphasises community resilience and locally led responses as key pillars of effective disaster management.
Following her time in humanitarian response, Venkatachalam shifted to India, where she served as the Country Manager for Engineers Without Borders Australia for several years. Interestingly, during her tenure in India, she also co-founded a startup named Sensors Without Borders in 2014.
Collaborating closely with her co-founder, Sriram Reddy, a core member of Engineers Without Borders Chennai, they worked on developing technology and community outreach programs focused on pollution reduction. Together, they worked to educate individuals about using this software to advocate environmental changes that would reduce pollution levels in the areas they lived in.
Upon returning to Australia, Venkatachalam assumed leadership and strategy roles with Engineers Without Borders Australia. Shortly after, she joined Young Change Agents upon reconnecting with Margaret O’Brien, its Co-founder and CEO, with whom she had travelled in the past.
Venkatachalam says she was inspired by the potential of young people who might not have easily accessible ways to show their skills and strengths. Young Change Agents is an award-winning social enterprise that has impacted 135 000+ youth across Australia over eight years. The organisation helps youth of all backgrounds to see problems as opportunities, with social entrepreneurship as the vehicle, she informs.
In her current role as General Manager, Partnerships and International, Venkatachalam and the team continues to empower youth to become change agents, measuring success not only by tangible learning outcomes but also by the transformative shift in entrepreneurial mindsets, skillsets and toolsets among community members over time.
“These shifts in mindset, skillset and toolset reflect a ‘click moment’ in a young person—or an adult who supports them—where they realise they can make a meaningful difference. This empowers individuals to act as change agents, where they see they are capable of leading that change themselves,” she says.
Part of her ethos is that ‘it takes an ecosystem’ to effect real change. Together with First Nations leaders, Venkatachalam co-led Young Change Agents’ “Lighting the Spark” initiative which collectively built a self-determined, culturally proud entrepreneurship program led by First Nations communities across Australia.
This initiative now operates across five states and territories and has reached 1000+ youth and adults. This, along with AVENUES’ 20 years of impact in Meghalaya, is the basis upon which the knowledge exchange between Young Change Agents and AVENUES Meghalaya is being built.
As she navigates the dynamic landscape of social entrepreneurship across Australia and beyond, Venkatachalam remains steadfast in her belief that inclusive and community-driven approaches are instrumental in building a more equitable and sustainable future.
Born in Venezuela and raised by migrant parents from India, Venkatachalam actively advocates underrepresented voices within the Australian startup and social impact ecosystems, particularly women of colour and individuals with intersecting identities.
“My parents gave me wonderful opportunities. What has become clear to me is that it’s also my responsibility to use my privilege and education to try and strengthen the communities of which I am a part.”
Connect with Aruna: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arunavenkatachalam/
More about Young Change Agents and the Lighting the Spark First Nations entrepreneurship initiative: https://youngchangeagents.com/research
More about AVENUES Meghalaya: https://www.groupavenues.com/
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Aruna Venkatachalam, a Melbourne-based social entrepreneur, shapes change across borders. Currently pioneering an India-Australia partnership empowering First Nations youth, she champions inclusive entrepreneurship. 🌍💼🌱💡 #TheIndianSun @indira_laisramhttps://t.co/lZmttOQm59
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