You can respond to adversity in different ways. You can tackle it head-on and resolve to help others or just look out for Number One.
Aakanksha Sadekar has never contemplated the latter option since arriving in Aberdeen in 2001. On the contrary, the former Albyn School and St Margaret’s School pupil, who graduated from Robert Gordon University as a petroleum engineer, has thrown herself into a range of philanthropic initiatives, both large and small, ever since she worked in the British Heart Foundation shop in Union Street and organised all manner of BBC Children in Need activities in the midst of studying for exams.
For her, growing up in Aberdeen allowed her “a very happy and secure childhood” and she was also actively involved in expat Indian community events as well as assisting in various fundraising activities for the first-ever Hindu temple in the city.
But this redoubtable young woman rose to the occasion in grand style when the Covid pandemic was at its worst after travelling to India and launching myriad schemes to help the huge numbers of people who were struggling to cope.
Aakanksha initially started cooking for her cousin and other students stuck in halls of residence in Pune, but swiftly expanded her sights to opening a full-scale community kitchen, which delivered 10,000 fresh hot meals every day to women and children in the poorest parts of the city. She backed it up by empowering females to escape the sex industry by turning to other productive areas of work such as candle-making.
Helping earthquake victims in Nepal
One wouldn’t have expected anything less from the individual who went to volunteer in Nepal after a grievous earthquake struck the country in 2015 and, while there, she realised there was a need for a platform for women to tell the world about their achievements, their highs and lows, and their own experiences.
As she said: “It was all about building a community [which became known as Storified.me] which was welcoming of others and helpful to each other. There was just so much to be done after the earthquake it sometimes felt overwhelming, but there were also so many good people who were doing fantastic work in difficult circumstances.”
Aakanksha has just returned to the place she calls home “in the Deen” and is already reaching out to charities and striving to play her part for her Scottish community.
She has expertise, enthusiasm, energy and an effervescent attitude: the sort of qualities which explain why, prior to the blight of Covid, she was identified by the Indian government as one of the foremost Young Leaders of Indian Origin.
It will be interesting to see her journey continue in the Granite City.
Conversation