Neysa sanghvi

WOMEN OF SUBSTANCE JULY 2022

1. NEYSA SANGHAVI

Neysa Sanghavi was born and raised in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. After completing her IB Diploma Program from Singapore International School, Mumbai with highest academic excellence, she pursued her undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, United States. There she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacology and Drug Development and Bachelor of Science in Human Biology, with a minor in Entrepreneurship.

She received the highest honor – the Order of the Laurel and the Palm and is a recipient of the prestigious Renaissance Scholar and Dornsife Scholar awards. At the age of sixteen she began volunteering at Avega Agahozo, a Rwandan nonprofit established after the 1994 Tutsi genocide to provide shelter, job training, and education for women survivors. There, she learned about Rwandans’ perspectives on the genocide that challenged the simplistic and binary narrative in history books. Neysa was motivated to publish a number of articles chronicling these stories in local Rwandan and Indian newspapers. Shortly thereafter, she launched the Study Rwanda Program, an initiative geared at countering media misrep- resentation of Rwanda. Subsequently, at age 17, she was awarded the official title of “Brand Ambassador” by the Mr Ernest RWAMUCYO the High Commissioner of Rwandah India-with concurrent accreditation to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at the time.

It was through her volunteering experience that she learned about how the women survivors in rural Rwanda had not received health checkups in over five years. Survivors of rape had not received HIV testing. Horrific machete wounds inflicted during the genocide had never been thoroughly treated. See less
— at Constitution Club Of India.