Why were you interested in taking part in the ProjectCHAKRA Internship and serving in India?
I had an interest in social impact and international development and the summer before this internship, I went to Uganda. It was the first time I had been abroad for work. The experience surprised me in many ways - it felt like I had stepped into an alternate reality, which nobody back home seemed to speak about.
This experience sparked a further desire in me to want to create real and lasting change and I knew that if I wanted to do this, I would need to fully understand the challenges different communities faced and immerse myself in them. So when I heard about the opportunity to travel to India with ProjectCHAKRA, I grabbed it with both hands. I saw it as a way to learn more about myself, culture and the world, while doing good.
What did you do in India?
Several things! For around 6 weeks I served with Manav Sadhna (MS). My primary responsibility was working on the Garima (Dignity) social enterprise project, where women collect waste materials and, through the process of stitching and sewing, transform the fabric into upcycled goods such as bags, scrunchies, blankets, dress wear and more. With varying operations across four MS community centres across Ahmedabad, my role was to see how the centres could learn from each other and work together more effectively given the context, aiming to grow the project and amplify impact.
Additionally, my time at MS involved exposing myself to various programmes, such as working with disabled children, teaching sports and English, and supporting a recycling centre.
I also spent a week with ProjectCHAKRA in Delhi and helped facilitate experiential learning workshops at two universities before concluding my India experience with a corporate internship with a tech and life sciences company, o2h, where I worked on their CSR and supported business development.
I also played cricket, danced in the rain, went to a UN Youth Conference and made friends with an uber driver:)
What were the biggest learnings you took from your time in India?
First and foremost, I learnt to refrain from judging. Because I came in with what I thought was good education and experience, I thought I could ‘fix things’ with my fresh perspective. In reality, it takes a lot of time to understand what actually needs ‘fixing’ and, more importantly, why it isn’t already ‘fixed’. Everyone does things for a reason and it’s those experiencing the problem that understand it the best. So to do anything meaningful, you must first build empathy with people.
To do this I tried my best to live as the people (or at the very least with the people) as this builds relationships, which underpin change - ultimately, it will be these people who carry any change forward.
I also realised how deeply rooted and complex many challenges faced are, and how often there is not one ‘best way’. As humans we like to simplify things, which can be helpful, but I’ve learnt it’s only when we open our mind and be prepared to unlearn what we know, can we create the environment to improve.
My experience consistently reminded me about the parable of The Blind Men and the Elephant - if you haven’t heard of it, Google it!
What did you find most challenging about your time in India and how did you overcome these challenges?
Coming from the UK, India felt like a parallel universe, similar in the basic sense (people trying to earn a living) but vastly different in others. I found this challenging as the drastically different environment inherently made me feel uncomfortable. I didn’t know anyone before heading to India and there were so many uncertainties. Only when I started to lean into this and see it as a privilege did my perspective shift.
As someone who likes to be active and involved, my biggest setback was when I got food poisoning that wiped me out for a week. This was incredibly frustrating but also forced me to take a step back and reassess the past few weeks and my work so far. I did some reframing and saw the sickness as an opportunity to a) appreciate good health and b) plan out my next weeks to optimise for things I could only do in India, like experiences, trying new things, and being present. In other words, I built resilience and developed my character.
What perspectives shifted for you?
For me it was that happiness is where reality exceeds expectations, and that community is core. Despite having materially less, the people I met gave more.
The experience sparked me to do a lot of introspection and where I began to understand how privileged I am. I realise I won the lottery, the country I was born, the family I was born into and the opportunities that lie ahead. That form of privilege naturally creates a sense of entitlement. I was deeply humbled by what I saw around me. How hard people worked, the importance of family, and the mindset that many people had that was far stronger than my own. Together, this perspective shift made me only more eager to focus on impact based work and fundamentally altered how I see the world.
After you returned from India, what has this experience inspired you to go on to do?
In my final year of university, I started a social enterprise called Project Shakti in Exeter, which continues to support the women I worked with in India by selling their handmade and sustainable local products to international markets. I built a team of 13 other students and through the products we sold, we were able to treble the income of women in some of the areas I worked in.
I was also encouraged that during job interviews in my final year, recruiters were all very keen to hear about my experience in India (I feel like this unique experience set me apart from others) and I received job offers from nearly everywhere I applied.
Ultimately, through the ProjectCHAKRA Internship, I feel like I have found my life’s mission: to uplift the 712 million people currently living in abject poverty through my passion of social entrepreneurship. I’ve already been experimenting with different ideas and creating my own businesses to take the steps towards this mission!
What advice would you give to future ProjectCHAKRA Interns?
- Keep an open mind and don’t assume
- Spend as much time with the people as possible and do not underestimate the power of relationships - relationships will allow for your impact to continue when you leave India
- Be curious and listen to understand
- Don’t put too much pressure on yourself
- Lean in
Anything else you would like to share?
No doubt my two months in India were the most transformative experience of my life and forever has changed my perspective and approach to impact work and changemaking.
It will challenge you, it will change you, do it with a smile:)