Beyond RISHI: How Our Members Live Our Values in the World

Sanchi Gupta - Co-President ‘24

Being Punjabi, altruistic values and serving my community always came easily to me. After all, it was the type of environment I was born and brought up in. However, it was two different experiences during the last two years of my high school journey that solidified my passion for working with non-profit organizations, honing in on women’s and children’s welfare. 

In 2018, a few weeks into junior year, I signed up to volunteer at an orphanage for girls with disabilities. As a volunteer, my primary responsibility was to meet with a group of 10-15 girls every week and teach them Math, although, during the first few visits, we would end up chatting away the entire hour. As I got closer to the girls, I realized that nobody had tried to help them academically. The girls didn’t go to school, and none of them had ever even entered a classroom. Over time, and many conversations, the girls expressed their desire to learn English, and I was more than happy to help. Over two years, I read countless children’s books to the girls, reading the same words over and over until they perfected their pronunciations. The girls slowly grasped the English alphabet, and even learned to spell their names! Towards the end of my senior year, the girls would speak to me only in English. During my last few visits, they regaled me with nursery rhymes and songs they learned on YouTube, all in English! Their farewell gift to me was a paper with all our names written on it, and a promise to continue to learn English. 

A year after working with my girls, I decided to immerse myself more deeply into socio-economic policy work and interned at a microfinance company that provided microloans to women in rural and sub-rural areas. My internship was split into two parts–first working as an office intern and then as a field intern. During my time as an office intern, I worked with three different departments, but my work in the Credit department brought the most meaning to me. In the Credit department, I was tasked with verifying all the necessary documents, along with performing background checks, before disbursing loans to the women. Not only did the company provide microloans to women to kickstart their businesses, but also provided the option to buy tools — such as sewing machines — as in-kind loans for women to establish their businesses. Working in the office showed me just how crucial microfinance institutions can be, especially for women, because these institutions provide financial support to women who have no collateral to offer. As a field intern, I saw the results of microloans in real time. I surveyed dozens of different women who had availed loans, conducted workshops on financial literacy, and collected data on the socio-economic impacts of microloans–focusing on the impacts of microloans on gender dynamics in the household and how financial independence is intertwined with perceptions of self-esteem. One of the most touching stories I remember is of a woman who was able to open a small salon from the microloan which helped her leave her abusive partner. Countless other women echoed the same sentiments, and I was happy to be a small part of this change. 

Stepping into my college life 11,700 km away from home, I was looking into ways to get involved with non-profit clubs that specifically worked with women and children in India, which led me to first join Georgetown University’s Make-A-Wish Chapter and then Georgetown Project RISHI. I was excited to join Project RISHI because of the organization’s focus on serving women and children in India’s villages, which was similar to my high school internship experience. At RISHI, I had been involved with the Initiatives team entirely before stepping into my role as the Co-President. As VP of Initiatives, I was tasked with brainstorming RISHI’s future projects, establishing new relationships with non-profits, maintaining current partner relationships, creating action plans for current and future projects, and analyzing field data and incorporating it into our project designs. I additionally managed a team of 4 people, all of whom have been instrumental in making RISHI’s projects a success. This year, I’m heading the entire club as I gain the new title of Co-President, now working with a bigger team which includes 6 board members and 13 general body members across 3 different teams. I cannot believe that I will be leaving my beautiful, talented, and extremely hard-working RISHI team soon as I head towards graduation. I am truly grateful I could become a part of this incredible community that has always valued my values. With my team and our impressive work, home never felt far at all.

Harnoor Sachar - Initiatives Team ‘26

I love trying new things: new restaurants, new movies, new music. That being said, I would have never expected that I would be traveling alone to work halfway across the world for 6 weeks. This past summer, I had the opportunity to intern at the Public Health Institute of India, as a BSFS Award and Barkanic Award recipient. My work included but was not limited to assisting on qualitative and quantitative research projects, working with participants and patients in the field, and working on development initiatives for the organization. As someone who loves engaging with global health, especially through my role in Project RISHI, this internship was professionally and academically enriching. And yet, that enrichment does not compare to the change I saw in myself as a person as the six weeks went by. 

I remember scrambling to find an internship as mid-April rolled around. All of my friends were working on the Hill or had jobs lined up at home, and I knew that if I wanted to, I could sign up to do something that my heart wasn’t in. But the stubborn part of me won, as I began to do research on global health programs that would allow me to fuel my budding passion for healthcare and international policy. I quickly stumbled upon PHRII, an organization that has partnered with universities like UC Berkeley and Florida International University, to give students access to global health research opportunities. Realizing that Georgetown was not a partner institution, I did the only thing that came to mind: I emailed the founder asking to set up a meeting in hopes of making an opportunity for myself. Fast forward one month, I was on a flight to India at 19 years old, eager to participate in the work I only got to read about sitting at school.

Because I was not conducting my own project, I had the privilege of contributing to as much as I could handle, which meant that I could experience all aspects of the organization’s work. My most rewarding role was one that happened by chance when I volunteered to be the translator and notetaker for a mixed methods study on occupational health hazards. The study was working with female participants in focus groups, which allowed me to get to know everyone personally and hear the individual stories which were powerful and moving. I even had the opportunity to visit their homes, meet their families, and attend a participant’s family wedding! If there is one thing these women have taught me, it is resilience. These women were juggling poverty, poor health benefits, and debt, and yet, when they would sit in their focus groups, you would hear laughter, chatter, and enthusiasm. Every week, they left their homes and jobs to contribute to this study, in hopes of a push for strong health benefit policies. 

The institute also runs free medical clinics in rural parts of Mysore, which is where I first understood the importance of specific rural healthcare systems. Medicine, although technical in how it is practiced, differs everywhere you go. The implementation of medical initiatives differs based on culture, religion, and location. India, as one of the most diverse countries in the world, was a quintessential example that allowed me to witness shifts in healthcare practices based on differences in need.

I will forever be grateful for the 6 weeks I spent in India. Not only did I further my passion for global health, but I found a community of service-minded individuals and listened to stories of lives that differed strongly from mine. Most importantly, I felt as though I was able to practice the values and understanding of global health that I have developed in my time with RISHI. As a member of the Initiatives team, I have seen the impact Projet RISHI’s work has on the cohorts of women we work with in rural Rajasthan. After this summer, although in a different part of India, I feel that I have experienced it, too. I look forward to continuing to work with South Asian women’s health initiatives through Georgetown Project RISHI and its incredible work.