A Storytelling Platform with a Sustainable Heart

We are on a mission to record, preserve, and share humanity’s stories and use the medium of storytelling to support the environment

About Evergreen Story

At 15, during stay-at-home pandemic days, teenage twin sisters, Anya, and Anvi Fenn, with a little help from their father, from their home in New Jersey, co-founded Evergreen Story, a free storytelling platform with a sustainable heart. We are on a mission to record, preserve, and share humanity's stories and use the medium of storytelling to support the environment. We make every story count by planting a fruit tree with a needy farmer. We publish thousands of oral stories from across India and the diaspora, and we hope to pay tribute to our common human spirit of perseverance and progress. As the trees connected to memories take root, grow and bear fruit in the wiser ways of nature, we at Evergreen Story hope to make every memory count. Evergreen Story's founders sponsor tree saplings from their own savings. To date, they have sponsored 50,000 trees, of which 12,000 have been planted in 2021.

Our Mission

Evergreen Story is built on a dedicated commitment to the collecting, sharing, and preserving of people’s stories where respect and dignity are paramount.

One Memory

One Story

One Tree

Our Core Principles

Evergreen Story is built on a dedicated commitment to the collecting, sharing, and preserving of people’s stories where respect and dignity are paramount.

1. THE INTERVIEW SESSION IS AT THE HEART OF EVERGREEN STORY. WE TREAT PARTICIPANTS WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT, CARE, AND DIGNITY.

2. EVERGREEN STORY MAINTAINS A RELENTLESS FOCUS ON SERVING A WIDE DIVERSITY OF PARTICIPANTS, CULTURAL, LINGUISTIC, AND RELIGIOUS.

3. EVERGREEN STORY IS A PUBLIC SERVICE..

Team

Anvi Fenn (She/Her)

Co-Founder and Executive Producer

Anvi Fenn is a young change-maker who is already making an impact with sustainable solutions for the more vulnerable. Though she adopts more of a solutions-based approach than activism, she can be heard. She co-founded a nonprofit that integrates storytelling and climate action called ‘Evergreen Story.’ Evergreen Story embarked on a direct, ground climate impact program involving her peers (high school students) from India. The “Future Climate Leaders” program, in collaboration with TERI, is the first of its kind mentorship program.

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Anya Fenn (She/Her)

Co-Founder and Executive Producer

Anya Fenn is an avid gender right and climate justice activist deeply connected to her South Asian roots. She is also an accomplished musician and pit orchestra leader, having written and composed original, studio-recorded music, playing most of the instruments herself. She believes that while music should be enjoyed simply for its own sake, it also has the power to influence human psychology to solve the world’s big problems like climate change. Her sister Anvi and Anya co-developed the Future Climate Leaders Program (www.futureclimateleaders.org,) a leadership mentoring program for high school students for climate action in India. She also enjoys learning about plant-food chemistry and smart proteins. She is currently a Senior at Hunterdon Central Regional High School, New Jersey, and an active marching band and pit orchestra member. In the last few years, she has managed two pit orchestras for volunteer theater companies in New Jersey. Anya is also captain of her school's speech and debate team and has participated in numerous tournaments. Passionate about music, Anya is a part of the music scene at school, in her community, and in a band named “20ish Stitches”. She plays bass, piano, drums, and guitar. She volunteers with Desi Rainbow, an ally and support group working with South Asian LGBTQ+ families in America. She manages the implementation of The Pad Project Ambassador program as Special Programs Coordinator for the Asian Student Alliance Club in her high school.

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Freny Daruwalla

Producer

Her heart set on pop-culture, Freny believes oral stories have a higher power as they give voice to the voiceless. She is fascinated by the human spirit and with her own Parsi-Irani culture and is immensely grateful for the opportunity to capture stories from a mosaic of personalities from all walks of life from the Parsi-Irani Community in India. Parsis are known for their pioneering spirit, courage, quirkiness, and sense of humor. Above all, they are known for their generosity and philanthropy. Freny is a happy go lucky 25 year old literature graduate from Pune, India. .

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Kalki Subramaniam

Producer

Kalki is an award winning transgender rights activist, visual and spoken artist, actor and founder of Sahodari Foundation, an organization that empowers the under privileged transgender communities in India.

Kalki has been a pioneer in India in innovatively using art, poetry, audio and moving images for transgender rights activism and speak out loud and open about gender justice and equal opportunities for transgender persons.

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Rajesh Kapoor

Producer

Armed with a Master’s degree in Design Engineering, Rajesh has to his credit a career spanning two decades: initially as a teacher and later as a corporate warrior. As a Technocrat, he found satisfaction in constantly striving to better the quality of human Lives. Nearing his fifties, life opened up a new path for Rajesh which took him to his childhood passion: ‘Love for cinema’. Rajesh trained rigorously to be a professional photographer and during the Covid Lockdowns enrolled as a student with ‘Whistling Woods International’, a prestigious film school to hone his skills as an filmmaker and story- teller. He has a natural instinct to discover an interesting story in every incident or a visual however Mundane it may seem .

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Mehar Gujral

Producer

Mehar Gujral is the Co-Founder and Executive Producer of Evergreen Story. She is on a mission to tell compelling stories creatively with nuance and empathy. It’s not all about the medium or the subject, it’s about the brilliant point where they intersect. Previously, she has worked in the media and nonprofit space in New York, Johannesburg, Montreal, and Mumbai, and earned a degree in International Development from McGill University. Mehar lives between Mumbai and Montreal. .

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Uday Shankar

Producer

Uday, alumnus of St Paul's High School Camp Belgaum, a 160-year-old iconic all-boys Jesuit school in Belgaum. He is an Indian Navy Veteran and marine engineer who served on various ships and submarines. Post his retirement from the Navy, he worked as campus administrator in residential schools and the sports academies. He enjoys writing and catching stories and sees himself as a historian for his Alma Mater connecting with the oldest surviving students from his school from around the world and listening and telling their Tales of Yore. .

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Radhika Pawa

Producer

Radhika is a biotechnologist by training and heads the sales and marketing efforts for a healthcare start-up that introduced at-home wellness tests in India. She has a keen interest in politics, international relations and history and loves to travel and learn about different cultures by meeting people and through food. Raised in a joint family, she grew up listening to her grandparents talk about their life and times in Pakistan, Thailand and India, and this helped foster her love of story-telling. She is passionate about EGS as she sees it as a platform for children and grandchildren like her to preserve and pass on the stories of the older generations, gems that might have been lost otherwise. .

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Sanjay Bhosale

Producer and Consulting Editor

Sanjay is a media and communications professional based in Canberra, Australia. Sanjay hails from Belgaum, India and is an alumnus of St Paul’s High School. He has worked as a senior journalist for leading newspapers in Australia, India and Papua New Guinea. He currently works as a communications specialist with the Australian government. Sanjay holds a Master of International Affairs from the Australian National University, a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Institute of Business and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Southern Cross University. He is passionate about people and finding out what makes them tick. .

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Nicole John

Producer

Nicole John is an avid multitasker who balances her life, from being an army kid who has studied in more than 14 schools, to pursuing a degree in Sociology Honors from the very prestigious Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University, and also working for several NGOs around Delhi.Her hobbies include drawing, singing, and playing a few instruments. She finds her happiness in helping the underprivileged and making their voices heard. ..

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Ruhi Sait

Producer

Ruhi is a first-year law student at Symbiosis Law School Pune. Ruhi is also an athlete and a writer. In her free time, she likes to draw, cook, and read. The reason, she likes working with evergreen stories is because, the next best thing after being witty yourself is being able to quote another's wit.

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Laura Sherwood

Producer

Laura Sherwood is the founder of the Transformative Arts Project. A non-Profit that utilizes Art and Storytelling to Empower Underrepresented Communities. Laura has a BA in Communications and Gender Studies and an MA in Human and Organizational Development. Currently, she's a Ph.D. candidate at Fielding Graduate University. Her research includes an in-depth look at Photovoice, Artivism, and Arts-Based Research. With a background in photography, she incorporates documentary elements into her research using both video and photography from her ethnographic study of two Female Activists using Art to Mobilize Social Change in India. She has spent most of her life in Hawaii working to empower women and youth.

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Partners

Say Trees

SayTrees is a professionally run group of ordinary people determined to protect the environment by sensitising others towards the importance of environment conservation. SayTrees spearheads a variety of initiatives including research, education, sensitisation and advocacy around the importance of environmental preservation and tree plantation.

Today, the group organizes tree plantations and water conservation projects across several Indian cities. They pro-actively engage in identifying potential areas for plantation, keeping in mind the biodiversity and ecological milieu of the local area. SayTrees also tries to ensure that the local communities reap multifold benefits; besides restoring the green cover, the trees also provide them with fruits, flowers, leaves etc commonly used in the community life.

TERI

TERI (The Energy and Resource Institute) is an independent, multi-dimensional organization, with capabilities in research, policy, consultancy, and implementation. TERI’s team are innovators and agents of change in the energy, environment, climate change and sustainability space, having pioneered conversations and action in these areas for over four decades. TERI advocates resource efficiency, biodiversity, and waste management as the keys to smart, sustainable, and inclusive development Headquartered in New Delhi, TERI have regional centers and campuses in Gurugram, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Mumbai, Panaji, and Nainital. TERI’s 1,000-plus team of scientists,

Sociologists, economists, and engineers deliver insightful, high-quality action-oriented research and transformative solutions supported by state- of-the-art infrastructure.

Oral History Association of India

The Oral History Association of India (OHAI) is a professional organization founded in 2013 with a membership that is committed to the value of oral history. OHAI was established with the aim of promoting the creation, collection, digitization, archiving and dissemination of oral history in India and through its annual conferences and occasional workshops provides a platform through which oral historians could share methodologies, technologies and work practices.

As the only association of its kind in India, OHAI is committed to ethical practices of collecting life stories, and utilizing oral history practice as a field and methodology. Members of OHAI have worked in diverse areas and are committed to the intrinsic value of life stories to enable us to understand the past as well as the present.

Our Advocacies

Menstrupedia

Led by many hardworking and passionate people, Menstrupedia is a helpful guide to periods. Its goal is to help girls and women stay healthy and safe during their periods as well as teaching informative content through the media. It is the start to a big step of ending misunderstanding and the stigma surrounding menstruation..

Sahodari Foundation

Founded by transgender rights activist, artist, and writer Kalki Subramaniam, Sahodari Foundation is a organization founded in India which helps support and voice the transgender and gender non binary community in India. .

Project Sambandh

:Project SAMBANDH a 1000 day project to connect with the Next of Kin of the Indian Army Physical Casualties ( Personnel who die due to non operational circumstances while in service) and assist in their welfare delivery.

Desi Rainbow

Desi Rainbow Parents and Allies is a a community for South Asian families and friends of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning individuals to learn about LGBTQ+ issues, and learning how to support each other. The goal of this organization is to help promote acceptance among families while celebrating their LGBTQ+ friends and family..

Sambhali Trust Foundation

Sambhali Trust Foundation is a non profit organization located in Jodhpur, India. Their main goal is to focus on the empowerment of women and girls in Rajasthan through education, self help groups, scholarship programs, and more.

Karunalaya

Karunalaya Social Service Society is a non-profit organization working for the protection of street and working children in Chennai City. It focuses on the care, protection and rehabilitation of street youth, as well as, the vulnerable children and women working in the fishing industry.

Jam-e-Jameshed

Established in 1832, Jam-e-Jamshed is Asia’s second oldest newspaper and is the premier publication of the Parsi community – not just in India but worldwide. The reach and readership of the paper within the Parsi community is unmatched. Sundays, in Parsi homes, are incomplete without Dhansak and Jam-e-Jamshed. Evergreen Story has an exclusive relationship with the weekly publication to copromote one Parsi audio story in the newspaper.

Amulya Boondh

Amulya Boondh once known as “save water save life” is a non profit organization that brings awareness to water scarcity. It encourages sustainable and healthy living to help achieve the goal of saving our planet.

Pad Project

The combination of period poverty, stigmatization, and inadequate reproductive and sexual health education has major consequences on menstruators’ well-being. The Pad Project’s mission is to create and cultivate local and global partnerships to end period stigma and empower all menstruators worldwide.

We are always on the lookout for more volunteers to join the team. The project especially requires regional language translators, audio editors and designers.

To enquire about an available position, please email us [email protected] with your CV/portfolio and a short cover letter.

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