Charity Archives - Taking on the Giant

Fourteen-year-old Wonder Girl – Maya Shea Penn

March 1, 2014 by Ravneet Sandhu Leave a Comment

Maya Shea Penn is a remarkable fourteen years old girl from Atlanta, Georgia. Her already impressive feats include, but are not limited to, being a CEO of her own company,Maya Ideas, which she started at the age of eight and which only uses eco-friendly fabrics for her hand-crafted clothing designs, as well as building her own website, using JavaScript and HTML5.

Before she was thirteen, she was not heading her own company as an entrepreneur, but also was a philanthropist, designer, artist, animator, illustrator and writer.

Maya first decided to transform her hobby of making combinations of materials found at home, into a business, when she got compliments about her self-made headbands. She also states that, from the beginning, she wanted her business not to harm the environment and to devote a percentage of her earnings to charities. She stuck to both promises.

In the true spirit of any dedicated entrepreneur,Maya says ‘I started my business out of curiosity.’

Maya is home schooled and believes that this allows her to customize her day in a way where she can focus on her thriving business, her studies as well as social life.

She credits both of her parents for the amazing person she is today. Her mother taught her to sew. When she was four years old, her father taught her how to take apart a computer and assemble it back together. That’s where her love for technology began.

“I feel I’m a part of New-Age entrepreneurs who that not only seek to have a successful business but also sustainable future. I feel that I can meet the needs of my customers without compromising the ability of future generations to live in a greener tomorrow.” says this impressive teenager.

She has also started a non-profit organization, called Maya’s Ideas for the Planet,hat strives to help the community,spread environmental awareness and encourage young girls to follow their dreams in non-traditional fields and is a contributing writer for Livethrive.org in a column called Ask The Expert which answers queries about the environment. Honored as an entrepreneur at the 2012 SCLC Women’s 33rd Annual Drum Major for Justice Awards in the Youth Category, she also plans to release her web-series called the Pollinators, which includes a bad-ass superhero team of pollinators. Superhero team of pollinators fighting against those trying to hurt the environment. Maya believes cartoons are a fun way to learn about serious topics, such as environmental degradation. Her passion for animation started when she was around three-years-old, when she started to make small flip books and became curious about how cartoons are made. An animation series about small viruses in a computer, called the Malicious Dishes, is another of Maya’s upcoming plans.

“We live in a big, diverse and beautiful world and that makes me even more passionate to save it.” Simple but powerful words from Maya Penn.

Filed Under: Charity, Entrepreneur, Environment, US and Canada Tagged With: business, designs, ec-friendly, fashion, home-schooled, maya. shea, penn, wondergirl

Ryan Hreljac: A First Grader’s Determination Leads to Drilling 100′s of Needed Wells

December 27, 2013 by Charlie Butts Leave a Comment

Water! What’s so special about water? Ryan Hreljac found out that it is pretty special if you don’t have

Ryan Hreljac founder of Ryan’s Well Foundation source: Ryan’s Well Foundation

it. When Ryan was in first grade, his teacher wanted her students to begin to think about sharing basic things with people who do not have what most people take for granted. One of the things she said some people in Africa needed was a water well. Ryan asked, “Why do they need a well? Why don’t they just go to the water fountain?”

His teacher said there is no water fountain, and the nearest water well is 5,000 meters away. Ryan had to convert meters to steps, and when he found that it was only ten steps to his water fountain he began to realize how difficult 5,000 steps would be. So the idea of providing a well sounded pretty significant and he decided to try to provide one. He went home and asked his parents for the seventy dollar cost. He says his parent sat him down and told him that since it was not a small amount of money, he would have to earn it over time. By the time he had done enough chores to have earned seventy dollars the program at his school was over. When he contacted organizations that provide wells in Africa, he found the total cost to get a well dug and functioning was more like two thousand dollars. He quickly determined that he would not be able to earn that much through house chores.

So at the age of seven, Ryan began public speaking throughout his community. “After that,” hereports, “ it became less and less of my project and more of everyone’s project. The entire community got involved and slowly the country and finally the world.” He established the Ryan’s Well Foundation, which over the past twelve years has completed over eight hundred water projects at the cost of millions of dollars. Those projects have helped over 700,000 people in more than a dozen countries.

Ryan, now a very articulate and mature young man of twenty, explains that his foundation does three basic things. First they build clean water wells. “Every day,” he says, “six thousand children die because they don’t have clean water.” The second thing they do is educate whole populations about the importance of clean water. Instead of building a well and walking away, they involve the whole village in the building of the well so they also know how to fix it when it breaks. This makes the project sustainable. And the third and perhaps most important thing they do, Ryan thinks, is to all people to figure out, in his words, “their puzzle piece” of how they fit in to make the world a better place. If everyone does that the world will be a better place. Certainly Ryan has found his puzzle piece and is making the world a better place.

For more information on Ryan’s Well Foundation go to: http://www.ryanswell.ca/

Related stories about young people doing amazing things to deal with the huge need for clean water see: Transforming rain water to drinking water http://wp.me/p2fje5-gK and The young inventor of dry bath http://wp.me/p2fje5-aL

Filed Under: Charity, Environment, US and Canada Tagged With: canada, MS, Ryan Hreljac, Ryan's Well Foundation

The end of malaria? Brothers John and Mark Lewandowski might have the answer

June 26, 2013 by Raluca Besliu Leave a Comment

Brothers John and Mark Lewandowski may soon launch a global health revolution, by inventing a portable, cheap, fast and easy to use device for early malaria diagnosis. Their invention may not only prevent the death of millions who have already contracted the disease, but also lead to a drastic reduction of incidences of malaria.

Malaria is a leading cause of death in the world. Around 300-500 million people are infected with malaria each year. In 2010 alone, an estimated 660,000 people died from the disease. Caused by parasites of the Plasmodium species, malaria is easily transmitted to people when infected mosquitoes bite them. It is most common in sub-Saharan Africa and some parts of Asia and Latin America. While continuing to claim countless lives on a yearly basis, malaria can be cured, especially if detected in its early phases.

The young inventors’ device, called the Rapid Assessment of Malaria (RAM), diagnoses malaria in less than one minute with just one drop of blood from a fingertip. John first thought up the devise in his graduate research at Case Western Reserve University where he studied inexpensive techniques to manipulate malaria parasites with magnetism.

RAM uses magnets and a laser pointer to conduct the diagnosis. Mark explained that the laser “shoots through the blood sample and the magnetic malaria particles interact with the magnets’ magnetic field and come together. Whatever light gets through the sample is captured by the light sensors and transformed into a voltage,” which reveals if and how much malaria a person has.

Listen to John and Mark explain their remarkable device:

The RAM device is reusable, both as a result of its plastic, replaceable sample holder, where the blood is stored, as well as its rechargeable battery. No training is needed to successfully operate the device. The young inventors tested their device on malaria samples sent from Papua New Guinea, where Case Western is operating a clinic. The final version of the RAM will have an LCD screen that will provide an instant diagnosis. This is particularly crucial given the fact that, if detected within the first 24 hours of infection, malaria is easily treatable. If not promptly detected and treated, it can become severe and malaria medication less efficient. Since malaria’s original symptoms include fever and flu-like illness, such as shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness, people often fail to diagnose the disease before it is too late. Not only is the disease more difficult to treat later on, but it increases the spread of the disease. With RAM, people can easily test whenever they fear they have contracted the disease.

Another intended addition to the RAM’s final model will be to add an external adapter to ensure that the users can recharge their device with any power source they might have. This is especially important, since malaria affects mostly countries with limited access to energy sources.

The cost of detection will be only 20-25 cents, significantly less than existing malaria detection products. Apart from being more time consuming, existing mechanisms are also more expensive, costing anywhere between 75 cents to over 20 dollars, without considering the additional costs of refrigeration and medical processing. When assessing the total costs, John emphasizes that their product would be 10 times, even 50 times cheaper than everything else on the market.

In order to commercialize their product, the two brothers started their own organization, Disease Diagnostic Group LLC. They want to sell the RAM together with mosquito nets and the malaria treatment. John stressed that putting together prevention, detection and treatment is crucial to quickly reduce the number of malaria cases. The two brothers have reached out to several organizations that might be interested in RAM, including the Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization (WHO). Given the brilliance of their device, it will certainly not take long for organizations interested in global health to show interest in their product.

In propelling their product, John and Mark have already won several $10,000-15,000 business plan competitions and obtained a $100,000 investment from the Coulter Foundation at Case Western Reserve University, which will help them distribute their device in the field. In order to further test it, John and Mark will travel, in the fall of 2013, to Peru and Haiti, two malaria-ridden countries that are relatively close to the U.S.

In terms of upcoming projects, the young entrepreneurs are creating a supplementary app for the RAM to track and store the diagnosis as well as upload it to a GPS mapping system to provide an accurate, minute-changing assessment of malaria affected areas, so that treatment can be efficiently distributed. Also, the brothers hope to help scientists develop new strategies to combat the infectious disease.

When advising other young entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams, Mark suggests: “Take a look a long at all your interests and run them through different scenarios and see which one is going to have the greatest impact on the people around you and other parts of the world.” John added: “The beauty of our business model has been pairing something that has huge social impact with financial profitability or sustainability. So, make sure that your initiative has a sustainable model around it and that it can reach a significant number of people.”

Watch our full interview with the Lewandowski brothers here.

Filed Under: Africa, Charity, Humanitarian, Science and Technology, US and Canada Tagged With: coulter foundation, disease diagnostic group, early detection, john and mark lewandowski, malaria, mosquito nets, prevention, RAM, Rapid Assessment of Malaria

At 14, Shea Gouldd made her baking passion a successful business

June 21, 2013 by Raluca Besliu Leave a Comment

Shea Gouldd, an 18-year-old, from Delray Beach, Florida, had an interest in cooking since before she can remember. According to her mother, as a toddler she preferred to watch cooking shows rather than cartoons.

Her mother recalls that Shea always wanted to help make dinner. Her mom would let her snip green beans with scissors, measure rice and carry out other small tasks. Shea’s passion for cooking gradually turned to baking.

Source: http://www.sheasbakery.com/Sheas_Bakery/Shea.html

Since baking ingredients are rather expensive, her mother, a self-employed single-parent, challenged her to earn money. So, in 2008, at the age of 14, she started selling gourmet cheesecakes and seasonal breads to family friends and neighbors to earn money for baking and developing new recipes.
The business won customers and soon she could open her own bakery: Shea’s Bakery. Family friends allowed the teenager to use a kitchen inside an office, in exchange for Shea’s catering for their occasional events. Through word of mouth, the young entrepreneur managed to have over 30 orders by that Thanksgiving.

Without any marketing her business grew 300% in one year and eventually caught the attention of local media. Shea believes that the reason for her bakery’s success is the high-quality ingredients she uses and the love she puts into her cooking. Her bakery carries over 60 items, including cakes, cupcakes, brownies and seasonal breads. The first store that displayed the young entrepreneur’s products sold 720 cupcakes in one week and over 900 cookies, brownies and breads during a second weekend. In 2012, she was able to hire a full-time employee that managed the business while Shea was at school.

While significantly busier than most teenagers her age, Shea was also a dedicated student. She maintained a 4.7 GPA at the Spanish River High School and was part of the National Honor Society. She was also enrolled in the Entrepreneurial Academy to improve her business skills. She also played tenor saxophone in the school’s decorated marching and symphonic bands.
Giving back to the community is important to Shea as well. Ten percent of all her products are donated to charity. Her bakery donates goods to a local soup kitchen where she has also served, and her bakery proceeds go to various charities.
Moreover, Shea is currently in the process of trademarking “Pattycakes,” her culinary invention, two cakes pushed together with icing in the middle like a giant cookie.

Shea was recently awarded the National Young Entrepreneur of the Year, a $10,000 scholarship along with the award from the National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation. She also received a $10,000 scholarship from the National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation. Shea has won many other competitions and prizes, including the 2010 Bravo Young Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, the first place in the 2013 Fla State DECA Competition.
The young entrepreneur is about to start her freshman year at the Washington University in St. Louis where she was awarded a scholarship worth more than $174,000. While she will not be able to cook for her bakery, she will still handle the administrative responsibilities.

Check out Shea and her bakery at:
http://www.sheasbakery.com/Sheas_Bakery/Shea.html

Filed Under: Charity, Entrepreneur Tagged With: bakery, baking, business, cooking, entrepreneur, florida, food, National Federation of Independent Business Young Entrepreneur Foundation, National Young Entrepreneur of the Year, passion, shea gouldd, shea's bakery, young entrepreneur

17-year-old Talia Leman has managed to mobilize 12 million young people

June 5, 2013 by Raluca Besliu Leave a Comment

Talia Leman wanted to help the victims of the destructive and deadly Hurricane Katrina. Determined to help as much as possible, the ten year old planned to raise $1 million, which for most would seem a ludicrously ambitious goal, especially for a child her age. Talia managed to rally a children-led movement that reported not $1 million, but over $10 million, ranking this youth-led giving power with the top five U.S. corporate donors, including Wal-Mart, Exxon and AT&T.

Source: randomkid.org

The movement started that Halloween when Talia decided to trick-or-treat for coins instead of candy. Her younger brother, however, vehemently opposed. Consequently, she became the CEO, chief executive optimist, of the fundraising effort, while her brother became the CON, the chief executive nemesis.
The now 17 year-old changemaker recalls: “We posted our photos on a make-shift website. Naturally, I was wearing a shiny coin costume while he donned a Darth Vader costume, complete with a light saber. The Today Show happened to be trolling the internet for uplifting Katrina stories and came across ours, and invited us on the program, in our official capacities.”
The Today Show appearance transformed Talia’s initiative into a country-wide movement. Kids through out the U.S. were inspired to trick-or-treat for New Orleans. Talia personally collected $312 that Halloween, while with the help of donations from local companies, her total contribution reached $250,000. Nationally, kids inspired by Talia raised a total of an extraordinary $10 million.
Through this fundraising effort, Talia realized the immense potential young people had to change the world. She created the organization RandomKid that provides young people with the ideas, resources and tools to raise funds for charitable causes. Talia told The Story Exchange that “RandomKid was born from this need to provide the resources to other kids who want to make a difference for the things that they care about in the world.”
The organization has already mobilized 12 million young people from 20 countries and provided aid on four continents. The organization makes a 300%-1000% return on whatever was invested in their organization. Projects supported by RandomKid range from funding water pumps and building schools, to providing medical care and fostering peace.
Apart from running her organization, Talia published a book in 2012 entitled “A Random Book About the Power of ANYone,” which highlights how young people can make extraordinary contributions and make positive change in the world. Her book outlines the tools needed to achieve these goals. On Amazon, her book is rated #1 bestseller on volunteerism, #3 in the self-esteem category, and #6 in motivation.
For her extraordinary work, Talia received numerous awards, including the National Jefferson Award, World of Children’s Founder’s Youth Award and the International Youth Talent Award from the European Union and the Spanish government of Extremadura. She was awarded the “Nobel” Prize for her tremendous efforts to assist children throughout the world. Talia was appointed UNICEF’s first known National Youth Ambassador. Moreover, in an op-ed entitled “Talia For President,” Nicholas Kristof New York Times’ columnist endorsed Talia for president: ”If your image of a philanthropist is a stout, gray geezer, then meet Talia Leman, an eighth-grader in Iowa who loves soccer and swimming, and whose favorite subject is science. I’m supporting her for president in 2044.”
Talia’s future goals include developing a mobile app “to provide youth with all the tools and resources they need to make their projects take off into the stratosphere from their phones.” She also wants to expand The Big Return, a project that was piloted in St. Louis. The project trains organizations to rally their young participants and offer them the skills, resources and tools needed to raise their own return rates to 200%-1000% for their community causes, while also helping young people acquire leadership skills, improve their grades and connect in their communities.
What about other young people who want to change the world? Talia suggests: “First, understand that you can do great things precisely because you are a youth and you don’t know what isn’t possible. You have a wealth of inexperience –for you there is no box to think outside. Second, take the first step, whatever it is, and trust that all the next steps will make themselves known. Plans happen best when they emerge.”
Check out Talia’s organization here: https://www.randomkid.org
See more at: http://www.takingonthegiant.com/category/charity/#sthash.sAzzwFTA.dpuf

Filed Under: Charity, Entrepreneur, Environment, Humanitarian Tagged With: CEO, entrepreneur, hurricane, hurricane katrina, katrina, leadership, national youth ambassador, new york times, nicholas kristof, president, randomkids, talia leman

Ten-year-old Martha Payne advocates for healthier foods in school

May 24, 2013 by Raluca Besliu Leave a Comment

In 2012, 9-year-old Martha Payne, a Scottish schoolgirl from Lochgilphead, discovered her passion for writing after publishing a newspaper article on the Titanic’s sinking.
Source: Marysmeals.org.uk

Looking for a way to write everyday, Martha and her dad created a blog that documented Martha’s school lunches. Martha was coming home hungry because of the poor quality of the food served at school. The schoolgirl lives on a small farm, on which her family grows some of their food. She could easily tell the difference between the highly-processed food at her school and the simpler, healthier cuisine she was eating at home.

On her blog, called NeverSeconds, Martha rated her food for healthiness, taste and mouthfuls and posted photos of her meals. In her blog, Martha asked where the food products she was served at school came from. She soon started receiving pictures of school dinners and lunches from students all over the world.

Her blog, launched at the end of April 2012, soon went viral, reaching over 5 million pagev iews by June. She received support from celebrities, such as chef and school activist Jamie Oliver, who encouraged Martha’s efforts, tweeting: “Shocking but inspirational blog. Keep going. Big love from Jamie x.”

In June 2012, the Argyll and Bute Council banned Martha from taking photos of her school meals. The Council refuted the “attacks on its school catering.” The ban’s given motivation was that Martha misrepresented the food options available to students, who were able to select between two meals each day, which were decided by teachers, parents and the school board.

After the ban, Martha posted a goodbye on her blog, explaining how she received the news: “This morning in maths I got taken out of class by my headteacher and taken to her office. I was told that I could not take any more photos of my school dinners. […] I only write my blog, not newspapers, and I am sad I am no longer allowed to take photos. I will miss sharing and rating my school dinners and I’ll miss seeing the dinners you send me too.”

Martha was also disappointed because she raised only £2,000 of the £7,000 fundraising target for Mary’s Meals, a Scottish charity that provided school meals for children in developing countries. She was collecting these donations through her blog.The ban caused a massive out pour of Internet support for the schoolgirl. The Council was quickly forced to lift the ban and apologize to Martha. After the ban’s lifting, the school also started offering unlimited salads, fruits, and breads at meal times.

The general public’s support for Martha also manifested into donations for Martha’s charity cause, which allowed her to raise over £115,000, far surpassing her initial target. Mary’s Meals used part of the funding to build a new kitchen shelter for Lirangwe Primary School in Malawi, which has around 2,000 students, while the rest of the funds were used to cover the Malawian students’ meals.

In October 2012, Martha travelled to Malawi and had breakfast with the 2,000 children at the kitchen she helped build. The kitchen provides a special high-protein porridge to the school students.

In describing her visit, Martha said: ”I was a bit nervous when I saw all the children waiting but it was awesome to see the kitchen finished and to paint the sign. It was really nice of them to sing my name when we got to the school.”

Martha’s generosity inspired other people to give as well. One woman, Shabnam Sabur was so impressed by Martha’s work in Malawi that she decided to follow her example and pay the running costs of meals at another Malawian school. Sabur told the BBC: “There was one particular moment in the report where Martha was surrounded by hundreds of school children her own age. They were so happy, so delighted, with huge smiles on their faces. It was at that moment I felt I wanted to be a part of it. […] I wanted to achieve what Martha had achieved in changing the lives of children.”

For her initiative, Martha was awarded several prizes, including the ”Human Rights Young Person of the Year” at the 2012 Liberty Awards and the “Public Campaigner of the Year” at the Scottish Politician of the Year event.

Source: Marysmeals.org.uore sub

In terms of career plans, Martha said in an interview that she hoped to be “an author or a journalist or a runner. Maybe I could be all three!” For the moment, Martha continues to run her blog, which receives more and more photos and

missions from students from around the world, who are often proposing changes in their own school meal plans.

When giving advice to other young changemakers, Martha emphasized: “Kids are really good at sharing and getting along. We do it everyday in the playgrounds at our schools. We should remember we are the experts at that. Because of the internet we can share beyond our playground and countries. Also, don’t be scared to start a blog. You can change what you write without smudges, you can say what you care about and you can publish it!”

See more at: http://www.takingonthegiant.com/category/charity/#sthash.sAzzwFTA.dpuf

Filed Under: Charity, Education, Humanitarian, US and Canada Tagged With: cafeteria, food, healthy, jamie oliver, martha payne, school meal, scotland

Hannah Taylor: Helping Canada’s homeless since she was 8

May 23, 2013 by Raluca Besliu Leave a Comment

Hannah Taylor was five years-old when her and her mother drove passed a man eating out of a garbage can in Winnipeg, Canada. Puzzled, Hannah asked her mother why he would do this. She introduced Hannah to the dire reality of homelessness. For the rest of the year, the man troubled Hannah and prompted questions to her parents until one day her mother encouraged her to take action.

Following her mom’s advice, Hannah asked her grade school teacher if she could talk to the class about homelessness. She did and together with her peers, she “ended up having a bake and art sale, and giving all the proceeds and clothes and stuff to a local mission. And it got bigger from there.”

At 8 years-old, Hannah established the Ladybug Foundation Inc., an organization that currently assists over 50 Canadian charities, which provide shelter, food and other basic provisions for the homeless, hungry and poor. Hannah also strives to raise awareness about homelessness and has spoken at over 175 schools and to audiences as large as 16,000. She constantly reminds people that food and shelter are basic human rights and everyone must do their share to help those in need. Hannah has also discussed the issue of homelessness with top officials, such as the past Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and current Prime Minister Stephen Harper, CEOs and the Presidents of Corporations, musicians and actors.

Since its creation, the Ladybug Foundation has raised over $2 million for Canadian charities helping the homeless. In order to raise the money, Hannah has launched several initiatives for her organization. One is Big Boss lunches, where she unites key leaders in Canadian cities, including Winnipeg, Toronto and Calgary, and asks for their financial support. Hannah recalls that for her first Big Boss Lunch, she “drew 50 pictures to sell. Most were of ladybugs. One of the big bosses asked how much they cost. I said, ‘Let your heart decide.’ He said, ‘I’ll take one for $10,000.’”

Hannah does not just help the homeless. She likes to befriend them, whenever they were willing as well. She described how she became friends with a homeless man: “Once, when I was 8, I stopped to fill a homeless man’s asking cup with all the change in my purse. Then I hugged him and left. His name is Carey. Twenty minutes later, he came up behind me and handed me my ladybug charm. It fell into his cup by accident. He said he thought it might be important to me. We’ve been friends ever since.”

When asked the most difficult part of her journey since launching her organization, the young girl confessed that the death of two of her friends, results of the dangers of homelessness and poverty, was the saddest and hardest experience of her life. She reveals: “They found my one friend, Patches, on the riverbank; he drowned. I had exams and couldn’t go to the funeral. My other friend froze to death because she couldn’t find a place to sleep.”

Hannah believes that her mission will only end when “people will care about each other like family. The homeless will have homes and won’t have to eat out of garbage cans.”

The young Canadian launched another organization, called the Ladybug Foundation Education Program Inc., where she created the “makeChange,” a multimedia resource for teachers to empower young people to become involved and make a change in their community and in the world. MakeChange educates students on existing social problems and encourages student engagement through asking questions and taking action.

Hannah has also published an illustrated children’s story, called Ruby’s Hope, which inspires readers to make a change regardless of their age. In recognition of her hard work for the homeless, an emergency shelter in Winnipeg was named Hannah’s Place. In 2007, Hannah received the prestigious BRICK Award in the Community Building category.

Hannah advises other young people to follow their dreams: “Just follow your heart. Tell your parents about what you’re doing, or what you want to do, and they might give you some ideas, too. But really, just follow your heart, and maybe get your schoolmates involved so they can help out, too.”

Check out Hannah’s Ladybug Foundation at The Ladybug Foundation Website.
- See more at: http://www.takingonthegiant.com/category/charity/#sthash.sAzzwFTA.dpuf

Filed Under: Charity, Entrepreneur, Humanitarian, US and Canada Tagged With: canada, hannah taylor, homeless, homelessness, justice, ladybug foundation, paul martin, stephen harper, winnipeg

Cecilia Cassini: the youngest fashion designer in the U.S.

May 22, 2013 by Raluca Besliu Leave a Comment

Cecilia Cassini, youngest fashion designer

Thirteen-year-old Cecilia Cassini from Encino, California was the youngest designer in the U.S. and one of the youngest in the world, when she launched her own label in 2009, at the age of 9. By 2011, she had already created over 500 original pieces and dressed many celebrities, including Heidi Klum and Miley Cyrus.

The young designer primarily creates clothes for girls between 4 and 14, but often adapts them for adults as well. Cecilia likes to use feathers, fur and bows for her designs.

She designs all the clothes herself. In order to balance school work and designing, Cecilia does her homework in the library during recess, so after school she can focus entirely on her creations.

It takes her about 15 minutes to create her dresses, which cost between $62 and $150. She considers her signature piece to be her “big-bow dress. Bows are chic, and they add something amazing to everything.”

She explained the advantages of being a young designer, saying: ”Sometimes adults create clothes for kids thinking that we don’t have sophisticated tastes yet, so what I’m bringing are very modern, high-fashion looks for kids from a kid’s eye. I know what girls my age want to wear.”

In an interview, the young designer recalled that she started designing when she was 4 years-old, when she “started cutting up clothing and began repurposing the material.”

Everything changed when Cecilia received a sewing machine from her grandmother for her sixth birthday. She hasn’t stopped designing since.

Her big break came during her first trunk show at Tough Cookies, a children’s shop in Sherman Oaks, where the young designer sold 50 pieces in three hours. In 2012, Cecilia got her own reality show, called Confessions of a Fashionette” on Style Network, following her efforts to expand her clothing line, by organizing a major trunk show in Los Angeles.

The young designer wants to be a role model for other young people and encourages her peers to chase their dreams. She revealed in an interview: “I’ve always wanted to be a fashion designer, and I think we shouldn’t wait till we’re older. I think that we should just do it now so I’m following my dreams and I hope that other little girls follow theirs.”

Cecilia also likes to give back to the community. Cecilia has responded to the invitation of several elementary school teachers, who wanted her to talk to their students about how she made her dreams reality and inspire them to do the same. She also funds charities that help people, especially children, follow their dreams.

Filed Under: Arts, Charity, Entrepreneur, US and Canada Tagged With: cecilia cassini, fashion design

14-year-old Kesz Valdez has helped over 10,000 homeless Filipino children

May 20, 2013 by Raluca Besliu Leave a Comment

When he was two-years-old, Cris “Kesz” Valdez’s father forced him to scavenge at a dump site in Cavite City, situated not far from Manila. His father used to beat Kesz and use the money collected for drugs and alcohol.

Source: Bida Kapamilya

When he turned four, Kesez ran away from home and lived on the streets, continuing to scavenge off a dump site and to sleep in an open tomb in a public cemetery with other kids.

Three years later, he sustained severe burns on his arms, when he fell in a pile of burning tires. He was rescued and cared for by a social worker, Harnin “Bonn” Manalaysay, who has provided for the boy ever since. Kesz is now the founder of the Bible study and outreach group Club 8586.

On his seventh birthday, in 2005, the first one he was celebrating in his entire life, Kesz did not want any presents from himself. Instead, he gave small gifts for street children. Soon afterwards, Kesz, who is now 14, established the charity organization that he has ran ever since, Championing Community Children.

Through his organization, Kesz offers homeless children in Cavite City “HOPE GIFTS,” containing packages with clothes, slippers, toothbrushes and toys. His organization has other programs as well. Kesz organizes teaching sessions for street children about hygiene, food and children’s rights and attends public events, where he represents these kids. In his initiative, Kesz is supported by his friends, who also help distribute the care packages and teach the street children. Thus far, the young Filipino’s organization has distributed over 5,000 parcels and helped 10,000 street children.

At the end of 2012, the young Filipino’s work was recognized by the International Children’s Peace Prize, granting him $130,000 prize to invest in his programs. The prize is awarded annually to a child, “whose courageous or otherwise remarkable acts have made a difference in countering problems, which affect children around the world.”

Kesz received his award from Desmond Tutu, the South African activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. During a press conference held after the award ceremony, Tutu told the young winner that he is “wonderful.” He also stressed that the young man was a “new voice for the voiceless.”

In his acceptance speech, Kesz encouraged the world to “remember that every day, 6,000 children die from diseases associated with poor sanitation, poor hygiene, and we can do something about it! Please join me in helping street children achieve better health and better lives.”

He also had a personal message for all the children in the world: “[…] our health is our wealth! Being healthy will enable you to play, to think clearly, to get up and go to school and love the people around you in so many ways.”

Kesz, who wants to be a doctor, confesses that he wants to support street children in never losing hope, and to give them the love and affection that he received from his benefactor. In an interview, he revealed: ”This is what I want to give to as many street children as possible… I want children in the streets to get the same chance I had.”

Filed Under: Asia, Charity, Education, Humanitarian Tagged With: Filipino, homeless, Kesz Valdez, philippines

Dalumuzi Mhlanga, a college junior, is preparing Zimbabwe’s future leaders and entrepreneurs

May 15, 2013 by Raluca Besliu Leave a Comment

Dalumuzi Mhlanga is a young Zimbabwean man empowering, mobilizing and inspiring the youth in his country “to work together beyond socioeconomic barriers so that they can lead community development efforts.”

Source: Lead Us Today

Dalumuzi is a student of Politics, Psychology and Sociology at Harvard University, who is currently on an exchange program at the University of Oxford, UK, as a recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship.

In order to achieve his ambitious goals, the young Zimbabwean started an organization, called Lead Us Today and providing leadership and entrepreneurship training, during the summer after his freshman year at Harvard.

He worked with a small team of young people to create a curriculum and started with only 64 students, but by the end of the summer they already had 200 people enrolled.

Thus far, the organization has trained over 300 students from eight high schools in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. In each school, his organization created community learning centers, which are spaces that bring together community members to tackle key issues facing their communities.

These centers have mobilized more than 400 community members, who are guided and assisted by the trained students, to design and implement over 20 community development projects. These include creating “fruit and vegetable gardens benefiting HIV/AIDS patients with nutritional needs and sanitation campaigns orchestrated in partnership with corporations that have provided rubbish bins.” Through its projects, it has reached over 1,200 people.

His original inspiration for starting his organization started from his personal experience in high-school. While most of his peers came from more privileged backgrounds than him, Dalumuzi struggled with feelings of loneliness and insecurity, as he kept trying to define himself in terms of material possessions. He eventually decided that he would define himself not in terms of what he owned, but in terms of what he contributed to his society and to the world.

This freed his of all his insecurities and gave him strength to dream bigger and bigger dreams. As a result of this personal experience, he subsequently decided that he also wanted to empower other young people to view their agency and their responsibility to make a difference in their community. Dalumuzi strongly believes that only when young people realize that they have the power to shape a democratic society, will progress be achieved on the African continent.

In recognition of his valuable initiative, in 2011, he was selected as one of the three student winners of the College Social Innovator Contest, hosted jointly by the Harvard College Innovation Collaborative and the Common Good. He was also named one of the ‘Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Zimbabwe.’ The young man is extremely grateful for the constant support he has received. He confesses: “It’s so encouraging and so inspiring, and it keeps me going in a lot of ways. It’s been amazing to have that support and know that people all over the world can believe in an idea and motivate and inspire you.”

At Harvard, apart from running his own organization, he was very actively involved on campus. He served as the Director of the Leadership Institute as well as the Vice-President of the Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa. He was also the Student Representative to the Harvard Faculty Committee on Public Service, providing guidance on student voluntary projects to college officials.

In terms of his long-term goals, through his organization, the young Zimbabwean aims to create “a generation of engaged and socially responsible citizens in Africa and Zimbabwe who are spearheading development efforts today and will continue to do so in the future.”

He also hopes to one day be involved in playing a role in formulating public policy on education in Zimbabwe.

Check out Lead Us Today here: http://www.leadustoday.com/

Filed Under: Africa, Charity, Education, Entrepreneur, Humanitarian Tagged With: Dalumuzi Mhlanga, Harvard College Innovation Collaborative, Harvard College Innovation Collaborative and the Common Good, Lead Us Today, Outstanding Young Persons of Zimbabwe, Rhodes Scholarship, Ten Outstanding Young Persons of Zimbabwe