The Power of Youth - Changing the World | Sanjana Buddi | TEDxCapeMay

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] one dollar what can you do with it buy some candy a small figurine why not notebooks I've always thought how can I better utilize this $1 but I'm a senior in high school I'm financially dependent on my parents for basically everything growing up I always had big dreams about what I wanted to do but I was always told to wait you're too young they said you don't know what you're talking about buying into this concept of waiting well I did exactly that or at least I tried whether inside or outside the classroom we were always discussing politics global food crisis and a lot of issues in our world but we were never asked to find a solution never pushed to do so we can't vote because we're under the legal age we can't donate money because we don't have an income and we can't skip school to address the next global issue so what can we do but this didn't stop me in 2015 after visiting the hometown of my parents in India and noticing this the condition of the crippling school that my cousin's currently go to I realised I had to do something to change it but I didn't have the right platform so here comes around 2016 and should I let the Leary visits India and she notices that same pollution the same poverty that I saw and she knew that she had to do something to change it so she reached out to a school in Hyderabad and she realized that more than anything they needed plates so she decided to raise money for plates she asked family and friends for small donations and she was able to raise just enough for a brand new set of plates but the administration contacted her and they told her that more than plates the kids needed notebooks because they said that they'd be able to eat on newspapers but that they would need notebooks to learn after being brought to tears Shila not only realized push that she was gonna raise money for the notebooks but for the plates as well this was the start of pure people for urban and rural education and after hearing about this amazing opportunity on the radio I knew exactly what I had to do so I gathered a group of my best friends and I invited a lot of high schoolers and I decided that I want to start my own branch of pure pure youth New Jersey so here we are a group of 10 students with the help of my mom Hema Canton Eenie pure youth director Andrea went from house to house and told him about this big so they were gonna have to raise a small a bit of money and with the loving support of my community we were able to raise $400 one night over the bake sale so I was just so happy I was very proud of all the hard work that my team was able to do and this only inspired me to do more so we started doing more we did a fundraiser called eat for a Cause in which we packed lunch boxes and sold them to offices we overcame some of the obstacles that came in our way negative comments some people would come to us and say oh are you doing this for college applications along with the ever so often comment this is a really big project can you really do this we pushed all of them aside and we were able to help 30 schools and over 5,000 students all across the world that's all thanks to that's all thanks to a little bit of financial aid and a lot of motivation this is a brand new dining hall this is what a little bit of motivation and a lot of hard work can do not only were we able to rebuild this dining hall but we were able to build a stage donated multiple reverse osmosis plants and we were able to give desks and notebooks I thank my team for that and all the hardened hard work and time that they put in and thankfully because of my very supportive parents I was able to go to India and visit these amazing children they had to study on dirt floors and they had one room teaching kids from K through five now I don't know about you but I know I could not focus on my work if somebody else was teaching a class in the same room I knew that I had to make a difference by speaking so at every single one of these schools that I went to I made sure that they knew the importance of their education just like me they had boundaries they had economical boundaries and caste boundaries and I talked to them about it not only did I go to these schools and talk to them about the impact of the object that my organization donated but about the boundaries that they faced and how they had to push ahead and fight them just like I'm fighting my own boundaries everyone I just want everybody to look at the stage right now that's pooja she's in third grade if I'm right and she has a lot of potential she is the nicest girl I know and it was because of girls like this that inspired me and pushed me to do more after I came back from my trip I came to America and I didn't know but my word had spread across America as well we now have 13 active pure youth branches across America under this again under the supervision of my mother hammock Antonini and i was directed and promoted to pure youth director and i'm now advising over fourteen branches so i'm very thankful for all the opportunities that I've been given and it's all four beautiful kids like these so here I am seventeen giving a TED talk I mean not even I knew that was possible sure I missed my homecoming for this but I'd say it's worth it now I like for everybody to reach into their wallets and take out a single dollar bill now I'd like for you to take that dollar bill and raise it in the air and now look around you although I asked all of you for a single dollar bill if we put all of our money together look at how big of an impact we can make thank you everyone [Music] you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 136,341

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Life, Nonprofit, Social Change, Youth

Id: zqwc1ik93_0

Length: 7min 44sec (464 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 28 2019