This is how Arhana made an impact – Tales of the Tribe

After completing the Young Changemakers programme, high school student Arhana Singh from Dubai sat down with our content writer Emma Gardner to discuss her thoughts on the programme. Scroll to read their discussion.

How did you benefit from the programme?

I think the programme really helped to give me an understanding of real-world problems. These problems were also things that you would not usually think about as they receive little coverage in the media, so a lot of people are not aware of what is going on. For example, one issue we covered was women and sex trafficking. These are the sorts of women who are not being seen in the media as much as they should be.

What did you learn during the programme?

 I learnt how to work with people from a diverse range of backgrounds and ages. Usually, I was working with people who were a lot older than me. Additionally, often they were not in the same country, so we had to coordinate working in different time zones.

How much hands-on experience did you gain during the programme?

 I was heavily involved in researching for and making presentations. Unfortunately, I was not able to present due to the presentation clashing with a school class, however I did get to work with lots of different people in the process. So, on a scale of 1-10 I would say the amount of hands on experience I gained was certainly 10!

What kind of projects were you involved in?

 I worked on two different projects. One was working with an NGO promoting body positivity and my group was focusing specifically on men and body shaming. I found this really interesting and enlightening, because usually body positivity is only talked about from a female perspective. Again, this is an example of learning about real world problems that I was not aware of before!

I also worked on a project individually, which was to help build a social media page for an NGO. This NGO focuses specifically on helping women who have been involved in sex trafficking, and the idea of the social media page was to sell products to help these women who are undergoing rehabilitation.

How many lives did you touch?

I think that is a very difficult question to answer! It is often difficult to measure exactly. It is hard to know but I would like to think that through my contribution I managed to help one person, if not more.

Did you get the chance to apply concepts in the real world?

 Yes! The teamwork skills I developed on this programme have definitely been useful at school. Recently, we have worked on lots of team projects. I feel like I am now able to tolerate lots of different ideas and can work successfully in a team with a diverse range of people.

What kind of skills did you gain from the programme?

 Patience was definitely one of them! I had to work with different people and understand different ways of working. Patience and understanding were essential as often I did not know what was going to happen next. I didn’t know what was going to happen with the NGOs either and how the projects would turn out. I definitely learnt how to be a good listener also.

Would you recommend this programme to a friend?

Yes, I would, and I already have! It helps us to gain an understand of real-world problems and truly see how people live. I think sometimes it is very difficult in our privileged position and sheltered situation to really appreciate the problems that some people have to face on a daily basis.

Tell us an interesting story from your experience.

When I was working on the project for the body positivity campaign, I was conducting some research into facts and figures. I actually learnt that men are more likely to be body shamed than women. I was shocked! I think we just assume that women are going to be the worst affected, when this is not always the case. It made me think that there is a hidden side to the problem and we need to be more aware of it.

If you would like to work on a social impact project and need to get started, apply for our Young Changemakers Program