Little Angel of hope
This Bengaluru girl has created a portal that offers care packages to underprivileged women across the country
By : soumashree sarkar
Update: 2015-09-16 00:28 GMT
She enjoys a good day at the tracks, loves to soar high to score a slam dunk and is always heading out to meet new people, talk to them and learn something new. Used to raising storms with issues of the world in the Model United Nations sessions that she attends, Bengaluru girl Aahika Harlalka was taken aback when after a session on women’s issues, she made a startling discovery that lead to her founding the unique initiative called 2 Little Angels. With her website only just having gone live, not only does Aahika now stand at the threshold of creating a great change, perhaps the most startling aspect of her story is that she is a student of standard 12.
“Do you know that closer home, 88 per cent of 355 million menstruating women Indian women have no access to sanitary napkins? I spoke to my maid and then did a bout of research of my own and four months later, there was 2 Little Angels – a portal which promises a care package to one underprivileged woman, each time you purchase one for yourself,” says Aahika.
The head girl of Inventure Academy speaks with an easy wisdom. “I decided to partner with Arunachalam Muruganantham, who with his low-cost sanitary napkin machines, has been empowering millions of women. It took quite a lot of prep in creating a simple sanitary pad subscription service for young women, to deliver this essential at their doorsteps once a month and, at the same time, give away the same essential to a young women in an Indian village,” says the girl who discussed this plan extensively with her family before creating the online pages of her mission.
“It is shocking that something as natural a function as this could pose as such an enormous struggle to so many. In our home, my mother and I take a quick trip to the medicine store should we need napkins and don’t even give this much thought. I would simply like this to start a better life for women who do not get the hygiene and protection they deserve. In the first evening since we went live, we got about Rs 47,000 from all over India. International contributors can soon give money as well,” says Aahika, who manages to keep up her school work in addition to running initiatives as this.
“I am a very social person and would do anything to escape doing my homework,” laughs Aahika. She adds, “I am also into all kinds of sports. I love athletics and I am into basketball as well. I am always going out to meet new people,” and getting new ideas to change the world, we think!