Meet Smita Suchde Gruetter
Smita Suchde Gruetter is the founder of HEMLATA. HEMLATA is empowering young women to gain financial independence, to lead lives of dignity and self-worth by accessing tertiary-quality education. HEMLATA is promoting gender equality investing in young women’s socio-economic development and shaping actively their own future.
HEMLATA Scholars receive a holistic impact scholarship that includes funding for quality education at accredited universities along with mentorship, skills development, and career support, all designed to lead to economic development.
HEMLATA alumni have provided proof of concept and broken inter-generational cycles of poverty within a single generation. They are now not just supporting themselves by uplifting other young women in the program, but also contributing to their families and communities.
When did you realize you wanted to be a social entrepreneur? How did you define your purpose?
Seeing and experiencing the lack of opportunities available to the female gender, I always knew that I wanted to do more to support girls and young women. I am committed to creating opportunities for young women to achieve financial independence, break cycles of inter-generational poverty, and live lives of dignity and self-worth.
What was your first project? What were your lessons learned?
One of my early projects was supporting children with cancer, especially the girls, as families would often overlook their treatment. Another project was building water wells in villages so that girls did not have to walk miles to fetch water but could collect the water from the schools they studied in. Some other early-stage projects resulted in building a bakery cooperative so that women could bake and sell their own bread and archiving age-old embroidery within a library so that generational knowledge could be passed on from mother to daughter.
Describe your journey. Smooth sailing or a roller coaster ride?
All my early-stage projects taught me that field visits involve meeting people and being curious. Asking questions and understanding the environment of the work on the ground is important, both to gain trust and build trust, but also to ensure that the project succeeds. Back then, technology was a challenge because we did not have the option of making calls on mobiles, WhatsApp or even Zoom calls. Technology may have been developed today to make tasks easier, but understanding the environment where impact is to be created is crucial. Speaking to your stakeholders and, getting their feedback can open up new trajectories. I remember we supported one of the first girls' schools in Mumbai and came to discover that not all girls wanted to study further at University. That was my pivotal moment, the moment when HEMLATA transitioned from supporting girls at school to empowering young women at University.
What are you building right now? What is your ambition?
My professional education and my experience as a serial entrepreneur reflect my structured, collaborative, and impact-oriented approach to philanthropy. My travels across India to meet and engage with local communities and to identify, evaluate, and connect one-on-one with beneficiaries have led me to create the HEMLATA's Impact Scholarship, which empowers women through its five holistic pillars to achieve financial independence. Our most recent graduate moved from a small village and single-parent family to Delhi University and landed, after her very first interview, a job with Deloitte. She has changed the trajectory of her life and her family's in one generation. This is what we do at HEMLATA - "We touch lives, we change lives and we transform lives".
How can everyone support you?
As is always the challenge in philanthropy, ensuring that you are the caretaker of someone's trust is paramount. Hence, everything we do at HEMLATA is measurable, sustainable, and impactful. Our current SROI is 4.9X which means that for every CHF invested, a return of 4.9X is generated. Our entire model is based on seven of the 17 UNSDGs, with a focus on SDG 4 and SDG 5. Our impact is seen as a ripple effect on the HEMLATA Scholar and her family, who also receive health benefits. Plus, the scholar pays back 1/3 of her scholarship investment as a returnable grant to uplift other young women into the program. But the biggest benefit is enabling financial independence and leadership in young women. As Simon Sinek said, "We become leaders the day we decide to help people grow, not numbers".
If you would like to know more about HEMLATA, please visit the website or social media page.
