Bharucha on UN panel

Sanaya Bharucha (pictured), 27, of Poona, who has been working with Teach For India (TFI), a non-profit organization working with under-resourced communities since 2009, has been selected to be part of a youth panel by the International Commission on Financing Global Education Opportunity for the United Nations (UN). The panel, which includes Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, will provide inputs for a plan to reform global education to be launched in September 2016. Bharucha’s name was submitted by Teach For All, the parent organization of TFI, informs an email received from her mother Shirin.
The Education Commission, chaired by the UN’s special envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, is "a global initiative which gathers world leaders, policy makers and researchers to develop a plan… to recommend pathways to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal on Education.” According to the Teach For All website, this is "to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030. The Commission’s report, with inputs from the youth panel, will be presented to the UN secretary-general at the UN General Assembly in September 2016.
Bharucha recently attended the four-day Teach for All Head of Training Conference and Global Teaching Summit held in Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia from May 2 to 5, 2016. "My role at the conference was to conduct sessions on student leadership and share my experiences from the Maya Musical with 180 attendees from over 30 countries,” she stated in an email response to Parsiana. "I was the lead facilitator for Peru, Russia, China and Armenia and facilitated learning experiences, reflection circles and helped deepen their understanding of student leadership” through building relationships and fostering a strong culture within the group and guiding the group on developing knowledge and insights, among other things.
Explaining her involvement with the Maya Musical, a project she has been heading since 2013, Bharucha claims it has "impacted 30,000 children across the country and set an example for what low income children can achieve.” First staged in 2014, the musical is a partnership between TFI students and artists on Broadway. It is "an original script with Broadway composed music and tells the story of Princess Maya’s journey... Much more than… a spectacular show… it integrates academics, values and mindsets, and exposure and access… The Maya children have travelled across the country, performed at conferences and public spaces… and the Maya story will find itself into hundreds of TFI classrooms…A documentary film will capture the 18-month journey of creating the Maya Musical and book,” Bharucha elaborates.
Alumna of Poona’s St Mary’s School and Ness Wadia College of Commerce, Bharucha passed both the ICSE and BCom exams in the first class with distinction. Daughter of homemaker Shirin and retired civil engineer Sarosh, Sanaya "has always been an avid reader and an adventure lover. I enjoy white water rafting and trekking, and I am a certified scuba diver. I have represented my district in numerous sports including hockey and football,” she shares.