In March, when most Leon County Schools were abruptly closed due to the major health crisis, most students assumed that everything would be back to normal within two weeks.
However, when weeks turned into months, Rohan and Neha realized that they weren’t the only ones who didn’t know when they would go back to school or what the next year
would look like.
With so much unknown about COVID-19, they wanted to create a platform that connected their community in a way that would make everyone more health-conscious.
They both realized that given the current situation, spreading awareness about public health issues that many people may not fully understand would be the only way to combat the uncertainty surrounding them. With this in mind, Rohan Chadha, a
student at Lawton Chiles High School, and Neha Iyer, an undergraduate student at the University of Florida, decided to start the initiative called Colors for Coats.
Colors for Coats aims to spread awareness about disparities like the COVID-19 pandemic that disproportionately affects the medical community and general public. By discussing with professionals and donating to other organizations, their goal is to create a community of individuals who understand the issues at hand, and take initiative
to make a positive difference.
They aim to achieve these goals by focusing on a different healthcare-related topic each month.
Their first project was a fundraiser for the Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare Emergency COVID Fund, where Rohan sold custom-made origami and spray paint artwork to help raise money for healthcare employees and patients fighting the pandemic.
With the support of their community, they raised a total of $1,000 dollars for the TMH
foundation. “Spray paint art and origami have been some of my hobbies for a while now. I’m glad that my work is going towards something bigger than can help save other lives,” Rohan said. “Neha and I are really interested in medicine, and we hope to take our organization to new heights.”
Rohan and Neha plan to take it one step further by establishing a Colors for Coats branch at different high schools in order to get more students involved with public health and take initiative to help their community. They aim to accomplish this by holding workshops and seminars, writing more informative articles, and creating volunteering
projects.
You can find more about their efforts at https://www.colorsforcoats.com/, or follow their journey at @colorsforcoats on Instagram, and @colorsforcoatsFL on Facebook.
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