Photo: Alyssa (Min-Li) Lim.
Teneisha Bhalla may seem like a regular university student, roaming the UNSW campus with tired eyes, heavy smile – the telltale signs of a late night. But not the night of wild partying you might imagine. Teneisha Bhalla works long into the night organising and volunteering at events for United Nations Women.
Teneisha, currently in her third year of Law and International Studies, is busy orchestrating an upcoming event on the 28th of June. Her team are making arrangements for around 400 guests at the Opera House to fundraise for UN Women programs in Afghanistan. So exams and assignment deadlines aren't the only thing on the busy 20-year-old's mind.
“We want to tie it to the fact that our troops are leaving… and we want to make sure any gains women make over there aren’t lost when they leave,” Teniesha said.
“We really want to focus it on Afghan women’s experiences, we want it to be about what they want and what they need. [Also] the money will go to the United Nations Women’s office in Afghanistan so [they] could change the structure of the country to make it more women inclusive.”
Although initially applying for a fulltime position with UN Women, Teneisha was offered a volunteer role to help organise an event for International Women’s day earlier in the year. She and her team raised $5000 at the event held at the Dendy Cinemas, Circular Quay. The funds went directly to refuge centres and psychological counselling facilities in Papua New Guinea.
While organising the event, Teneisha and her team were concerned about who would be attending. They wanted to make it male inclusive and attract more people to the event.
“What we wanted to do was bring both genders together,” said Teneisha.
“While we were watching the DVD in the cinema, there was one particular story about a girl in Cambodia whose dad could not be proud of her no matter what she did. You could hear the men in the audience saying ‘I just want to punch that guy.’ I heard things like that. It did connect. We weren’t just preaching to the converted.”
Managing this on top of assignments and her law studies, it certainly does take a toll on her.
“It’s not easy,” admits Teneisha.
“I’ve had a couple of late nights being at events for United Nations Women and you just get too tired to do readings. It’s kind of like you’re always trying to do it all and there’s compromise all the time.”
Despite this, the third year student sees it as a learning opportunity. Her first interest in human rights activism was sparked by her legal studies teacher at Mount Annan High School, a school in Sydney’s South-West.
She was a founding member of a student awareness group, which informed and gave presentations on human rights issues.
“It wasn’t a very multicultural school so a lot of people hadn’t thought about poverty and things like that before. It [was] just about doing fun things at assembly to get people thinking.”
Initially, Teneisha was part of the Model United Nations (UN), a university society based on simulating the UN.
“I was on the executive in my first year,” she grinned.
“That, I guess, isn’t activism. You’re not really making a tangible impact in the real world, it’s more for yourself. Model UN is a great experience. I met some wonderful people and I applied some important skills but I wanted to do something that was a little bit more long term and more substantial.”
Unsatisfied with the Model UN society, the Law student started looking elsewhere.
“I knew someone in the Model UN society who told me to come along to a meeting in my first year for Young Women,” said Teneisha.
“I had been in contact with this girl and I regularly checked their Facebook page when I saw that they had positions up on offer. I saw that and thought ‘Why not? It’s volunteering. This could be interesting.’”
During her time in Model UN, Teneisha attended conferences in Australia and in New York, USA.
“There’s a lot of value in it but it is a lot of money,” she admits.
“I’m a student and the fact that you do spend that much money on, what is often a one week conference, made me think about where that money could be going. I realised I could be here in Sydney doing something like UN Women, working with other people towards a goal, knowing that the money is going towards a program, and building skills in a way that doesn’t mean I’m forking out a lot of money myself. That was what sort of facilitated my transfer.”
Teneisha’s motivation to be a force of change came from a personal experience.
Hesitant to mention who it was, Teneisha revealed a family member was sexually abused as a child in the Maldives. “No one was there who she could speak to because women didn’t really have a voice,” Teneisha said.
“That is a lot of motivation for me. The personal experiences that have been shared with me have made it real to me that these things still exist. I would find it harder if I didn’t know someone who experienced that sort of discrimination and the violence that is gender based.
“I wouldn’t say that I’m some sort of ‘Fighter for Human Rights’. I would say that in challenging attitudes or contributing programs that empower women, hopefully it’s preventing someone going through what that person went through.”
Teneisha admitted that she was a very introverted person, prior to getting involved with activism programs.
“All of this helps to bring you out of that and realise that the world is not a really big scary place and nobody is going to shout you down when you start talking,” she smiled.
“Start small,” she advises. “Don’t be afraid to go up to people and have a chat with them,” encouraged Teneisha.
“It doesn’t matter that you’re a student and you have no previous experience, take an interest. A lot of people are doing a lot of meaningful things and need people to help them out. Just talk to people."
“The way I think of it, you don’t only go to university, just to go to university,” said the UNSW student.
“You go to university not only to acquire skills but to think about where you’re going to use those skills. If I didn’t have these kinds of practical, meaningful kinds of engagements with these issues, I would find my degree meaningless.”
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