There is nothing more glorious than a good cause,
except …
(stay with me here)
a good cause that is launched by a child like Neha Gupta.
Neha was only 9 years old in 2005 when she created Empower Orphans, a grassroots campaign devoted to helping orphaned children cultivate self-sufficiency around the globe.
Photo courtesy of Empower Orphans
Among Neha’s family, it has been a tradition to celebrate birthdays by taking food and gifts to orphaned children in their hometown in India. Although Neha has grown up in the United States, she has had the opportunity to travel to India and participate in this tradition.
Photo courtesy of Empower Orphans
The experience of meeting kids who had no families was life-changing for young Neha.
“I remember the moment that I was talking to a girl of the same age; she wore tattered clothes and her face was covered in a thin black layer of dirt,” Neha, now 17, recalls in an article she wrote for the Huffington Post. “As she showed me around the orphanage, we first went to her room. It wasn’t exactly her room though … she shared it with 10 other girls. As I walked in, all I saw was an empty room with a single sheet on the ground. I asked in a confused manner, ‘This is where you sleep? Where is your bed?’ She looked down as she spoke and said, ‘This is our bed … We sleep on the ground. It does get very cold in the winter, but we manage.’ I was absolutely shocked.”
Sympathy wasn’t enough for Neha, though.
She needed to act.
Her passion to help blossomed into Empower Orphans, which aims to provide orphans with better healthcare, food, clothing, educational opportunities, and useful items so they can find a path from helplessness toward becoming fully capable human beings.
Neha has raised more than $1,000,000 so far for the creation of libraries and computer labs as well as the donation of water-purification systems, sewing machines, bicycles, and more to hundreds of kids.
Her current efforts that need funding include:
- Creating … a low-cost smart board to bring Internet access directly into classrooms
- Starting … a computer lab at Shiv Shakti School
- Expanding … a science lab for underprivileged children
- Providing … school fees to an additional 200 children
- Expanding … a sewing center to train another 200 girls
“I love helping these children so much! It is an amazing feeling to see the change that you can make in their lives as they grow,” Neha says. “I am definitely very happy with how much my efforts have grown; of course I am hoping that we keep growing and that more people see how important it is to help these children.”
If you would like to help Neha accomplish her gloriously good cause, you can make a direct donation (as little as $25 can educate a child for an entire year), purchase specific items for orphans, or you can buy handmade gifts from the Empower Orphans online store. One hundred percent of the profits are donated directly to the children that need them.
