Juniors Sukhi Mahadevan and Rithika Kanakamedala have helped to raise awareness of domestic violence by co-founding the HerVoice nonprofit organization.
Mahadevan and Kanakamedala created a DECA community project in the fall of 2023 to spread awareness for the many women who face abuse in their relationships. The co-founders recently made HerVoice into a nonprofit in May of 2024. The pair created this idea in their marketing class and thought it would be a great project for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC).
“It started as a project management community giving event for DECA where you choose an organization to work with and then plan events throughout the year to raise money and give back to them,” Kanakamedala said. “We started it to compete with, but I then found myself getting really involved in the issue.”
Mahadevan and Kanakamedala were quickly involved with the different ways they could help survivors of domestic abuse because the issue strongly resonated with them in their personal lives.
“We fixated on domestic violence because we both know survivors and abuse victims in our lives, so we have personally seen their struggles,” Mahadevan said. “We realize that this issue is something that nobody really talks about, especially in school communities. It gets swept under the rug.”
The student leaders felt that HerVoice could make real change in the community and be something more than a DECA project. As a nonprofit, they have partnered with the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter (LAWS) to provide support to those affected by domestic violence in the community.
“Working with the LAWS as a nonprofit gives us more opportunity to broaden it and bring change,” Mahadevan said. “As a DECA project, it is confined to Stone Bridge, but the issue isn’t confined to Stone Bridge, it is worldwide.”
Once Mahadevan and Kanakamedala made HerVoice an official nonprofit, they immediately started to extend the organization and made plans to extend the club to other schools.
“As a nonprofit, I have more authority with what I am doing for Loudoun Abuse Women’s Shelter,” Mahadevan said. “I can plan events that do not have to be surrounding Stone Bridge, so now I have creative freedom to talk to people at other schools.”
Among the many ways Mahadevan and Kanakamedala have helped domestic violence survivors, they have also created a podcast to speak with the victims. They consider the podcast to be their greatest accomplishment, as they are able to directly learn from and converse with survivors.
“The podcast is the biggest way that we raise awareness because victims are giving the original and raw story of their experiences,” Kanakamedala said. “They help teach people what to look for in their relationships, and learn what to do from the brave people who have been through this.”
Despite the many achievements Mahadevan and Kanakamedala have made, they don’t plan on stopping anytime soon. They hope to reach out to more survivors and teach the younger generations about how to protect themselves and see signs for domestic violence.
“My bigger plan for the future is to reach school systems, especially middle and high schoolers, because they do not know what to look out for,” Mahadevan said. “We want to have a student-led class so that students can learn about these red flags, and a support group for people who have experienced domestic abuse.”
HerVoice is continuing to expand and grow even bigger than Stone Bridge. The two founders hope that their work can make a change not only locally, but also worldwide.
“Now as a nonprofit, we are trying to reach out to even more survivors and students,” Mahadevan said. “Our goal is to decrease that stigma around [talking about] domestic violence at Stone Bridge.”
