Tara recently told WKCD about her new social justice project, Connect a Kid.

“I’m of Indian heritage. I got the idea to create H.O.P.E. when I visited India the summer I was 13 years old. It was kind of a shell shock. Suddenly you realize that there is all this poverty around you. I noticed there was some gender discrimination in India in terms of media perceptions and in terms of gender roles and stereotypes. I didn’t want to just do something to help girls, though, because I realized that would just be reverse gender discrimination. I wanted to help all children be able to succeed. So we started H.O.P.E., and I decided to start raising money and awareness about orphanages in India and Sudan.

We raised money through the traditional bake sales and recycling used soda cans. We have a branch of the H.O.P.E. program as a H.O.P.E. club in my school, and we get kids involved in raising funds through the school. But a lot of the outreach we do is through the internet.

We’ve raised $20,000 for those orphanages. The money has gone to building a dormitory for kids at Balagurukulam orphanage in Chennai, India, and to uniforms for the children at St. Bartholomew’s orphanage in Kajo Keji, Sudan, among other things.

Our mission has kind of expanded. H.O.P.E. is now a subprogram for Aandolan, which means social movement for change in Hindi. We have this website called Turn Your World Around , which is essentially a social change hub for youth, where they can take their passions and their ideas for how to make a difference and turn those passions into actions.

Connect a Kid

About a month ago, we started an initiative called Connect a Kid. There is a $200.00 laptop that is offered by One Laptop per Child. The laptop is specifically designed for children of the developing world. It really combats the problem of global education in a new world. The conventional thinking about education is disregarding advances in technology.

We are trying to get kids involved in raising funds to buy laptops. They can register on website and create a profile page, and then talk to us about what kind of fundraising techniques they want to use. A lot of kids have used bake sales, dances, and things like that. It’s a very ‘up to them’ kind of program.

Becoming a Change Agent

My dad was born in India, and my mom is Indian, too. My parents have exposed me to so many different cultures and we’ve traveled so much. Sometimes when you are a kid, you are in a bubble, and it’s how you break that bubble that influences you. 

I expect continue this kind of work in college and into my career, whatever I do. Although I may not go into a career that is service, I’ll always be involved in helping people. It’s really a lifestyle choice.