Students are helping students. HABBA, or “celebration,” began today with fun and a contribution to teaching at Warren Regional Juvenile Detention Center hosted by the Future Selves Program.

HABBA is a week-long celebration involving henna tattoos, Indian food sales, music requests to loved ones and a faculty tug of war.

“We’ve come up with this fundraiser to keep things going,” said Mahesh Sadhnani, FSP president.

The FSP is a part of the Kentucky Public Health Association, and associate professor of public health Stephen Nagy helped start the program two years ago.

Students presented the idea and wanted to take action.

The program is funded by its members and this is the first year of fundraising, said Khushi Malhotra coordinator and graduate student from Hisar, India.

“We started with six people – now we have over 20 members,” she said.

FSP is made up mostly of Indian graduate students working in the environmental and public health department.

The FSP was a center of interest for the group because volunteers feel the students at the detention center are like any other students, Malhotra said.

The juveniles at the detention center don’t get a chance to connect with the volunteers one-on-one, but they interact in a 10-student classroom.

“We give the students a chance to interact with people from outside the center,” Malhotra said.

FSP provides mentoring and helps the minors understand how to make positive decisions in the future and identify and improve their personal and professional skills.

“We help them understand they are normal people – they just made a mistake,” she said. “We can really see a difference in the students’ attitudes.”

Fundraising activities today include Fully Fab Food Fiesta at 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. in DUC.

The rest of the week includes Love Love Me Do at 2:30 p.m. on South Lawn and La Bataille de Titans at 4:30 p.m., both tomorrow.

“The tug of war is definitely going to be the most fun activity of the week!” Malhotra said.