Changemaking is for everyone: Upasana’s changemaker journey

This story was written by Upasana and edited for length and clarity. 

I am Upasana R from Chennai. I am an avid reader and I love music. One might wonder how someone like me could bring a significant change in society. But my school, HLC International, believed in my abilities and forgot about my disabilities. Yes, I am like any other young adult, although wheel-chair bound and with Cerebral Palsy. In my approach in life, I subscribe to Dr. Seuss’s iconic line, “A person is a person no matter how small.” I hope for a world where every child is part of an inclusive environment; to explore their unique potential.

HLC is a Changemaker school recognized by Ashoka, and one of the school’s initiatives is Karthavyam: a diploma in public problem-solving. As part of this initiative, I visited an under-resourced school in a different part of town. There, I interviewed a few children, many of whom said they wanted to become police officers, computer engineers, teachers, and so on. I noticed that they were not fortunate enough to have the same kind of education and resources as I did. This made me think. I am a student of an institution that believes that everybody has to be a changemaker. So, in keeping with that motto, I decided to explore the possibilities of bringing a better quality of education to rural areas.

Although I had passion, I had no idea how to make my ideas happen. That’s when I got to hear about a school for rural kids run by a non-profit in the southern part of my state. Hearing about this school instantly made me excited. I started researching this school and decided that I can collaborate with them to advance my ideas; we had the same goals and values. I was able to reach out to one of my friends working in the school. She informed me about the stationery and training requirements of students and teachers. We joined our efforts and decided to spread the message to a larger audience. My friends and I made charts to display information about the project. Slowly we formed a small team of strong-willed people. I had found a renewed purpose.

Later that year, I decided to use my winter vacation to raise funds for this school. I approached the well-wishers in my residential community. One of my friends at school surprised me by offering to host a presentation about my initiative at his apartment. We invited the community to attend our presentation, and soon our campaign went door to door. We were able to fulfill the resource requirement and offer teacher training in schools across that district.
  
During our visit to that school the next year, a ninth-grader shared that she would like to be like me one day. That is when I realized that my team and I were creating a Paadhai (path) for all dreamers like ourselves. So, we aptly named our team GoPaadhai. Over the last three years the GoPaadhai team has expanded to work with two more schools. We are also collaborating with more like-minded partners. Throughout the pandemic, GoPaadhai continued to raise funds for these students to have internet access and devices in order to continue their education online. Under our three ongoing projects, GoPaadhai has already impacted the lives of 1500 children. We hope that our small yet steady effort, in the twenty villages that we work in, will work to protect the future of these communities from child labor, sexual harassment, and child marriage.

As a lasting thought, I dreamt dreams, and walked the path! (Paadhai). Let's all make a difference, no matter how small.