Vedant Kumar: On a mission to ‘Less Boring-ify Trees’ 

rmined to fight for their kids instead. In some cases, these struggles even resulted in a miracle cure. That was how the idea for the Yash Gandhi Foundation first came about. "With the clock against us, we knew that any work we did was unlikely to benefit Yash, but to us, it didn't matter," Ash and Sonal Gandhi write, on the Yash Gandhi Foundation website. "What was most important was that we could make a difference and prevent another family from going through what we were at the time."  

[caption id="attachment_25140" align="aligncenter" width="1620"] The founders of the Yash Gandhi Foundation, Kavi Gandhi with his family. Photo: Twitter[/caption]

Handing over the reins

Today, the Foundation is run by their second son, Kavi Gandhi, now a student at Davidson College. In three years, they raised $460,000 to aid I-Cell research, to prevent the disease that claimed his brother's life from taking another. I-cell disease is caused by a genetic mutation and is a rare, inherited metabolic disorder "characterised by coarse facial features, skeletal abnormalities and mental retardation," according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. Children with I-cell disease show delayed development of gross and fine motor skills, hearing loss, lack of muscle tone and growth delays.  

The Gandhis ran their foundation, the only one in the world for I-Cell, for 15 years. In 2013, they even climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for their cause. Three years later, however, they believed the time had come to close the foundation. Their 13-year-old son, Kavi, was not happy to hear the news. After giving it a few days of thought, he announced to his parents that he was going to revive the foundation and run it himself, in memory of his brother. 

Growing up with Yash

Only two years younger than Yash Gandhi, the family's trauma impacted Kavi too. He recalls a slew of hospital trips, and watching his brother hooked up to oxygen tanks and walkers. "We were really close like a lot of siblings are at that age," Kavi said. "A lot of my memories are from playing with him and spending time together. Those six years, I've definitely cherished and still retained a lot of those memories."  

When Yash passed away in 2009, the family created the Yash Gandhi Foundation. "Losing my sibling was probably one of the most formative experiences for me... the foundation is a way to transform the grief I felt with my brother into really honouring his memory and preserving that," Kavi remarked.   

[caption id="attachment_25141" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Kavi Gandhi was named the 2018 Global Genes RARE Champion of Hope for Teen Advocacy[/caption]

At the frontier of I-Cell disease research

Since he took over the foundation in 2006, Kavi has worked to connect with other families who have been impacted by I-Cell and has raised nearly half a million dollars towards ML II research. In 2020, Kavi interned at the Greenwood Genetic Center to study the disease in human and zebrafish cells. The young Global Indian is a 2021 John M Belk Scholar at Davidson College, where he is doing his undergraduate degree in Public Health, with a Minor in Hispanic studies. He's also a member of the university's jazz ensemble.   

In 2018, Global Genes named Gandhi the 2018 Global Genes RARE Champion of Hope for Teen Advocacy. Every year since 2012, the Yash Gandhi Foundation has issued research grants - in 2020, a smiling Kavi, standing with his parents, announced a $130,000 grant, their largest to date, to Dr Richard Street at the Greenwood Genetic Centre and Dr Stuart Kornfield of Washington University. 

ig win in January 2020 when the British government decided to provide schools with free sanitary products.

[caption id="attachment_23569" align="aligncenter" width="656"] Amika George is the founder of Free Periods.[/caption]

An article that led to a revolution

An article about young girls missing up to a week's classes in the UK every month due to the unaffordability to buy sanitary products left Amika shocked. "It seemed unfair that a natural biological process was responsible for girls falling behind. To imagine being absent from school hit me," she told the Hindu. The fact that the girls were no different from her except for their financial background, led her to start a Free Periods petition, especially at a time when the government was rolling out tampon tax - seeing it as a luxury item.

The response was unprecedented, with girls from Asian communities and other ethnic backgrounds emailing her about their struggles during periods. They told her their families had a hard time affording two square meals, and there was no money for sanitary pads. One mail made her realise how "deeply entrenched" the taboo is after a girl wrote to her saying that she would search her parents' wallets or sofa for coins every month to buy pads as she felt embarrassed to ask for help or talk about periods.

"I was shocked and decided to start a campaign to lobby the government, urging them to give free menstrual products to children from the lowest income families. I found support quickly and globally. So many people outreached to offer support, with many telling me that this was something they were going through and needed to be addressed." she told Pink Parcel.

 

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Ensuring equal access to education for all children, irrespective of their sex was the foundation of the Free Periods movement which later turned into a legal campaign against the UK government, along with a collaboration with the Red Box Project. "Period poverty is a situation many girls and women find themselves in when they cannot afford costly period products. Globally, period poverty intersects with other forms of disadvantage, including poverty and geography. It costs young girls their education. It impacts their ability to fulfill their potential and affects their ability to secure decent jobs and lift their families out of poverty. Period poverty is an issue of gender inequality," she wrote for UN Women.

Much-needed change

As soon as her petition attracted 1,80,000 signatures, she led a protest outside the British PM's residence in Downing Street in December 2017. However, the journey was long with its share of ups and downs. There were times when nothing worked, and social media was the only place that kept her goals afloat as she found support from many people online. On other occasions, she kept demanding change through media interviews and school visits. To give momentum to the campaign, she launched Free Periods - a nonprofit in January 2019 - to work with human rights lawyers who could persuade the UK government to pay for menstrual products and make sure that every child in the UK attended school regularly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WRuKvLMkpA

The journey towards activism

Her efforts were paying off as she became the poster girl of youth activism by making it to the Time Most Influential Teens of 2018 list, and later to Teen Vogue's 21 under 21 list. The 24-year-old, who studied Indian colonial history at Cambridge University, also became the youngest recipient of Member of the Order of the British Empire at the age of 21. However, it was nothing short of a double-edged sword for her because it was while pursuing her degree in history did, she learn about the atrocities of the British empire on Indians, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to be a Member of its Order.

While she was born in London, her grandparents moved to the UK in the 70s, and her extended family still resides in parts of Kerala. However, after much apprehension, she decided to accept the award stating that young people of colour are underrepresented in politics and activism.

All her hard work paid off after years of determination and persistence. "That took two and a half years. I started my campaign before I could even vote, and I think that’s a testament to the fact that you can achieve change as somebody who is not represented in politics," the Global Indian said. This gave her the confidence that activism at the grassroots level can change the course of history and motivated her to pen her first book Make It Happen to inspire others to contribute to a better world through practical steps. The step-by-step guide sheds light on every possible stepping stone from how to choose a cause to how to make allies to bring change at a time when the world needs it.

 

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"I’m not the loudest person in the room. Neither am I the most confident. If you’d told me four years ago, I would be speaking in front of TV cameras, or that I’d be standing alone on an open stage holding a mic on the other side of the world, I wouldn’t have believed you. But the urge to act takes over, and you feel you just have to do it. That feeling comes from something which matters to you. Whatever you want to change, whatever issue you feel is demanding to be heard, it can be you who makes it happen," reads an excerpt from her book.

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