My name is Hasvi Muriki. I'm a student at UNC Chapel Hill, a mountaineer, and a young changemaker who started Samunnati because I believe that where you're born shouldn't determine how far you go. 

When I started mountaineering, I kept seeing children working on the mountain routes instead of being in school. My first instinct was to tell them to go back to studying. But when I actually sat with their parents and listened, I realized the problem wasn't awareness. It was survival. They weren't unaware that education matters. They just had no margin to choose it.

That conversation changed everything for me. I understood that you can't hand someone a solution when they're still fighting for the basics. Real change isn't fast, and it doesn't come from money alone. It comes from sustained, honest impact, built with communities, not for them. That's why I started Samunnati.

Samunnati works directly with children from daily wage families who cannot afford school fees, books, or basic stationery, and with women who lack access to vocational training or economic opportunities.

The problem

The children Samunnati serves are between ages 6 and 14, enrolled in or at risk of dropping out of underfunded government schools. Their parents work in informal labour and cannot afford private school fees, books, uniforms, or basic stationery.

Rishi, a 2nd-grade student scoring in the 100th percentile whose parents are daily wage workers, is one example of who we directly serve. Beyond education, we also support women and girls from the same communities who lack access to vocational training or economic opportunities.

Only 26% of children from the poorest quintile in India complete secondary school (UNESCO, 2022), and over 10 million children are engaged in child labour, with daily wage households disproportionately affected (ILO). The barrier isn't ability. It's circumstance.

The solution

Samunnati is entirely community-led and ground-up. There's no large organisational overhead, no bureaucratic middle layer, and no generic model imported from outside. We identify needs by being present — by talking to parents, spending time with children, and building trust before taking action. The Solo Care Initiative works one person at a time, which means support is specific and dignified rather than mass-distributed and impersonal. Our track record, though recent, is 100% transparent. Every initiative is documented and shared publicly.

When a child like Rishi gets access to better education, the impact doesn't stop with him. His parents see a tangible return on hope and are more likely to support his continued schooling. His siblings watch and recalibrate what's possible. For women supported through economic empowerment programmes, their children are statistically more likely to stay in school, creating a feedback loop of change within the same household.

More Context

Samunnati raised money for Mission Rishi, enabling him to leave a government school and access better educational infrastructure

30 children at Smiles Orphanage engaged through leadership and entrepreneurship workshops

Weekly donations made consistently across 2 months through the Solo Care Initiative (food, clothing, stationery, blankets)

1 lakh+ raised in 2023 for a mountaineering expedition advocating for women's empowerment and water sanitation in remote mountain communities