Interview with Megha Bhatia | Our Voix
I hope this can inspire you to become a successful social entrepreneur too! Why is it important to hear the story of a successful social entrepreneur?
Having the vision to become a social entrepreneur is great. Making it happen is another story!
The story of real people, like you and me, who decided to take their life into their hands and make their dreams come true, for the greater good! The story of a real successful social entrepreneur, who built their success from scratch: thanks to their passion, their authenticity, and their vision!
In that frame, I had the pleasure to interview Megha Bhatia, founder of Our Voix – on a mission to prevent children from sexual abuse and make this world a better place by being there for those who need you!
1)Thank you for accepting to share your story! As an introduction, can you please tell us about yourself, your background, and what brought you to create Our Voix?
I am Megha Bhatia, LLM Specialisation in Human Rights from University College London. Founder of Our Voix, a youth lead organization working on prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. During the final year of my law college in India, I was dealing with rape cases of young children for two months. I used to hear their stories. Their stories used to send chills down my spine. I wanted to help these little souls, but since then I was a student, I lacked the necessary skills. I decided to pursue human rights, I got an offer letter from University College London. In London, after campaigning for the rights of the children in the United Kingdom on issues such as Yemen Crisis, Syrian crises, etc. I observed the utter need to end violence against children. My research on the prevention of Child Sexual Abuse helped me to realize the need to work on prevention in India. Moreover, when children are sexually abused their voices are muted by society, thus we need to add Our Voix to theirs to make it heard. Hence, Our Voix was formed to provide a platform to children where they can raise their voice without being blamed or ashamed for the same. After hearing a lot of stories of survivors, experiences, researches, ignited a zeal in me to help the little souls and start Our Voix.
2)Can you tell us the story of Our Voix? How did the idea come, and what it took to make it a reality?
Having an Idea is easy but the major task is implementing it. The idea came during the end days of my masters’ studies. When people around me were applying for jobs and choosing a corporate career. I was not fascinated by the same. People told me to do a corporate job and earn a good amount of money rather than help people. There were times when individuals used to say don’t start your organization now, you are just 24, gain experience. I am happy I never listened to them, If I would have, I would have not been able to save so many lives. I followed my heart and I decided to start an organization and develop a program to help children to be empowered, identify abuses and raise their voice.
I came back to India and started building a team. A team of lawyers, psychologist, teachers, students, etc. Initially taking permissions from the schools to conducts this workshop was a task. They wouldn’t agree, sometimes would allow us to conduct the workshop for only girls. Then making the parents understand the issue and explaining them the magnitude was another hurdle. Parents were hesitant to talk about the issue, they used to say” Things like this does not happen in Our Society” They were ignorant of the fact that in cases of Child Sexual Abuse in 90% cases the culprit is a known person.
From taking permission from schools to now schools inviting us to conduct these workshops. We have travelled a long way. From children not raising their voice, to children teaching other peers about the issue has been a beautiful and challenging journey. It became a reality through a chain of volunteers, team members who worked for the cause selflessly day and night. Now we organize campaigns such as #istandforbachpan, #learninglawswithourvoix, #musicwithourvoix, #dramawithourvoix as methods to engage youth for the cause.
3)So far, what has been the impact of Our Voix?
The impact of Our Voix has been profound. Our Voix foundation has been targeting different stakeholder. It has trained more than 14,500 young children on prevention of Child Sexual Abuse. It has provided training to teachers to prevent abuse. Moreover, have engaged with youth from different colleges to be change makers and be the voice for children. It has expanded its volunteer base to London, the USA, and Canada. For our Campaign #IStandForBachpan, we have been joined by celebrities, RJS, TEDx speakers, singers, Youth leaders from different countries, for one cause i.e to end sexual violence against children.
4)What is your ambition for Our Voix in the coming 3 years?
We aim to make Our Voix reach different states and have a global presence. I believe this knowledge of safety needs to reach out to every single child. In the next three Years, we aim to make Our Voix, a one-stop centre for all information related to abuse. We will be launching books and Youtube channel on the prevention of abuse. Engaging youth from different countries to initiate campaigns on the same. Work on prevention and protection both and the rehabilitation of the victim and culprit.
5)Can you share with us a story of a successful social entrepreneur and/or participant of an Our Voix immersion experience?
There have been many such experiences of the participant from our workshops. Raja, our youth leader for whom we conducted the workshop is now working on spreading knowledge about the topic to his other peers. Even our volunteers who were an earlier victim of abuse, are now survivors.
6)According to you, and from what you see with Our Voix what are the 3 main success factors to become a successful social entrepreneur and make a positive change?
The first and foremost is that you need to believe in the idea. When you will believe in your aim, then only people will believe in you. Having that vision and mission cleared for the organization. Secondly, a team is a core of everything. A team can make or break you. In our Voix journey, every single volunteer and team member has contributed so much. Today Our Voix has reached and impact so many lives, the major reason behind it is the hard work of many volunteers, sleepless nights, early morning wake-ups, continuous hard work of individuals. Thirdly, Mentors, the people who guide you in the path has a crucial role to play. Our Voix journey, there have been many mentors who have guided us to follow the vision which we want for the safety of the children. They have been pillars of Our Voix.
7)Do you have a final message, for a potential successful social entrepreneur who still wonder if creating a social business is a viable career track?
A message to potential social entrepreneur. Very few people will choose this path, follow your heart and keep on working. There is no substitute for hard work. There will challenging days, but the impact that you will be making on the lives of the people, every single effort of yours will be worth it. The satisfaction you will get after making an impact or in the journey, it will be an enriching experience. In the journey of entrepreneurship, you will be able to make your own self the best version of you.
