The I’mPossible Fellowship is a 24-month experiential program that builds resilience and skills in children and young people living with HIV. It equips them to lead a healthy and productive adult life by addressing their physical, psychosocial and educational needs, and transforms them into role models for their younger peers.
A unique aspect is participatory action research that builds capacity within the community and puts Fellows on a world stage alongside national and international academic institutions.
24
months of experiential learning
30
Fellows since 2021
1,000+
children living with or affected by HIV reached
7
districts across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
Objectives
- Enable Fellows to complete higher education, prioritize health outcomes, develop leadership skills and become changemakers.
- Empower Fellows to mentor younger children living with HIV, addressing their core needs in health, education and livelihoods.
Why the I’mPossible Fellowship?
Almost 2 million children are living with HIV globally, and India has the largest number of children and adolescents living with HIV in Asia. As young children, they experience multiple losses in their families; some may have lost one or both parents, or siblings, and many face social abandonment.
In addition to 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 while building self-confidence, dignity, and resilience. Through mentorship and leadership development, it empowers them to drive transformation in their own communities, ensuring a ripple effect of lasting positive change.
How we achieve it
Fellows go through an established curriculum and placement for their individual education, skilling and development. Each Fellow is matched with up to 25 peers and provides mentorship across four domains integral to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
SDG 3
Good Health and Well-being
SDG 4
Quality Education
SDG 8
Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 5
Gender Equality
Being healthy is a priority of our program, and we ensure that every child with HIV is on treatment and continues to live a safe, healthy and holistic life. We understand education is empowerment, hence we focus on our own education, and support our peers to achieve their dreams too. We focus on our livelihoods by skilling ourselves and identifying our vocation, and we forge a pathway towards financial independence. Gender equality is for all, and we believe that everyone, regardless of their gender, should have the same rights and opportunities. We are changemakers: we strive to pay it forward and bring about positive change in our communities.
I’mPossible Fellows
Fellowship structure
The 24-month Fellowship moves through three phases.
Months 1-3
Initial training
Fellows are trained to design and deliver a teaching curriculum for the peers assigned as their mentees: one month of in-house training, followed by a two-month hand-holding period guided by a senior Fellow.
Months 4-15
Learning agenda and placement
Each Fellow is placed at a partner institution or community in Karnataka or Tamil Nadu and paired with up to 25 peers, mentoring them on health, education, gender and livelihoods.
Months 16-24
Self-learning and skilling
Fellows spend up to nine months on their own coursework, vocational skilling activities and an elective of their choosing.
Our reach
The I’mPossible Fellowship is active across six districts in Karnataka and in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, in partnership with residential facilities for orphaned children and with communities and families. Snehagram, a residential home in Krishnagiri, functions as a learning hub for activities central to the program such as education, training and camps.
Since the program’s inception in 2021, 30 Fellows have reached over 1,000 children living with or affected by HIV.
Fellowship curriculum
Key learning objectives
- Understand the importance of health maintenance for individual well-being and help peers achieve good health.
- Instill the importance of education in peers and support their educational and livelihood journeys.
- Develop mentoring skills, and learn to seek and benefit from mentorship.
- Cultivate leadership qualities and understand the importance of contributing positively to the community as changemakers.
Curriculum outline
- Foundational course: key principles of the Fellowship
- I’mPossible intervention vision and mission
- Adolescent needs
- Holistic, person-centred healthcare model
- Child protection policies
- HIV care interventions
- HIV care fundamentals
- Comprehensive HIV care and ART
- Supporting adherence to HIV care and treatment
- Health (SDG 3)
- Promoting healthy living practices: nutrition and lifestyle
- Disease prevention and quality healthcare access
- Mental health awareness and intervention strategies
- Advocacy for community healthcare access
- Education (SDG 4)
- Equitable education access
- Supporting peers in their educational journeys
- Skilling (SDG 8)
- Opportunities and resources for vocational training
- Financial literacy: basics of personal finance management
- Gender (SDG 5)
- Understanding gender equality and gender-equitable practices
- Economic empowerment: encouraging gender-inclusive leadership
- Life skills
- Mentorship and counselling
- Leadership and the pathway to becoming a changemaker
Sharing what we learn
Running the Fellowship generates a great deal of learning. We share it with the scientific and public health communities.
Elevating voices of the community
Community-based participatory research is key to understanding our programs’ impact. It involves children and young people with lived experience of HIV and adversity in the evaluation process, ensuring their perspectives shape how evidence is generated. This approach empowers participants and fosters relevant, impactful findings.
On the international stage
Fellows from the I’mPossible and Positive Running programs present their findings to international audiences, fostering their growth and visibility. Participants have presented at the International AIDS Conference in Montreal, Canada and in Munich, Germany.
Student ambassadors
Visiting students facilitate knowledge exchange by sharing diverse cultural perspectives and academic insights, bringing about mutual enrichment.
- Management students from the Xavier Institute of Management Education (XIME) are placed with RISHI Foundation Fellows to enrich their experience in the social sector.
- Students pursuing a public health degree at Johns Hopkins University spend three months working with RISHI Foundation and its hub partner sites, conducting research, gaining field perspectives in public health, and mentoring Fellows.
Support the Fellowship
Every Fellow you support goes on to mentor up to 25 younger peers. If you would like to fund a Fellowship, partner with us, or volunteer your time, we would love to hear from you.