Creating Sustainable Villages with Lokaa Krishna
Currently a senior from Chennai, India, Lokaa Krishna ’21 is a singer-songwriter and the founder of the World Village Project, an initiative supporting the development of sustainable villages.
When Lokaa was seven, she visited an orphanage for the first time, and she recalls being “really inspired to do something to help those children.” At the time, Lokaa started her nonprofit organization, facilitating small projects to help other children. Eventually, she sponsored one hundred children for life when she was around ten to twelve, focusing on supporting the children until they were able to support themselves. When she was fourteen, she visited the villages she now works with for the first time and started the World Village Project within her organization, with the goal of “creat[ing] sustainable villages where the village has everything that they need to sustain that village.”
“The reason I think [creating sustainable villages] works so well is […] we’ve worked on cultivating individuals who are connected to themselves, connected to other people, and also connected to nature,” Lokaa shares about her social work with the World Village Project. She notes that because the people that the World Village Project works with “come from the lowest rung of the caste system [and have] been discriminated against for centuries, […] they feel like they don’t deserve to be helped; they have this ingrained sense of not being good enough.” The project, which prioritizes human development, helps them overcome that notion through “spiritual sessions and meditations and bringing the village together into a unified whole so that they can identify with their culture and […] be more proud of who they are.”
In her work with the World Village Project, Lokaa has found it inspiring that even though “[the villagers] had so little [to give], […] they would still take that effort—they were still doing their best to make me feel welcome.” “I really remember the first time that I entered the village,” she recounts. “Basically, the second I got out of the car, hundreds of kids from everywhere just came in and swarmed me. And they were laughing and they were dancing and they invited me to their homes and they introduced me to their families.”
Lokaa’s experiences interacting with the villagers inspire her to go beyond “going and building a bunch of houses”; she describes that her social work is “more about really connecting with people and creating an impact in that sense. Soon after starting the World Village Project, she began organizing the Happy Hearts Fest, a biannual five-day event for youth volunteers to connect with villagers and contribute to the development of the villages Lokaa works with. “So many youth from all over the world will be coming just to help people,” Lokaa describes. “That’s really amazing to see—the fact that so many people genuinely care about making a difference.”
Though the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented Lokaa from physically working with the villages, she notes that her project had achieved its goal of “mak[ing] stable villages,” where the villagers were connected and self-sufficient. “Even if we’re not physically there working in the village, we have the system just happening and [the villagers] are doing really well, and I can’t wait to get back and fully work with them again,” she shares.
Outside of her social work with the World Village Project, Lokaa has been a singer the past six or seven years. She finds music to be the “equivalent of a journal,” making her more self-aware: “If I write a song and then I look at it a couple days from now, then I would be like, ‘Oh, that’s kind of how I was feeling.’”
Lokaa recalls one particular music experience last year, when she was living in the studio for several days producing music: “That was really fun because I got to spend the entire day from 9am to 2am working on music, wake up, and do the same thing all over again.” She describes her experience in the studio as “one of the highlights of [her] life,” where she “got to spend a week doing what [she] really loved all the time.”
On coming to OHS, Lokaa shares that she joined because OHS allows her to “get the education [she] wanted and be able to travel and really challenge [herself] at the same time.” Prior to COVID-19, Lokaa’s family traveled frequently to Los Angeles and New York City, so attending an online school was a natural option. Academically, she was “looking for a curriculum that was critical thinking-based rather than memorization-based” and observed that many schools in India used memorization-based curricula.
Keeping with her interests in music and human development, Lokaa runs the Music Club and the Meditation Circle at OHS, and she has also been involved in the UNICEF Club and the Girl Up Club. She enjoys shopping, hiking, and traveling in her free time.
Though her future plans are still tentative, Lokaa hopes to continue her current hobbies and pursuits beyond OHS: she will be continuing to work on her current music album and plans to expand the World Village Project to more villages. Next year, she hopes to have a normal college experience and spend time traveling when possible.
Listen to Lokaa’s TEDx talk on creating enduring sustainability through the World Village Project here.
5 Questions with Lokaa Krishna
Pixel Journal: What’s one thing on your bucket list?
Lokaa Krishna: Go island hopping in Greece.
PJ: If you could change one thing about the world, what would it be?
LK: I would want people to have a greater understanding of the importance of human connection, dispose of mindsets that divide rather than unite, while nurturing more coherent societies. I note that this is not exactly one specific thing I would like to change, but what I’m really calling for is a transformation of attitudes.
PJ: What do you wish you knew more about?
LK: So many things! But something I’m especially curious about right now is the psychology behind racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc., so that I can better understand how to work against it.
PJ: If you didn’t have to sleep, what would you do with the extra time?
LK: Work on my music. I really wish I had more time for it.
PJ: What’s your favorite OHS class?
LK: I really don’t think I can choose one. I would say that it’s a tie between DFRL, CRA, and Advanced Topics in Philosophy. Being at OHS exposed me to incredible philosophers and cultivated a passion for understanding diverse thoughts and beliefs.