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!
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Emory's Superwoman
Who: Elizabeth Sholtys
Age: 23
What: Started multinational orphanage in India
Elizabeth Sholtys is doing amazing things at a very young age. The profile and links below speak for themselves. Make sure you check out the orphanage website.
Q&A Profile: Emory’s Superwoman
By Steven Stein
Posted: 05/01/2007
Elizabeth Sholtys, an Emory senior and the director of a multinational orphanage in India, talks about picking lice out of orphans’ hair, speaking to her cat in Marathi and what it’s like trying to save the world.
So when exactly did you decide to try to save the world?
It had a lot to do with Paul Farmer [Emory’s Commencement speaker]. I read Tracy Kidder’s book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, in my freshman seminar, and I remember just being struck by what he wrote. Here was someone in college who was working in developing countries to make a difference. The book got me thinking, “Why aren’t I trying to do something now?”
Why did you decide to open an orphanage in India? That’s not exactly your normal class project.
Reading Mountains by Mountains got me. It’s just one of those things, an epiphany. You wake up one day, and decide to do something. And the more I wrapped my brain about it, the more concrete it came, and the more determined I became to do something about it. I formed a board of directors within a week of my epiphany. I returned to India in January 2005, and six months later, we opened up the orphanage.
How difficult was it to complete Emory classes while you were 8,000 miles away in India?
It seemed like I was simultaneously trying to exist in two different worlds. One time, when a friend from Emory visited me for spring break, she actually brought me books from the library so I could finish a project for class.
So, when you’re not trying to save the world, what do you do for fun?
I know it sounds lame, but I work with street kids. For me, that’s fun. I also adopted a kitten, and while I was getting the orphanage home together, she and I spent a lot of time together. I was living in a huge apartment, and lonely, and spent a lot of time conversing with the cat in Marathi [a variation of Hindi].
How ironic is it that, because of your work in India, you’ll be missing Paul Farmer’s Commencement speech?
I’m really sad, but I’m excited that other people will hear him.
What do you miss most when you’re in India?
Bagels, actually, as crazy as it sounds. I can’t find them anywhere in India.
Do you get frustrated when you read about investment bankers making more than $100,000 their first year out of college?
I fully understand the work I do isn’t for everyone. Most people wouldn’t be interested in picking lice out of street people’s heads. I just hope people find a way to contribute. If you’re going to be an I-banker, throw some money to a poor orphanage director.
Twenty-five years from now, what are you doing?
Some people are old, crazy cat ladies. I’m going to be an old crazy orphanage director.
Find out more at the orphanage website: http://www.ashrayainitiative.org/
And more articles: The McGill Daily, Ithaca News, Humanitarian Award
Age: 23
What: Started multinational orphanage in India
Elizabeth Sholtys is doing amazing things at a very young age. The profile and links below speak for themselves. Make sure you check out the orphanage website.
Q&A Profile: Emory’s Superwoman
By Steven Stein
Posted: 05/01/2007
Elizabeth Sholtys, an Emory senior and the director of a multinational orphanage in India, talks about picking lice out of orphans’ hair, speaking to her cat in Marathi and what it’s like trying to save the world.
So when exactly did you decide to try to save the world?
It had a lot to do with Paul Farmer [Emory’s Commencement speaker]. I read Tracy Kidder’s book, Mountains Beyond Mountains, in my freshman seminar, and I remember just being struck by what he wrote. Here was someone in college who was working in developing countries to make a difference. The book got me thinking, “Why aren’t I trying to do something now?”
Why did you decide to open an orphanage in India? That’s not exactly your normal class project.
Reading Mountains by Mountains got me. It’s just one of those things, an epiphany. You wake up one day, and decide to do something. And the more I wrapped my brain about it, the more concrete it came, and the more determined I became to do something about it. I formed a board of directors within a week of my epiphany. I returned to India in January 2005, and six months later, we opened up the orphanage.
How difficult was it to complete Emory classes while you were 8,000 miles away in India?
It seemed like I was simultaneously trying to exist in two different worlds. One time, when a friend from Emory visited me for spring break, she actually brought me books from the library so I could finish a project for class.
So, when you’re not trying to save the world, what do you do for fun?
I know it sounds lame, but I work with street kids. For me, that’s fun. I also adopted a kitten, and while I was getting the orphanage home together, she and I spent a lot of time together. I was living in a huge apartment, and lonely, and spent a lot of time conversing with the cat in Marathi [a variation of Hindi].
How ironic is it that, because of your work in India, you’ll be missing Paul Farmer’s Commencement speech?
I’m really sad, but I’m excited that other people will hear him.
What do you miss most when you’re in India?
Bagels, actually, as crazy as it sounds. I can’t find them anywhere in India.
Do you get frustrated when you read about investment bankers making more than $100,000 their first year out of college?
I fully understand the work I do isn’t for everyone. Most people wouldn’t be interested in picking lice out of street people’s heads. I just hope people find a way to contribute. If you’re going to be an I-banker, throw some money to a poor orphanage director.
Twenty-five years from now, what are you doing?
Some people are old, crazy cat ladies. I’m going to be an old crazy orphanage director.
Find out more at the orphanage website: http://www.ashrayainitiative.org/
And more articles: The McGill Daily, Ithaca News, Humanitarian Award
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