Good across the globe: Empowering dreams, one smile at a time

There are times when a personal experience can trigger a lifelong passion. Zulekha Ebrahim grew up in southwestern India, where she had to fight to get an education and pursue a career. The traditional expectation is that daughters will get married and sons will take care of their elders. “I didn’t want the education I fought so hard for to go to waste,” she says.

That drive led her to PepsiCo, where she felt empowered to use her past experience to create a movement that has helped hundreds of girls pursue higher education.

Stepping up to meet a need

In India, 90% of women do not participate in the workforce. And that number is even higher in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields: Although almost 43% of women in school major in STEM, only 26% of those women make it into the workforce.

But these numbers also represent a collective opportunity. “If I could reach out to every girl to help her get an education — no matter what field — I’d do it,” Zulekha says.

And in fact, that’s exactly what she started doing through One Smile at a Time, PepsiCo’s global volunteering program that engages employees to make meaningful community impacts. And it all started because she dared to take action.

One Smile at a Time: PepsiCo’s global volunteer program cultivating change

One Smile at a Time (OSaaT) supports associates by giving them access to local and micro-volunteering opportunities that leverage their talent and skills. It also encourages associates to partner with NGOs to make a positive impact on their communities.

“One of our goals with pep+ (PepsiCo Positive) is to inspire people and create more smiles,” Zulekha says. “One Smile at a Time does that beautifully. Anyone can publish events on the OSaaT portal, and people around the world can access it.”

In 2020, Zulekha and her team in Hyderabad partnered with the Nirmaan Organization, an advocacy group that empowers the youth of India, and Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), a residential girls’ secondary school run by the government of India for underserved populations.

Together, they identified tribal girls who displayed an interest in STEM across Telangana, a state in southern India. “We understood that these were first-generation learners who showed an interest in STEM,” she says. “They were approaching graduation but totally unaware of their career options.”

The Global Capability Center (GCC) team discovered they could mentor these girls and show them the power that STEM can have in their lives. By 2020 — at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — these volunteers were leading eight to 10 Zoom sessions every month for 150 to 200 students. The sessions helped the girls understand everything STEM entails and the careers available in STEM fields.

Those sessions led to in-person speed-mentoring events, training in technology and internet access, and in-person career fairs and coaching led by roughly 120 PepsiCo volunteers.

As a result of those events, 13 out of the 100 tribal girls who participated secured corporate jobs. Many others earned internships.

Enduring impact: Support for today and the future

“PepsiCo looks at the number of volunteers we have and the direct impact we’ve achieved,” Zulekha says. “The PepsiCo Foundation then makes additional Give Together financial grants to the organizations we work with, which allows us to make even more of a sustainable impact.”

The more than 3,500 volunteers who have since been involved got enough support to help establish four digital labs and two STEM labs in KGBV schools. “The labs help introduce girls to the internet and improve their digital literacy,” Zulekha says. Not only that, but ongoing support from volunteers also means that those labs continue to thrive today.

“In our recent visit, we saw the change these labs have brought into the lives of these girls,” Zulekha says. “They have been learning coding through the instructors funded by the PepsiCo Foundation; they have created a website for their school and were proud to present it to us.”

The students have also since participated in a science and technology fair, and one among them got selected to represent their school at a district level.

“I feel that education — and the right to education — is a basic right, but it is something that is not easily accessible to many girls,” Zulekha says. “That’s why I love the spark I see in them every time I visit. I believe we have created a legacy. PepsiCo by all means has given me wings to fly and achieve what I could never have envisioned.”

Because she dared

This content series celebrates PepsiCo’s support of women and shares what’s possible when women dare to lead and dare to make a lasting impact on their careers, their colleagues, and the world around them. Explore PepsiCo opportunities around the world to find your chance to make a lasting impact.

Article updated December 2024

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