Sandya Valli Vikram, a graduating senior at Alpharetta High School, who is a volunteer and a leader in our community, has been improving the lives of desolate people by fundraising and giving up most of her pocket money.
As a high school sophomore and junior, Sandya volunteered several hundred hours at more than 35 rural medical camps in arid, rural India. As a student of medicine, her goal in life is to eliminate the paucity of healthcare in rural areas, both by serving individually and by collectively collaborating with practicing medical professionals.
Initially her journey sought to make a direct impact here in Georgia, but she soon realized that India was more welcoming and more in need of her efforts. After having sponsored medical camps and learning how to organize them in India, she again embarked on the journey of organizing rural healthcare programs in Georgia as a senior at Alpharetta High School.
Sandya hit a major roadblock when several doctors were not as willing to participate in the noble cause of charitable medical services because of fears stemming from liability. After researching Georgia's laws, and enrolling in the GivingPoint Institute, she reached out to lawyers to seek change in Georgia's Charitable Liability law.
This summer she intends to sit down with Georgia's legislators and recount her experiences from operating the health clinics in rural India and using the skills she learned from the GivingPoint Institute (GPI) in hopes of reforming Georgia's Charitable Liability Law to remove a barrier for doctors who want to serve, thereby encouraging more physicians to help more freely.
GivingPoint, founded in 2008, by a renowned philanthropist Mr. Derek V. Smith, seeks to unleash the passion and energy of young people to create an unprecedented level of civic engagement – to create caring hearts and entrepreneurial minds. Over 9,000 youth, nonprofits and donors are using GivingPoint's resources and GivingPoint’s online resources have helped to create a more than $8.1M charitable impact in just the last five years.
Last night (April 26), Sandya attended GivingPoint’s annual Sparks Student Awards Ceremony, a celebration of the end of the GivingPoint Institute program year. There, she won the grand prize, The Spark Award, totaling $3,000 for her GPI project, which seeks to reform Georgia’s Charitable Liability Law. Sandya won the award for the importance and potential value of having the most ambitious and impactful project idea.
Sandya intends to use the award money to mitigate the paucity of healthcare in rural areas.
