In Rheana Puliyanda’s neighborhood, dogs are walked and children learn how to dance from a high schooler not for a sheer allowance, but for the greater goal of erasing medical debt. Puliyanda, a current junior at Irvington High School, fundraises on several platforms in order to meet her goal of paying as many hospital bills as possible.
Puliyanda began fundraising at 15, when she first learned how medical debts functioned. She was shocked by how simple it is to cancel medical debt, thus beginning her campaign to help as much as she can with the problem.
“You could buy someone’s $1000 of medical debt for about $10 and sometimes less than that,” says Puliyanda.
Puliyanda was especially inspired to deal with debt after seeing people around her suffer due to hospital dues and health bills.
“I had a neighbor who postponed their surgery until after they could afford a plan with a slightly higher deductible because their pain was just getting worse,” says Puliyanda. “But at the same time they couldn’t afford it because it was so expensive.”
Joining Undue Medical Debt was a big step for Puliyanda in her debt-erasing journey. This organization taught Puliyanda the basics of buying debt, and encouraged her to expand her fundraising methods.
“I was really impressed with how [Undue Medical Debt] was able to handle things,” says Puliyanda. “From there I furthered my involvement with them by launching a campaign.”
In a year’s work, Puliyanda has taught dance classes to kids in her neighborhood, walked dogs and expanded her platform through social media. In her eyes, the importance of spreading a message doesn’t only translate to the monetary amount donated—it’s the awareness that sparks others to create their own campaigns.
“It’s overlooked and people learning about [medical debt] already has such a profound impact because they’re doing their own research and things like that,” says Puliyanda.
Despite her continuous campaigning efforts and fundraising, Puliyanda still dealt with unsuccessful social media posts or rude remarks that caused her to doubt herself. But she learned to keep her goal in her heart and push forward with it.
“It’s not going to go exactly how you plan but that’s okay,” says Puliyanda. “As long as you know the purpose of what you’re doing and have that in the back of your head then it’s fine.”
As of now, Puliyanda has raised over $13,800 which has cleared $1.8 million worth of medical debt. The problem of medical debt will always impact people, so it’s necessary to know how to manage it. For those who want to start their own fundraising projects, it’s important to stick with the goal even through the tough times.
“I think it’s important to acknowledge that not everyone can donate but that’s okay,” says Puliyanda. “You need to still give people ways to be involved somehow.”
