A Lotus Blooms

Over the centuries, The Banyan tree has taken on significance as a symbol of fertility, life and resurrection. It is a fitting symbol for ‘DesiStoriesAshaUSA’ which presents the stories of South Asians who have wandered far and wide from their ancestral homes, traversing new frontiers and setting down roots and networks in the US. Our goal is to connect and establish closer ties within the diasporas of the South Asian community and facilitate a dialogue with our readers. We will showcase stories of achievement and success and also resiliency and hope.

Our story today features two inspiring foundations set up by families who have experienced tragedy, and created a meaningful difference from their grief.

Coping with the loss of a loved one, is something no family should ever have to go through. As the Lotus flower symbolizes purity, overcoming adversity and rebirth, the Dixit’s and the Kathawalla’s have set up foundations that in different yet similar ways are celebrating their daughter’s lives, making a difference to the lives of others and helping them cope with their loss.

Here is the story of ‘shreyadixit.org’ and ‘Zaharakathawalla.org’.

Shreyadixit.org

Shreya Dixit, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin, Madison was coming home to spend an early Diwali with her family in Minnesota. She was in the front passenger seat, when the driver in a split second of distraction crashed the car into a concrete pylon. Though the other 3 occupants of the car survived, Shreya was killed instantly, plunging the family into grief.

Vijay Dixit, Shreya’s father, traded his professional career for social advocacy after the distracted driver killed his 19 year old daughter on November 1, 2007. Vijay and his wife Rekha and their surviving daughter Nayha established the Shreya R. Dixit Memorial Foundation, http://www.shreyadixit.org, a non-profit with the mission to transform the driving culture in the nation.

The mission of the foundation is to Educate (through Vijay’s Book ‘One Split Second’, establish Distraction-Free Life Clubs, Podcasts and Driver-Ed scholarships); Take Action (annual Raksha 5k Walk, endow internships, blogging, create audio-visual productions and safety messaging campaigns); and support The Shreya Innovation Lab (the EyeDA product: a technology device targeting distracted driving behaviors with proactive visual and audio alerts for the driver).

A key target audience of the foundation is teens and young adults, and the goal is to engage them with a three pronged approach:

Education: The Foundation’s education material and tools train youngsters to become peer advocates capable of influencing their peers to adopt distraction-free driving behaviors.

Incentives: The Foundation uses meaningful non-financial (for the last 3 years, members of the Distraction-Free Life Club have been awarded the Emerging Leaders Award from the Department of Public Safety) and financial incentives to promote responsible driving behaviors. The foundation donates about $25k to $30k a year and grants include 12-15 $300 scholarships towards driver education training on a yearly basis; paid summer internships with about 50 beneficiaries in the past four years from all over the US; $2500 for 5 students to attend a boot camp at the Northern Film Alliance, an organization that teaches teens and youth how to make films and provides audio-visual coaching.

Actions: Education and Incentives valued by the youth and funded by the foundation, inspire teens to execute innovative projects and showcase their creations with pride at public events:

EyeDA
An important project that the foundation is sponsoring with 15 current and former Eden Prairie HS students (mentored by experts in Machine and Artificial Language) from the foundation’s ‘Distraction-Free Life Club is EyeDA. This project was kicked off last year and is in Phase 2 of its development, and expects to go to market in the near future.

EyeDA targets distracted driving behaviors with proactive visual and audio alerts through an innovative rearview mirror device. The target for this device is large corporations, fleet operations, State agencies and individual consumers, and will serve as a useful training tool for driver-ed programs.

This link to a short news story from WCCO-CBS Minnesota reports on EyeDA.
https://youtu.be/JGukRSRIzTQ


Passage of the Hands Free Bill

The hands-free bill was signed by the Governor of Minnesota and went into effect in 2019. Though hands-free is not necessarily distraction-free, it was a big step forward, since the driver can use a cell phone only by voice commands, without holding it. Vijay was a tireless advocate for the bill’s passage, lobbying the Governor’s office, Departments of Public Safety, Transportation, and the Minnesota Safety Council amongst many others.

Speaking Engagements

The foundation participates in planned speaking engagements which have included a Round Table hosted by Cargill Corporation at their HQ, with Senator Amy Klobuchar as the key note speaker; Vijay Dixit’s TedX Talk in October 2021: https://youtu.be/BuCOWJu2IwU?si=vYtGGFV2FauOwwRP ; the 26th Annual Michigan Traffic Safety Summit in June 2023; and the upcoming 2023 Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths Conference in November 2023.

Raksha Walk

The Foundation’s annual Raksha Walk is key to their fundraising activities and keeping the foundation’s mission alive in the hearts and minds of participants, sponsors and legislators. Since the inception of the Raksha Walk in 2009, all Minnesota Governors have proclaimed the day of the Minnesota walk as Distraction-Free Driving Awareness Day in the state of Minnesota.

The walk is named after the Indian Festival ‘Raksha Bandhan’ that commemorates a centuries-old tradition in which a sister ties a ceremonial band on her brother’s wrist creating an inseparable bond. The goal of the walk is to encourage a similar bond between drivers on the road, promising to drive distraction-free, to protect each other and the community.

The event is also poignant since the location of the walk, Purgatory Creek Park is a war memorial in Eden Prairie, MN and a gazebo at the location, is covered with photos of those lost to distracted driving.
In addition to the walk in MN, two parallel walks also occur in San Francisco and New Jersey organized by friends of the family.

KARE-11 NBC’s brief news story highlights 2022’s Raksha Walk. https://youtu.be/PYWEb4vUhCE

Celebrating Shreya

Shreya’s story will continue to change the lives of countless others through the efforts of her family and the work of her foundation.
As an organ donor, Shreya helped save more lives.
Shreya was also a talented musician, a soprano, the only 6th grader in the High School Choir, who also sang with the Minnesota Youth Choir, and trained one on one with ‘Oksana Bryn’, a faculty member of the MacPhail Center of music.
“Music was her energy”.
A moving tribute to what Shreya’s unfinished story might have been, is poignantly rendered in the link to the video below.

* https://youtu.be/5Z0d5W8_um4

Zaharakathawalla.org

Zahara Kathawalla, a vibrant, loving and determined 23 year old woman was a proud graduate of the Blake School and the School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After her graduation, she moved to Kansas City to work for Cargill as a Commodity Merchant Associate.
Zahara was tragically killed by a racing car in a hit-and-run, while she was crossing the street with a friend on June 21, 2020 in Kansas City.

The Zahara Kathawalla (ZKF) foundation was established by her parents Salim and Farida Kathawalla to honor the memory of their daughter Zahara, ‘who shone her light, positivity, and love on everyone she met during her 23-year earthly journey’.

About Zahara

Zahara mastered the ability to live each day with intention, curiosity and infectious joy. She triumphed over her childhood shyness and was known for her ability to talk to anyone. While at UW-Madison, she led adventure-based leadership and team building workshops. She had a zest for travel and visited nearly 40 Countries. Travel was not just about the sites, but experiencing the culture in its most authentic form and turning strangers into friends. “ I also travel to learn about my community, history and society. Traveling makes me feel whole”.

She took mindful eating seriously, savoring each bite of dessert, especially her favorites: ice cream and chocolate lava cakes. Zahara enjoyed listening to music, especially loved how music connected to her emotions.

Zahara became involved in volunteering and community service from a young age. During High School, she volunteered at LearningWorks, a program to help Minneapolis public school students prep for college, and in Kansas City at Cornerstones for Cares as a youth mentor. She had also joined the Kansas City Chapter of the Scholarship Committee and Board of Directors of the University of Wisconsin Alumni Association.
Zahara resonated with the idea that “education is key”.

Zahara was a loving and grateful daughter, supportive sister, commodities trader, world traveler, music aficionado, yogi and joyful friend!

About The Zahara Kathawalla Foundation

The Zahara Kathawalla Foundation (ZKF) http://www.zaharakathawalla.org, was established to support young adults, who do not have the means to pursue Zahara’s passions for personal betterment.

The mission of the ZKF is to award ‘need-based’ funding that supports young individuals on their path towards personal growth, through experiences and opportunities in education, cultural exploration and wellness.
The mission supports the foundation’s vision of ‘A world where people have the opportunity to pursue their passion and live life to the fullest’.

Three areas of focus support a theory of positive change:
1. Educational opportunities enable passionate, dedicated, curious and empowered citizens.
2. Cultural Exploration through travel lends itself to an expanded awareness, outlook and acceptance of people everywhere.
3. Well-being is the foundation for life balance, happiness, mindfulness, relationships and growth.

Over the last three years, the ZKF has raised over $100,000 and donated close to $20,000, towards the foundation’s pillars of Education, Cultural Exploration and Wellness. Organizations and Individuals that have benefited include: Be That Neighbor, University of Wisconsin Madison Business School, Al-Zahra Madrasah, the Blake School and Park Nicollett’s NOW Telehealth Mental Health Program.
Grants are approved against a list of criteria that connect to the ZKF mission and pillars, connection to Zahara and the impact of the grant on an individual person.

The logo for the ZKF is a stylized version of a sunflower. Since Zahara was a junior in HS, she loved sunflowers. It was designed over a 6 month period by a family friend of the Kathawallas.

Z5K Fun Run

For the past two years the Z5K Fun Run has served to bring over 400 people together virtually (on a global basis), and in person (Gold Medal Park on the Mississippi River) to commemorate Zahara’s life and raise money for the foundation. The run/walk kicks off with Yoga in honor of Zahara’s daily 5.30am sessions, and concludes at the Pryes Brewery where participants celebrate the day.

Remembering Zahara

Zahara is best remembered by savoring each day; each bite of something indulgent; and each moment of laughter with music. Her mindfulness, thoughtfulness, and one-of-a-kind joys are just some of the hallmarks of her legacy.
At age 13 , Zahara wrote a letter to her high school self where she said:

Thinking into the future on who I want to be before I die, [that] would be, make a GREAT impact on everyone else [and] being remembered as an honest, fun , trusting friend anyone can count on.

In her 23 years, Zahara definitely accomplished this goal.

We hope you found our story on the Shreya Dixit and Zahara Kathawalla foundations inspiring. If you wish to support the work of these stellar organizations, a link to Donate can be easily found on their websites: http://www.shreyadixit.org and http://www.zaharakathawalla.org.

DISCUSSION : Our goal is to start a dialogue through the stories we present here. Please send us your comments, either by posting a comment at the bottom of this blog, and/or sending an email to ’ashausastories@gmail.com’.

AshaUSA’s mission is to provide culturally specific programs to the South Asian community to foster health and harmony in their lives. Please visit our website ‘ashausa.org’ for more information on our programs, volunteer opportunities and resources.