Dubai girl’s initiative helps teach underprivileged children
STUDENT’S PROJECT TO PROMOTE STEM EDUCATION HAS 20 CHAPTERS
In 2020, when many students across the world were attending classes from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a grade 11 student in Dubai chose to support those with no access to remote learning.
Today, her initiative to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and nurture love for biology — Biology for Better — is a fiscally sponsored non-profit organisation with 20 global chapters, 200 members and a seven-member board of students working tirelessly for the cause.
Meet Riya Manas Sharma, a grade 11 student in GEMS Modern Academy and the founder and CEO of Biology for Better (BFB), who is making a difference to the lives of poor children with no access to education during the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was in the summer of 2020 that Riya read a Unicef report that said at least a third of the world’s schoolchildren were unable to access remote learning during school closures, or even education, she told Gulf News in an interview.
It only took a couple of days for Riya to start planning and put the ideas together about how she would want the basic structure of an organisation, guided by the sole objective to educate and empower the underprivileged children by providing easier access to STEM education.
“Due to the amazing support received for the initiatives there, I was able to plan and organise how our educational aids programme would work, particularly during the pandemic situation.”
Additionally, other school activities such as the ecological magazine and regular webinars helped her plan magazines and webinars along similar lines. “So, it came from past exposures since I truly wanted BFB to reach out to as many people as possible in as many ways across and in as many geographies. The pandemic has proved that online platforms barely demand high resource commitments. If one has the passion, the resources come in easily,” the youngster said, sharing what she learned from her experience.
Using other online student platforms, the BFB website, and its social media handles and by word of mouth, students from across the world became part of the project.
As of now, the BFB team is not directly interacting with the students.