In December 2015, Heeral visited the town of Nadiad in Eastern Gujarat, India. She met Mr Kishore Bhinde, and accompanied one of his annual trips providing wholesome meals to children at rural schools. Witnessing malnutrition amongst the children, Heeral did some cheeky research and found out about a nation-wide“Midday Meal Scheme”. A government initiative providing one meal per day to schoolchildren, the benefits of the program are not reaching all children, especially those in Gujarat. 

I interviewed Heeral, a UNSW student and Project Officer for Medical Students Aid Project (MSAP) about her experience kickstarting Food For Thought to improve nutrition, health and education in this rural school and community.

Tell us about the Food for Thought project!

Food For Thought was born from a trip to India where I visited four rural schools, realised that the children were malnourished and lethargic and decided that I wanted to change this.
We provide a nutritional supplement meal 3 times a week to provide more micronutrients to the children. They’re quite tired at school - that means they can’t concentrate and it becomes a cycle of not being able concentrate, not studying well, living in poverty. Alongside, we try to teach healthy habits like washing hands, staying clean, what kind of things you should [or shouldn’t] be eating.

What’s the normal diet of the children?

At home, they might have rice and daal (lentils) or khichdi. Fruits are not very common at all, fresh vegetables are not part of the Midday Meal Scheme or are only a one-off occurrence…They might have roti (a flat wheat bread), and maybe potatoes... Essentially, a carbohydrate rich diet lacking in micronutrients and protein.

What do you hope the project will achieve for the children’s education?

For the health education, we want them to form habits that they can then teach their children. If they’re learning that they should wash their hands [so they don’t] get sick…we want to ingrain that so they can pass it down to the next generation.

Who is involved in this program?

Locally in India, our project supervisor is Mr Bhinde. He monitors provision of food, buys the food and keeps the accounts. Another person takes measurements like mid-upper arm circumference, weight, heights and enters the data into spreadsheets. We’ve had local support, Santram Hospital (a charitable cataract hospital) are doing eye checks for us and providing glasses…and local businesses in Gujarat by providing liquid soap for learning to wash hands.


And here in Australia?

We’ve got the whole MSAP team who have been really supportive. In particular, my Project co-officer Sharanya Mohan has been so enthusiastic and dedicated. She’s always says, “Yes Heeral, let’s do it!” It’s never “No, we can’t”, it’s always “Yep, we can, let’s work out how”, which is great.

My parents have also been really supportive, especially with translating to Gujarati and getting the right message across communication barriers as well… We’ve got our projects subcommittee as well who have been really dedicated. The whole MSAP team has given good feedback and constructive criticism every step of the way.

We’re [also involved with] a local spiritual group. When we film the videos, we need children, especially those who speak Gujarati because the Nadiad children relate [better] with other children. So we run educational sessions with them and film the videos. A local Gujrati radio station run also interviewed us to help spread the word about Food For Thought which is great.

How do you adapt to cultural and language barriers?

First and foremost, the children don’t understand English so all the videos and information we provide is in Gujarati. Secondly, when we are filming, we try and keep the surroundings close to what they would be in Gujarat. For example, the toilets we use here would not be familiar. So we try and film outdoors, have the kids washing their hands in a steel basin, to make it familiar.

What have you learnt personally throughout this experience working on the project?

The importance of communication! I’ll give you an example. We had a spreadsheet where we [recorded] mid upper arm circumference measurements. We assumed everything would be in centimetres. We looked at the data and compared it to WHO charts, and all the data was way off the charts! We couldn’t work out what on earth was going wrong! …I watched the video [again], they were using the right technique, but then I zoomed in and we realised they had turned the tape around to the side of inches!

There are so many projects happening locally and globally. So it was really hard getting that message across about why people should get behind this project…why should people support MSAP? It really came down to the fact that MSAP runs grassroots projects. It provides a platform for students to really get involved, they can target the issues they see in the local and global community. This was really important in promoting the project, and the response from students has been really positive.

And the future of the program? 

We want to slowly rebuild the toilets, do dental checkups, continue with eyechecks, get another school involved, educate pregnant women and have younger children involved in the school as well for feeding sessions.

What do you think is the value for young people to volunteer or get involved in projects like this?

I cannot emphasise enough how much of a great learning experience this has been for me. When you start a project, you realise there are a lot of practical things…it’s nice to have good ideas, but putting them to paper is where the hard work comes in…It’s not easy, but it’s very, very rewarding. Not rewarding in spite of the challenges, it’s rewarding because of the challenges! You have to overcome so many things, and you still get there in the end, and it’s those little successes [that count]…Even if you’re not [currently] passionate about something, you’ll find something, maybe even in the place you least expect…take off with it and don’t look back!



What do you like to do in your spare time?

I love dancing! I like choreographing, and dancing to anything - put any music on! I love reading (the last book I read was The Short History of Everything, by Bill Bryson) and cooking.

Any cooking disasters?

Yes! (In one short word.) Laughs…My problem is rotis [flatbreads], they look more like Australia instead of being nice and round.

Three words you would use to describe yourself?

Driven, crazy, and… a little stubborn. Laughs. I think my mum would agree with this. Laughs.  Once I put my head to something, I want to see it through to the end.

Any final words for promotion?

We’re having a Bollywood Party on September 15th, open to all uni students! It’ll be a very fun night, we’ll have bowling, a DJ and someone to do henna. It’s a great way to learn about the project and get directly involved. We’ll have a stall with cards, you can write a message to a child and we’ll send it across…to help form a long lasting relationship between MSAP and this community. Check out our event on Facebook and come along!

Bollywood Party: https://www.facebook.com/events/629701580527805/ 
Website: http://msap.org.au/foodforthought/