Dubai siblings try to make a difference
At an age when most kids would be busy playing video games or buying their favourite action figures, siblings Aaditya, 11, and Aditi Gandhi, 9, are busy saving the planet, worrying about refugees, and finding ways to make a positive impact on the world. Apart from academic excellence, the two are keen environmentalists and work selflessly towards protecting our environment through recycling campaigns, clean-up drives and tree planting initiatives.
While Aaditya won the title of philanthropist of the year at his school (Gems Winchester Jebel Ali) last year for his work for the welfare of his school, society and even for volunteering, Aditi has won accolades for giving awareness talks in her school on topics like breast cancer, environmental protection and conservation, recycling, antipollution etc.
From setting up a free books library at home to spending weekends collecting recyclables around their building to being active members of Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), Red Crescent and ambassadors of Protect Your Mom breast awareness campaigns, the brother-sister duo says “this is our way of saying thank you to this country for giving us such a beautiful life.”
Their weekends are planned a little differently, compared to other kids of their age. On Fridays, they — along with their grandparents who are visiting them from India — go around their building and neighbourhood collecting recyclables, cans and plastics on the streets. The duo is a known face at EEG and Red Crescent due to their contributions. As you enter their apartment, a line of cartons stacked one above is the first thing that greets you. Explaining, Aditi said: “We are part of Red Crescent and every year they have different theme. This time we are collecting clothes, toys and books for them from our friends and neighbourhood. After a specific amount is collected, we will hand over this stuff to Red Crescent, which will in turn send this to the Syrian refugees. For EEG, we collected over 550kg newspapers from our neighbourhood.”
On Saturday, they have kids come over to their place to use the home library they set up last year in line with the Year of Reading initiative. The library in their apartment in Bur Dubai is named Go Getters Library and Book Club, which brings together children from the neighbourhood and promotes the love of reading. The library — set up in the living room — has about 500 books of different genres in English, Arabic, Hindi and French and about 30 children from the neighbourhood are members of the library.
“We use this platform to engage with kids in doing some or the other productive activity... We talk about ways to protect environment, we do creative writing, we involve them with us in doing community initiatives such as distribution of Iftar meals, collection of old clothes etc. for deposition to Red Crescent, workshop on recycling and breast cancer awareness programme,” little Aditi excitedly told Khaleej Times. On being asked what “giving” means to them, Aaditya said: “We feel privileged to have such a good family and such a great country with amazing rulers, and we feel blessed we are able to do something for others and give back. The feeling of doing something meaningful for someone who will benefit out of our work is very fulfilling and we just want to do more and more for those in need.”
Their father Akash Gandhi said: “Their recent trip to India worked as an eye-opener for the kids. I took them to special needs centres and Child Relief and You (CRY) projects in the slums. Both of them made cash contributions to the project. This cash was collected by selling homemade cupcakes to friends, family and at a stall they had set up at a ladies beauty salon.”
Both Aaditya and Aditi have developed their own online platforms to engage and educate people about different things. As part of the Global Innovation Challenge UAE, Aaditya has developed an online portal called BookLink (which is a prototype and yet to go live) to link people who have books and want to donate them to people who need them. Aaditya is further developing the website to make it a link between students who want to give away their school books as they move to the next grade and students who want to take those donated books. This would not only help people save money but would also help reusing books and thereby be an environment-friendly initiative. Aditi has already pledged to use Aaditya’s old books for her next session and set an example for others of her age.
The siblings have been actively engaged with World Vision India and have been supporting the education and care of children in their projects for a number of years now. “Initially we had sponsored the children in their name but now they send out the sponsorship funds from their pocket money and gift collections,” said Akash Gandhi.
The duo has also supported Dubai Cares by volunteering for activities such as packing of school kits for distribution to Syrian refugees. They also volunteered at the Special Needs Foundation (SNF) working with the team leaders there to help produce craft items for sale at their annual fair. On a family vacation to Russia, the two also initiated a breast cancer awareness campaign at the places they visited by making placards in Russian and English and approaching as many groups of people as they could to spread the message — early detection is best protection.
Akash and Puja Gandhi feel that their kids should be happy individuals first and success will follow in whatever field they choose. “What ever they do, I want them to feel a sense of fulfilment by contributing and making a difference. It is ultimately that sense of accomplishment is what will make them happy,” Akash said.
Aaditya and Aditi’s message to all: “Follow your dreams and keep giving to the society and never give up. We should remember when you give them something, they will at some point of time give back. This is our mother earth and we should care about it and its beings.”
saman@khaleejtimes.com