Student awarded $15,000 for nonprofit
The Strauss Foundation awarded the scholarship to Vivhan Rekhi for his organization focused on empowering older adults.
By JUSTIN HA
Vivhan Rekhi, a junior majoring in business administration, was one of 11 students in California to receive the annual $15,000 award from the Donald A. Strauss Scholarship Foundation earlier this year. The award, which aims to promote public service in education, will finance Rekhi’s organization, Rescuing Wisdom.
Rekhi founded Rescuing Wisdom in 2018 to advocate for support for the elderly in India through philanthropy. Since its inception, Rescuing Wisdom has raised more than 1.5 million rupees, or about $18,150 USD, to support homes for older adults, aid support projects including coronavirus relief work, sponsor cataract surgeries and help older inmates find a home after they’re released. This work is done in partnership with corporations, multinationals and government bodies, such as Saregama, the National Center on Elder Abuse and the Venu Eye Institute and Research Center.
“Once a campaign hits and it becomes successful, the impact that it has is never ending,” Rekhi said. “It’s something that will last a lifetime for these residents.”
Rekhi said Rescuing Wisdom was partly inspired by his experience growing up in a joint family — a multigenerational home — with his grandparents in New Delhi, India. While volunteering at a local elderly home, Rekhi decided to launch a campaign to crowdfund for an ambulance the home needed. The campaign eventually met 250% of its fundraising goal.
The organization has now grown into a full team, creating multiple elderly homes and partnering with organizations like Feed the Need, a nonprofit that provides meals for those affected by natural disasters.
The $15,000 award will fund a new venture for Rekhi: an online art auction program called Elder Art that will be used to showcase and sell paintings produced by older adults. All income from the art pieces will also be used to support elderly homes.
Elder Art is an expansion to another subsidiary of Rescuing Wisdom, Wicks of Life, which sells items created by older adults, such as candles and sweaters, that are made of recycled waste products. In addition to raising money to support elderly homes, Wicks of Life also promotes sustainability.
Joint families, which were once common in middle-income countries, are disappearing, said associate professor of gerontology Jennifer Ailshire. (Courtesy of Vivhan Rekhi)
“The intricate artistic talent and the work that these residents of old age homes have created; it just called for an entirely different platform on a different scale,” Rekhi said.
The issues Rescuing Wisdom addresses stem from inadequate infrastructure for older adults. Jennifer Ailshire, an associate professor of gerontology, said middle-income countries, such as India, often don’t have well-developed pension systems or long-term care, forcing older adults to either live with their families or face financial instability.
“The population of older adults is growing so fast,” Ailshire said. “The government can’t quite keep up with it.”
Joint families, which were once common in middle-income countries, are disappearing as young adults increasingly opt to move into urban areas for economic opportunities, Ailshire said. Without their families, older adults rely on insufficient government programs and elderly homes for care.
“Developing the kinds of programs that offer supportive services is incredibly important,” Ailshire said. “Even in the United States, we don’t have the kind of support system that we really would hope to have for our older adults. So, those programs are important in any country, but they’re really important in countries like India and China that are aging rapidly.”
Veer Vora, a sophomore majoring in mathematics, said that while his home remains multigenerational, he has seen how joint families are becoming less common, especially in urban areas.
“For the majority of urban India, the elderly are not considered [as] respected enough as they should be,” said Vora, who also serves as the director of events planning and logistics of the Association of Indian Students. “That’s the reason why we have a lot of old age homes where grandparents … are removed from their houses.”
Rescuing Wisdom and Elder Art are helping tackle these pressing issues. The organization’s work has allowed the elderly homes he works with to raise capacity and fight the rising number of elder abandonment cases in India, Rekhi said. With help from Rescuing Wisdom, the original old age home Rehki campaigned for was able to build another facility.
“A lot of people are getting very innovative and coming up with creative ways to support older adults and the aging population,” Ailshire said. “I think that’s great, and it’s really important that that’s happening in these countries.”
