COVER STORY
A BUDDY FROM CANADA IS CHANGING LIVES IN INDIA
Raju Agarwal in Rajasthan, India: “Every girl deserves an education.”
By SHAGORIKA EASWAR
Raised in Canada, Raju Agarwal visited India from a young age with his family during summer vacations.
“I remember seeing people living in extreme poverty, their bodies emaciated,” he says. He had never witnessed hunger of this magnitude.
“When I was pursuing my MBA, I visited India during Christmas. I was in Jaipur and there were many children begging on the street. One girl stood out: she was school-aged and holding a baby.
“I asked her in Hindi, ‘Why are you not in school?’.
“She would love to go to school, she said, but couldn’t, because she had to look after her little brother while her mother worked.”
Once again, he was very moved. Upon reflecting on this encounter, he realized that these girls, who are growing up in extreme poverty and limited by deeply-ingrained gender roles, have the same aspirations as girls in Canada and the United States – but not the same opportunities.
After his MBA, Agarwal worked in Boston, San Francisco, and then returned to Ottawa, where he worked with Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI).
He also worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Bank of America, but in spite of a successful career, he was left feeling unfulfilled and depressed.
John Wook’s book Leaving Microsoft to Change the World inspired him to start a non-profit, OneProsper International. Agarwal wished to use his business acumen and resources to help women and girls in need
The founder and director of OneProsper International was recognized as a Grant’s Desi Achiever in 2012 for his initiative targeting hunger in rural India.
With OneProsper International still working in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan, he went on to launch and implement two new programs focused on lifting girls out of poverty through education.
Agarwal, the father of two girls, feels strongly about educating girls.
“My wife Neha works as an accountant at Logan Katz in Ottawa. Our daughter Supriya works at EQ Bank and is a graduate of Rotman School of Management. And Isha is currently pursuing her master’s in environmental Sustainability at Sciences Po in Paris.”
He firmly believes that every girl deserves an education.
Anoushka Dadlani, Reading Buddy.
“129 million girls across the globe do not attend school, and the barriers to education are complex,” he says. “Yet girls’ access to schooling has been shown to transform their lives, their families, and their communities. At One Prosper, we are committed to creating enduring change through the power of education.”
In 2020, Agarwal visited a school in the Thar Desert of Rajasthan and saw that students were not able to speak English and that teachers were not qualified.
He wondered what the students would do after graduation.
Subsequently, Agarwal visited an all-girls private school where students were inquiring about volunteer opportunities.
He launched the initiatives based on his observation that while teen girls in North America seek to make a meaningful impact but have limited opportunities, girls from low-income families in India seek to improve their English fluency but don’t have anyone with whom to practise speaking.
Project Parivartan is a holistic solution for educating girls from low-income families living in the Thar Desert. Parivartan means “transformation” in Hindi, and that’s exactly what this program offers.
“We’re transforming the lives of girls and their families throughout the Thar Desert in Northwestern India,” says Agarwal. “We partner with GRAVIS, a leading community-based nonprofit, to combat the obstacles blocking girls from receiving an education. Incredibly, our holistic solution enables women and girls in India to break the cycle of illiteracy and poverty while simultaneously improving access to clean water. Project Parivartan is a one-time investment that changes lives forever.”
English Learning Buddy Program is a prosocial program where girls living in Canada and the US give time to tutor girls from low-income families in India.
Nandika Nambiar, Reading Buddy.
The recently launched 10-week prosocial giving program is aimed at helping teen girls living in the United States and Canada – girls are educating girls.
“We launched the English Learning Buddy Program in 2020 to further our focus on girls’ educational opportunities in India by extending access to English-language instruction,” says Agarwal.
This program connects girls from low-income families in India (learners) with girls in Canada and the US (buddies), giving learners the opportunity to practise their English speaking skills with their peers. It further cultivates prosocial behaviour and cross-cultural friendships.
Like Project Parivartan, the English Learning Buddy Program is transformative, creating connections and mentorship that enriches the lives of girls on both sides of the screen.
This is how it works:
1. Girls sign up to be a Buddy.
2. Buddies are paired with Learners (girls from low-income families living in India).
3. OneProsper provides Buddies with lesson plans and digital books.
4. Buddies and Learners meet for 30 minutes per week for 10 weeks via video conference.
5. Buddies log weekly volunteer hours and feedback.
6. Buddies receive certificate of completion.
7. Buddies may sign up to be OneProsper ambassadors.
8. Many Buddies use their experience in applying for university or medical school admissions.
Over 2,500 female high school students in Canada and the US have successfully completed the program since inception in January 2020.
They report experiencing positive emotions as a result of making a meaningful impact and have observed a significant improvement in their Learners’ spoken English skills.
“According to Dr. Barbara Fredrickson’s The Broaden and Build Theory, positive emotions broaden people’s thought-action-repertoires,” says Agarwal. “This enables them to see more solutions relative to baseline; and build emotional resilience.”
OneProsper has built partnerships with over 200 high schools across Ontario.
Through these two programs, it has helped hundreds of girls further their education and by doing so, changed families and communities for the better.
A bicycle can make all the difference, getting a girl to school from her village in Rajasthan. Raju Agarwal with Richa Aggarwal (no relation), a staunch supporter of OneProsper’s initiatives, with a girl who received a bike.
“I am extremely grateful for my involvement with OneProsper International,” says Ansam Qureshi. “I am currently a senior in high school, however I have been a tutor since my ninth grade here. I’ve also involved myself in various ways with the organization. For example, being a member of the Student Executive Committee. I find that OneProsper is such a unique and valuable organization in which young women are able to empower other young women by means of education.
“Being a tutor does not just mean you are helping a Buddy in India learn and improve English skills; you are also developing long lasting and meaningful connections. The first Buddy I have ever tutored is still in touch with me and we have become close friends. We message each other, asking how our day is going, or if there is a celebration going on in India, she will send me videos of her family. I really value that. I think it is so amazing to be able to connect with an individual from across the globe. So with all that being said, I highly recommend that you become a tutor with OneProsper!”
Reeya Gandhi, from Canada, has this to say: “OneProsper’s English Learning Buddy Program gave me an amazing opportunity to teach English to a girl in India. I enjoyed being part of her learning journey and it brought me so much joy to see her improve her language skills.
“I am looking forward to continuing with the program and connecting with a new Buddy. I would definitely recommend OneProsper’s English Learning Buddy Program!”
“Hi, my name is Jaya Vishwanathan, and I am from Toronto, Canada,” says another Canadian buddy. “I have loved volunteering with OneProsper because it gives me the opportunity to learn more about culture in India and also teach what I know to students. Every Sunday, my student and I would meet, and we would read books together, we would answer questions to make sure that she fully understands. And also, she has been teaching me about what life is like in India, which has been really good for me to learn more. So I highly recommend you sign up and tutor!”
Nandika Nambiar of Mission San Jose High School says, “I thoroughly enjoyed interacting and working with the students at the English Buddy program. We always had fascinating and engaging questions and conversations come up. I learned so much from the students in this program who were my Buddies. I met two wonderful people through this program. Overall, the entire experience was amazing and eye-opening.”
“It all started with water.” Raju Agarwal with a family in a village in Thar.
“My experience being part of the English Learning Buddy Program has been very rewarding, as I have been able to help young girls in India improve their English skills,” says Anoushka Dadlani, sophomore at Convent & Stuart Hall. “When I first joined this program I did not realize how much I would enjoy meeting with my Buddies. With video meetings scheduled each week, I have had the opportunity to truly get to know my Buddies, despite the fact that they are in a different country. It has been so incredible to see them progress and to watch them gain confidence in their abilities as they do so; the illuminating feeling that I get when my Buddies can read an entire passage without making a mistake is indescribable. I would absolutely recommend this program to others because of the amazing sense of accomplishment I feel after each meeting with my Buddies, knowing that I have made a small difference in their lives.”
Pallavi Bomareddy, Junior Basis Independent Silicon Valley, also found the program very rewarding.
“The OneProsper English Learning Buddy program allowed me to connect with two girls who attend the Lotus Petal Foundation school in India. I enjoyed how much I was able to interact with them in general and help them with their English pronunciation and reading comprehension. I also liked how I was able to learn about their lives and their interests. I could tell that they were very engaged every week, and seeing that truly made this program a great experience for me.”
“It all started with water,” says Agarwal.
“The original aim of helping women in India’s arid regions to grow more crops with less water evolved into Project Parivartan, combining a shared focus on clean water and girls’ education. A trip to meet some of Project Parivartan’s beneficiary families seeded OneProsper’s work providing education to girls in India – the English Learning Buddy program.”
You can help change a girl’s – and a community’s – future. OneProsper’s work is funded through donations. “Every donation makes a difference, whether an individual gives $10 or a corporation sponsors an entire family,” says Agarwal. “We are also in need of volunteers to keep our work going.”
For more info, to volunteer or donate, visit www.oneprosper.org.