From heart to heart and hut to hut

By Apurva Khedagi, ’15 (Human Biology)

During my Haas Center fellowship I worked alongside the NGO Sneha in the Kandivali slums, leading group meetings on preventable diseases. Together with the Kandivali women, we developed simple solutions.

As I helped women make hairpins and played with their babies, I grew close to them. Due to these relationships, my fellowship’s goals were easier to accomplish. We discussed ways to take utmost advantage of their current health care resources and devised measures they could implement to address preventable diseases. We displayed those innovative, simple solutions on posters across the slum alleys. I saw that if given the chance, all individuals possess power to take responsibility for their own health.

My relationships with the women and my drive to remedy malnutrition led me to return to Mumbai this year to tackle this issue through a research intervention project, the UAR Senior Synthesis. Now, as I pursue a career in medicine, I cannot wait to continue on this learning journey.