Volunteer Spotlight: Sweta Waghela
Turning Access into Opportunity
By Ginka Poole
For Sweta Waghela, access isn’t an abstract idea — it is the thread running through her education, career, volunteer work, and belief in the power of opportunity to change everything.
Sweta grew up in Orange County, California, and has since lived across the U.S. and spent six years in India. Those experiences shaped her understanding of how education, health care, and opportunity can profoundly influence a person’s life. She earned her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from UC Irvine and a Master of Public Health from George Washington University. After graduate school, she worked at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the C-CHANGE department, where she saw firsthand how closely education, health care access, and opportunity are woven together.
Today, as a Patient Advocate Manager at a healthtech startup, Sweta helps patients connect with financial assistance programs. For her, it is all part of the same larger picture: making access possible.
“I never take for granted the opportunities I’ve had, especially getting to be educated,” Sweta says. “I know how powerful it is to have access to learning, support, and people who believe in you before you even believe in yourself.”
That belief is what drew her to Sambhali U.S. A friend introduced her to the organization, and she connected instantly with its commitment to women’s rights and equality — and, more importantly, its determination to turn those values into action. Her passion for community work sharpened during an internship with the Uganda Village Project, where she collected rural health data and helped lead community workshops on WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene), malaria prevention, and family planning alongside local health workers and village leaders. The experience taught her that volunteering would always be part of her life, whether she was working directly with a community or using her voice to raise awareness.
Now. as a member of Sambhali U.S.’s Communications Committee, Sweta’s voice shows up on the page. She has written articles about Sambhali Trust’s work with asylum-seeking women and families in Jaisalmer, its advocacy at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and its partnership with Girls Not Brides to combat child, early, and forced marriage in Rajasthan.
“I’ve loved learning about everything Sambhali has going on and helping bring awareness to the amazing things everyone involved is doing.”
Sweta brings her public health training and experience at Harvard Chan into her storytelling; she has an instinct for evidence, research, and getting the details right. But it is paired with the empathy she built through her volunteer work. Her goal is to take complex issues and make them meaningful and accessible to readers.
Writing about Sambhali has changed her, too. Researching Sambhali’s work has deepened her understanding of what the women and girls in Rajasthan are up against—and of the progress being made. She was particularly proud to write about Sambhali Trust’s participation in the UN Human Rights Council. “Here’s an organization that started in the backstreets of Jodhpur, submitting written statements to the Council,” she says. “That’s incredible.”
Because I get to see Sweta’s work before it reaches our readers, I see firsthand the thoughtful combination of public health expertise, curiosity, and empathy to her work with Sambhali. Her writing is careful and compassionate, and she approaches every story with genuine respect for the women and girls at its center. I'm so grateful for the perspective and care she brings to our communications team.
Ultimately, Sweta hopes her writing does more than inform. She wants it to move people—to help readers see the courage of the women and girls Sambhali supports and inspire them to become part of the work.
“Volunteering here isn’t just giving your time,” Sweta says. “It’s standing beside women and girls who are fighting every day to reclaim their futures.”
For Sweta, that is what access is all about: opening a door, believing in someone, and helping make sure they have the opportunity to walk through it.