The Collective Project: Neha Gupta empowers orphans, inspires youth. Most 9-year-olds are busy with play dates and toys, but when Neha Gupta was 9, she was sowing the seeds of her future charity.
She had visited an orphanage in India with her family, was saddened by the conditions and wanted to help the kids she met. She promptly sold her toys to donate about $800. She then sold crafts door-to-door to raise more money. That was the beginning of Gupta’s global charity, Empower Orphans, which has raised nearly $1.7 million to help 25,000 children in the last 10 years. The world honored Gupta last year, when she received the International Children’s Peace Prize, a prestigious award for young people whose work improves children’s rights.
“One of my favorite sayings is, ‘Throw your heart out in front of you and run ahead to catch it.’ “I found my passion, which is giving hope to others and surfacing the beauty within them, enabling them to rise from their struggles,” she said. “Find a cause that touches your heart,” Gupta said last year. Empower Orphans. The concept of Empower Orphans was ideated by Neha Gupta in 2005, when she was only nine years old.
It is a tradition within the Gupta family to celebrate family birthdays by taking food and gifts to orphaned children in the family’s Indian hometown. Since an early age, Neha has participated in this tradition during her trips to India from the United States. When Neha was nine years old, the harsh reality of the orphaned children’s prospects hit Neha hard. She realized that there was no one in the world that really loved the orphans and they could not get a good education as they did not have the means to purchase school books.
Instead of just feeling empathy towards them, she took action and decided that she wanted to help make a difference in the lives of the orphans. Neha has raised more than $1000000 thus far. American Teen Makes History, Wins International Children's Peace Prize. <br/><a href=" News Videos</a> | <a href=" News Videos</a> Copy Neha Gupta became the first ever American today to be awarded the Children’s International Peace Prize in The Hague, Netherlands.
The prize is awarded annually to a child, anywhere in the world, for his or her dedication to children’s rights. Last week, in an interview for “This Week,” Gupta remarked to ABC’s Susan Saulny: "It’s such an honor to know that i was nominated for this award. " Gupta began her astounding work when she was just a child herself, visiting her parents' native India nine years ago. "The place was just really in shambles," Gupta told Saulny.
She moved to fix them quickly, any way that she could. "We just put it out on our driveway and people came, bought things and it turned out to be such a successful event,” Gupta said. American Teen Wins Children's Peace Prize For Empowering Orphans In India. THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An American teenager has won a prestigious international prize for her charitable work to help orphans in India and other vulnerable children.
Neha Gupta, an 18-year-old of Indian descent from Philadelphia, was awarded the International Children's Peace Prize Tuesday by Nobel Peace Laureate Desmond Tutu at a ceremony in The Hague. She was honored for setting up a foundation called Empower Orphans when she was just 9 after visiting an orphanage in India. The foundation has since helped thousands of children. Childrenspeaceprize > Winners > 2014.
Meet Neha Gupta Neha Gupta, citizen of the United States of America, born in New Zealand to Indian parents, is a truly global child.
Since the age of nine she has made it her mission to help the children of the world, and with extraordinary dedication and leadership, she has led her peers across the world to do just that. Through Empower Orphans, assisted by teenage volunteers like herself, she has raised over $1.3 million and touched the lives of over 25,000 children worldwide. How it all started in India It all started in 2005, on Neha’s annual visit to her grandparents in India.
Every year they celebrated birthdays, in accordance with family tradition, with the children of the local orphanage. Penn State Schreyer Scholar wins 2014 International Children's Peace Prize. UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- Penn State student and first-year Schreyer Honors College scholar Neha Gupta today (Nov. 18) accepted the 2014 International Children’s Peace Prize Award for her exceptional work to raise money for underprivileged children around the world.
She is a scholar in the Eberly College of Science and will be entering the pre-medicine program. Netherlands King Willem-Alexander, former archbishop and Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai presented Gupta with her award during a ceremony at The Hague, Netherlands.