Isha returned to her village in India in 2020 during COVID-19 while finishing her undergraduate degree at the University of Alberta. She was overwhelmed by seeing the adverse impact COVID-19 was having around the village, especially on the education of children. On one hand, there were students like her who had the privilege to complain about online classes, while on the other hand, millions of children like the ones attending government school in her village didn’t have the opportunity to learn at all.

Isha and her brother Abhijeet decided to do something about it and started teaching a few students in their house. On day 1, only 8 students came and before they knew it, approximately 100 students were coming to them to get support in education. After teaching students for a few weeks, they realized various educational challenges children in their village were facing such as lack of learning space, shortage of teachers at school, and much more.

Hence, they decided to formalize this initiative and incorporate it as an NGO to provide the children of Kheowali village with quality education. They recruited fellow Univeristy of Alberta colleagues, Melania Antoszko and Michelle Kim to bring JIVAM’s mission alive. JIVAM’s team strongly believes that by educating children in this village, they will be able to transform them into empowered individuals who will then solve the challenges facing their communities.