A Reader's Story

Who: Tara Suri
Age: Junior in high school
What: Founded HOPE, Aandolan

BIY received an email a few days ago about a young girl making changes happen wherever she goes. We have decided to post the email with links to all the stories about Tara. Keep the stories coming!


Dear Believe in Youth,

I would like to tell you the story of Tara Suri, a junior at Edgemont High School in New York. She started out small, but has worked her way up in creating a true youth movement. Shocked by poverty she saw in India, when Tara was thirteen, she founded HOPE (Helping Orphans Pursue Education), an organization that works to provide all children with the opportunity to reach their full potential. Since then, she has been able to raise over $20,000 for Balagurukulam, an orphanage in India (most of the children at this orphanage were found abandoned in the garbage dump) and for St. Bartholomew's, an orphanage in Sudan. The funds have improved quality of education at both orphanages and also built a dormitory at Balagurukulam, where the children previously had to sleep under a thatched roof that would often be blown away by storms. Tara spent one of her summers volunteering at the orphanage in India.

HOPE has now expanded into a larger initiative: Aandolan. Translated from Hindi as a movement for change, Aandolan both implements social-change initiatives and provides youth with the opportunity to become changemakers. Aandolan launched the Turn Your World Around social-change portal, www.turnyourworldaround.org, which works to connect youth to grassroots causes from around the world and turn passion into action. On the site, users can search for causes that interest them, and then use the Turn-Your-World program, which provides all the necessary tools and live support, to start taking action. They can also get involved in some of Aandolan's current initiatives, like HOPE and [Connect a Kid], a project that works to involve kids in fundraising to promote technology in developing countries.

Tara has received various honors for her work, including the CosmoGirl! of the Year Award, Nestle Very Best in Youth, Bentley Tomorrow25, and We Are Family Foundation Global Teen Leader. She sees youth as a movement that can find solutions to some of the world's most pressing problems, and she wants to empower that movement. Please consider sharing Tara's story so that she may spread her message of youth activism!