Meet the team - Rahul Karavadra

My role at Lyfta is to talk to educators at all levels about what Lyfta is and does. I get to show them how Lyfta can be used by teachers to transport their pupils to countries across the world, where they can meet inspiring humans with positive stories modelling resilience, problem-solving, growth mindset, and many other critical skills, values and competencies.

Meeting and talking with educators about developing a culturally rich curriculum. It is so inspiring to talk to schools and hear the ways in which they are delivering global learning and inspiring the young people in their schools.

Although not part of my official role, I recently started a weekly quiz for the UK team - a way to keep us all connected while we are working remotely which has turned out to be great fun. Each week the quiz winner has to design the next quiz. It's been great to see how everyone has approached it in such engaging and creative ways!

I have a background in Philosophy and a Masters in Global Citizenship, Identities and Human Rights, with a special interest in diaspora identity construction in relation to long-distance nationalism and host nation experiences. Professionally, I have always worked in the education sector. First I worked in Birmingham, helping to establish a school-led system for school improvement, as well as focusing on building a more connected education community. After this I moved to a national CPD charity in London, where I worked closely with schools and multi academy trusts, across the country, to improve the quality of teaching and leadership so that they could have a positive and meaningful impact on the disadvantage gap.

I love the Awra Amba storyworld series, not just because of how immersive it is, but because more importantly it is counter-narrative to what we are often told and shown about African countries.

Muhammed from the Dinnertime 360 storyworld series. It was the first storyworld I watched and there is something about him that I just connected with straight away - his story is so moving.

I'm really looking forward to Boxing Clever, a new storyworld from Uganda due for release in January. It tells the story of 22 year old Catherine; the first female Ugandan boxer to qualify for the Olympic Games. It's a great story of hope, resilience and determination.

My Baa's (grandmother's) saag sabji (spinach curry). I remember her taking me to the greenhouse in the garden to get the spinach and then watching her clean it and cook the dish. It's something she always made for my brother and me, when we were growing up as she knew we loved it.

I'm a massive music lover. So I'm often hunting through YouTube or Spotify for new artists and songs.

Going to India for the first time had a huge impact on me. Firstly, to be in a country where the way I look was 'the default' was a new experience, but also realising that there are Indians that I wasn't related to blew my mind (I grew up in a very small rural town in East Anglia). I was around eight or nine at the time and it was a six week long trip around all of India. One thing that I remember vividly was seeing children who were around my age living in a state of poverty. Not in school but begging for rupees. I found the difference between my life here and their life in India difficult to understand and accept.

I'm choosing the word Ubuntu - meaning "I am because we are". The word is widely used in the education sector so may not be a new word for people to discover, but it is such a powerful idea, and fits so well with what we are trying to achieve with Lyfta that I'm choosing it anyway. Ubuntu is actually part of the Zulu phrase "Ubuntu ngumuntu ngabantu", which literally means that a person is a person through other people - something I think is even more poignant for the times in which we currently find ourselves.