My Nonprofit

Community Outreach

“If I cannot be the sun that shines upon the earth, I can still be a lamp and light up my street.”

My fascination with the plight of refugees began with my grandmother’s stories of the 1947 partition of India. Seeing Afghans clinging to planes in 2021, desperate to escape the Taliban, compelled me to act. Concerned that their plight would be forgotten like my grandmother’s story, I reached out to “Reestablish Richmond,” a local non-profit, for volunteer opportunities.During a volunteering event, I met our school’s ESL teacher. Impressed by my passion, she helped me and another leader establish Tusome Pamoja in April 2022, focusing on education for refugee students. We aimed to address literacy challenges as many refugees are placed in grades based on age, not literacy levels, leading to potential failure.Our goal is not only to impart literacy skills but also to address broader social, educational, and economic disparities faced by the refugee community.

Tusome Pamoja

Tusome Pamoja is a nonprofit organization that provides numeracy and literacy skills to students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) children primarily from East African countries. Every Saturday, Tusome Pamoja holds weekly tutoring sessions where volunteers, teachers, and students work together and collaborate on group assignments. I co-founded this nonprofit in 2022 along with Liz Wiznerowicz and Kenya Gray who are both veterans in working with refugee and immigrant communities in the Richmond area.
As the youngest member of the leadership team, I manage a lot of the outreach, technology, advertisement, fundraising, and volunteer recruitment. This work has given me immense personal and learning experience and satisfaction in being able to make small but meaningful changes in the community.
Since its founding, in 2022, we have grown rapidly to accommodate almost 63 volunteers and 80+ students cumulatively and have raised close to $15,000 in funding.

Check out our website on this link

My Experience at Tusome

Superintendent’s Advisory Committee

As one of the two members selected from my entire school, my primary duty is to contribute my knowledge, expertise, and insights to help improve the educational experiences and outcomes of students in Henrico County Public Schools. The committee’s primary purpose is to provide input and feedback to the Superintendent and other school administrators on issues related to education in the district.

For the past three consecutive years, I have been nominated for this leadership position. In these sessions, I have championed the cause of better cultural integration of students with very diverse backgrounds like refugees and immigrants, advocated for mental health awareness, and raising a voice against faith-based discrimination and hate such as antisemitism and islamophobia that has seen a rise in the last few months.

I am currently in the process of creating a program through Henrico County Public Schools to address the issues I mentioned earlier. I am collaborating with our county’s superintendent, Dr. Amy Cashwell, and Director of Highschool Education, Mr. Thomas Ferrell, to expand this program.

Refugee Awareness and Financial Literacy Sessions (Book Presentations)

As I was launching my first book, I took this as an opportunity to create awareness about the challenges the local refugee population faces and how ordinary citizens can help these communities. Through this book launch, I sold over 30 copies of my book and raised $150 which I donated to Tusome Pamoja.

I also host financial literacy sessions with refugee and immigrant families. I teach them about basics of banking and simple ways of preventing bank fraud. Some of my students have reported that their families are victims of fraud. To help this population, I have made a website that, along with my book, provides resources to help prevent financial fraud and promote financial literacy.

You can see my website here. aaahttps://www.refusecureguard.com/about-2 here

ReEstablish Richmond Multicultural Festival

I participated in the ReEstablish Richmond Multicultural Festival which celebrates and promotes the ethnic diversity of the Richmond area. I spearheaded Tusome Pamoja’s initiative to advertise itself at these festivals and recruit more volunteers in the process. Through these festivals, Tusome Pamoja has recruited almost 13 volunteers and been able to jumpstart potential partnerships with other nonprofits such as Culture Encounters and Virginia Department of Social Services.

My Nonprofit

Sidhartha Basu

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Sidhartha Basu

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