Tejushwee Prathna Khetha : rise of a bold and audacious lady towards success

A gold-oriented young lady aged 21, Tejushwee Prathna Khetha is filled with kindness, generosity, compassion, integrity, a willingness to achieve her dreams and authenticity. The president of AIYVA, Tejushwee Prathna confides to the readers of News on Sunday her fight and her vision. 

A strong woman is a self-made woman who tries to overcome her fears, whatever the situation. The story of the president AIYVA is indeed very much inspiring. The resident of Morcellement Saint André is currently studying LLB at the University of Mauritius but at the same time is a vivid social worker. She reveals that her endeavour and passion towards social work has been gifted to her by her mother. “My progress in the field of social work has very much to do with the inspiration that I have derived from my mother. She has been the President of the village and is known to be the second woman president elected in the northern districts of the country. She is still pretty much involved in social work and inspired by her selfless devotion, I decided that even I want to cater for the needs and benefits of the society.” 

Tejushwee Prathna comes from a broken family and has been solely raised by her mother as from the age of six. She confides that her path has been very difficult, where she has had to face the wrath of many people. “From going through stigmatisation to gathering the courage of facing the critics, I can say now that it has not been easy, but my passion for social work made things easier. Still, I am criticised for being a woman, as according to people, a woman that young, cannot be on top and manage things.”

Social work in the DNA 

The young lady started social work since the age of five. She was helping her mother. When she turned 18 years old, she became the Vice President of YUVA for the branch of Morcellement Saint André and did not leave the path that she was trying to carve despite all the hurdles from society.

Now, she is the President of AIYVA (Alliance of Interconnected Young Volunteers Association). “Our mission is to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to realise their full potential as productive, caring and responsible citizens. I joined AIYVA last year as an Executive Member in the Strategic, Planning and Research Unit, whereby my work was to initiate the planning of projects that have been approved by the board and doing project write-ups.”

She explains that AIYVA consists of more than one hundred members, mostly youngsters, where they are trying to promote unity among the various social organs so that they are able to encourage the youngsters to enrich the community and encourage them to stand for others. She avers that our society has not really adapted to some changes, like seeing women as top managers and doing a great job. “Women are the architects of society. So much emphasis must be given in promoting and encouraging women to step forward. It is the thinking and the mentality that need to change for any progress to happen. There has been constant lack of corporation from various organisations of the village as well as a lack of motivation. However, it is said that the foundation of every state is the education of its youth.”

Projects 

She recalls that the projects that are being planned are in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals of the Agenda 2030 set by the United Nations. “This year, we are planning to help students who are in need, by providing them with school materials as well as free tuition at the Community Centre of Morcellement Saint André. We believe in the concept Education for All, thus our moto is to ensure that the children are being able to go to school.” 

She adds that since it is a youth-led organisation, another project for this year is to empower and sensitise the youngsters through different types of courses and workshops like First Aid course, as we do every year, workshops on drugs awareness, and even leadership skills. “Our society is still a patriarchal one, yes, many of us (as women) still face issues when it comes to gender gaps. That is why in an attempt to break the gender barriers, we had a domino competition consisting of both genders and we will be having workshops as well as a campaign to be able to fulfil our goals. We are also concerned about the environment, that is why we are having projects like sustainable household management and promoting the concept of go-green.” 

Other projects of this year are Pastry Making classes whereby both boys and girls will be participating and it will be open for all ages, she highlights. “We will be having a blood donation drive along with a full health check-up. Since our Executive Director is the Global Peace Ambassador of Mauritius, our focus is also on the promotion of peace. With all these mentioned, we always try to innovate our planning and executions of our projects by doing door-to-door campaigns, by having interesting topics in our workshops and we do always try to tackle the taboo things of the society.”