The I’mPossible Fellowship
This 24-month experiential fellowship builds resilience and skills in children and youth living with HIV. The program equips them to lead a healthy and productive adult lives by addressing their physical and mental health, and education needs.
These programs honor Rishi’s deep connection with Snehagram, a vocational and rehabilitation center for children living with HIV.
There are almost 2 million HIV-infected children living globally, and India is home to half of all adolescents living with HIV. These youth face a range of complex issues and live with an uncertain future. As young children, because of HIV they have experienced multiple losses in their families; some may have lost one or both parents, or siblings, and many face social abandonment.
Apart from medical care, these young people need role models, an educational pathway, psychosocial support, and a way to make their dreams come true. The Fellowship addresses these gaps by fulfiling their needs simultaneously building self-confidence, dignity and resilience.
The Fellowship’s specific objectives are to:
- Engage Fellows in building upon their own professional development, by providing experiences that develop skills in organization, critical thinking, management, communications and leadership, while pursuing a higher education degree.
- Empower Fellows to build resilience among their community by mentoring younger HIV-infected and affected individuals to specifically address their individual concerns in the core areas of health, education and livelihoods.
There are almost 2 million HIV-infected children living globally, and India has the second-largest number of children and adolescents living with HIV. These youth face a range of complex issues and live with an uncertain future. As young children, because of HIV they have experienced multiple losses in their families; some may have lost one or both parents, or siblings, and many face social abandonment.
Apart from medical care, these young people need role models, an educational pathway, psychosocial support, and a way to make their dreams come true. The Fellowship addresses these gaps by fulfiling their needs simultaneously building self-confidence, dignity and resilience. Through mentorship and leadership development, it empowers them to drive transformation in their communities, ensuring a ripple effect of lasting positive change.
What we do to achieve our vision? Babu Seenappa, a former Fellow Mentor, shows us how:
Being healthy is a priority of our program, and we ensure that every child with HIV is on treatment and continues to live a healthy and holistic life. We understand education is empowerment, hence we focus our on own education, and support our peers to achieve their dreams, too.
Livelihoods: Upskilling ourselves, by focusing on self-confidence and resilience, by aspiring to be our best selves, we are able to identify a employment and vocation and career, and forge a pathway towards financial independence.
Gender equality is for all, as we believe that everyone, regardless of their gender, should have the same rights and opportunities, treating everyone fairly.
Agents of Change: We are ready to demonstrate strong values of commitment and bring about positive change to our communities.
The program supports every Fellow to be enrolled in a graduate-level course. The Fellowship training curriculum follows the KAS framework that focuses on:
Knowledge: improving access to accurate information about HIV and health
Attitude: enhancing positive attitudes towards oneself as well as towards living a responsible and healthy life
Skill: promoting behavioural skills in order to be able to negotiate with vulnerable situations and impact their own lives and those of the peers
Fellows are matched with 25 peers each, and provide mentorship across the four domains integral to the Sustainable Development Goals: (1) health and well-being (2) quality education; (3) decent living and economic growth and (4) gender equality.
The I’mPossible Fellowship Program is active across 6 districts in Karnataka and in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu in partnership with residential facilities for orphans and community-based organizations. The learning site is Snehagram, a residential home in Krishnagiri, that functions as a ‘hub’ for activities central to the program (trainings, camps, events, partner meetings). Since its inception in 2021, two batches of about 10 Fellows each have been through the program and a third batch is currently ongoing, together reaching over 1,000 children with HIV.