It all started when Simar Malhotra was studying at The Mother's International School (MIS), New Delhi. Even at the tender age of 8 she had a burning enthusiasm for social causes. Driven by the desire to do her bit for the society, she started collecting ice cream sticks that lay scattered on the streets around the school. This routine activity took more structure some years later when Simar, along with some other friends started ‘The Sunshine Club’ in their colony.

The members of the club started meeting biweekly and having discussions on issues such as cleanliness, water wastage and pollution and doing fun activities such as crafting greeting cards and painting. But when they earned a little bit of money by selling the same cards, a novel idea hit them. They hired a plumber and went around the houses of their colony to fix all the leaking taps. It was a simple nevertheless effective model that helped in reducing water wastage in the locality.

Ishan, Simar’s younger brother, also went on to become an active volunteer of the club.

In 2013, Simar joined the Jayshree Periwal International School in Jaipur to finish high school. In her boarding house, she noticed that along with the luxurious availability of food came the apathy towards wastage of food. When she saw that the garbage can was overfilled with leftover food, it irked her. She urged the students to serve themselves less but multiple times and encouraged all not to throw food away.

As Simar went on with the IB curriculum, the CAS aspect of it resonated with her. CAS demanded that all students do at least 50 hours of creativity, action and service. This provided her a platform to consolidate her social endeavours under a single umbrella and thus along with a group of equally motivated friends driven by the desire to serve the society, she launched Parvaah on the 7th of February 2014.

Simar now studies Public Policy and creative writing at Stanford University, California. Her involvement in Parvaah is less direct although continues to be instrumental in guiding the new members. At Stanford, she heads another food waste and hunger reduction club. With her education, she hopes to use the private sector as a vehicle to drive social change in the world.