Instead of being asleep at 5 am in the morning, Krishitha Pingeli, junior, chooses to work on the non-profit organization her and her co-founder have created. This young woman works hard and devotes many hours of her time, so that she can make a difference in the lives of those who do not have proper access to medical care.

Pingeli is one of the co-founders for an international non-profit organization called Outreach for All. Twelve chapters are located in the U.S.,three in Canada, Jordan and Dubai. Outreach for All is an organization that strives to provide free medical care to underprivileged areas. Pingeli hopes to start a chapter at school in the spring semester. These non-profit co-founders also will be starting a podcast called The Waiting Room, and the first episode will air during January.

Having lived in Canada for 12 years, Pingeli offers a new point of view to American healthcare  “In Canada, healthcare is free, it’s universal, and it was just treated as a right to have,” Pingeli said.  “I never knew that people didn’t have access to free medical care until I moved to the United States.” 

After shadowing an oncologist, Pingeli noticed many would hide symptoms from the doctors because they were worried about the cost of medical care.

“And because of people hiding symptoms, it kind of inspired me to think about how many other people were doing the same exact thing, worried about how it would affect them and their families financially,” Pingeli said.  “I started Outreach For All to basically provide people with better opportunities to receive health care.”

Pingeli is not alone in the endeavor as she founded the organization with a classmate from Prosper High School, Vaishnavi Tatineni. Along with Tatineni’s role of planning events, meetings, and managing the teams, she also works to see what needs can be met in the surrounding areas. 

“To understand the needs of our community, we conduct interviews with local free health clinics to learn about the healthcare challenges faced by low-income patients,” Tatineni said. “We also review community needs reports for different counties and conduct surveys to gather additional insights.

Outreach for All has worked with a free health clinic called CommonGood Medical. The non-profit provided hygiene kits for the free clinic, and the hospital distributes them to the patients who may have low income or are unhoused. 

“Things like this make a huge impact on the lives of those we help who are unhoused,” the director of operations for Common Good Medical Care, Andrea Naff, said. “It truly helps not only with their physical health but with their mental health as well, and it gives them a sense of dignity.”

A goal that Pingeli has, is to be able to raise the bar for people who are below the poverty line. To be able to change that, this organization needs support, especially from the youth.

“Prosper and other surrounding areas have a really big population of youth that want to give back to the community,” Pingeli said. “So we thought it would be beneficial for both our community and these populations to basically work together to see what change we can bring.”

The more people that get involved means that Outreach for All can grow and help many more to come.

“I hope to involve more people in our work by expanding our chapters and ambassador programs, especially on an international scale, to make a stronger impact,” Tatineni said. “I also aim to set up more healthcare workshops for low-income communities to broaden our reach.”

According to Pingeli, not many people know about the specifics of these issues. So, she and her co-founder decided to start a podcast, that is run by highschoolers, to be able to reach the next generation and enlighten them on these struggles.

“We’re thinking of calling it the waiting room, because that’s where a lot of patients who don’t have access to these resources are left in,” Pingeli said. “It’s this weird limbo between getting the help you need and not, and we plan on having high school students run the podcast. I feel we will reach more people with this approach.”

This podcast will be trying to reach the youth, and a main part of what they will try to showcase is the importance that young people play in shaping the future of the world. 

“It’s because we’re the next generation,” Pingeli said. “If there’s any change that’s being made, it’s going to be us doing it.”