Greetings from Rice University’s Nourish team!
With about 24 hours until we leave on our flight to India, we’re all really excited to be working with the MEERA Foundation (and thankful that our visa applications got processed). The MEERA Foundation (an organization established for Mutual Education for Empowerment and Rural Action) is a women’s organization focused on women’s empowerment, environmental and natural resource management, children’s advocacy, community healthcare, and education. We are extremely thankful to be given the opportunity to volunteer with this amazing nonprofit organization. Our project is focused on tuberculosis research and education in the community of Dindigul–we’re really excited to finally get started.
We can’t wait to explore the new culture of Tamil Nadu and get to know the people we will meet. We are also looking forward to eating some delicious food, learning more about MEERA’s staff and the community they serve, and finally meeting our project supervisor, Mr. Raja Mohamed in person after skyping with him over the course of our preparation. The opportunity to not only learn about sustainable development but to participate in it first hand is sure to be an adventure for all of us. We are so excited for this learning opportunity and the chance to contribute to a cause we are all passionate about. More information about MEERA’s goals and the work we will be doing can be found on MEERA’s website: http://meerafoundation.webs.com/
To introduce ourselves, Rice’s Nourish Team of 2016 consists of Juan, Sarah, and Adrish (our project leader). Even though Rice is located in Houston, TX, we hail from across the country. Juan is a junior Cognitive Science major born in Colombia but living in Florida, Sarah is a sophomore English major from Portland, OR, and Adrish is a freshman Biochemistry major from Los Angeles, CA. We hope you will follow along with us on our six-week internship with MEERA. We would love to hear your thoughts, comments, and advice too:) Thank you so much for the support from everyone who made this possible! We will keep you updated with weekly blog posts and innumerable photographs.
See you soon!
