(
Every year since 2005, The Children’s Museum has recognized incredible youth who have impacted their communities with extraordinary service. The Power of Children Awards, inspired by the Power of Children: Making a Difference exhibit, awards these winners with a partial university scholarship to IUPUI, UIndy, or Butler University along with a $2,000 grant to continue their philanthropic projects.
We’re highlighting each winner with a further look into the service projects they’ve built to transform their community. Today’s winner is Renita Zaparde, who started a nonprofit dedicated to helping orphaned girls in rural villages get more efficient transportation to school.
Name: Renita Zaparde
Grade: 11
City: Plainsboro, NJ
Project: Pedal2Prosperity, Inc.
Renita met 13-year-old Indian girl, Kusum. Kusum was an orphan who had to walk three miles both ways to attend school. It was tiresome and often made Kusum feel the travel wasn’t worth school attendance. When Renita learned Kusum’s story, she decided to find a simple solution—a bicycle. Renita raised money and delivered a bike to her friend. After that, she continued to raise money for other girls in the same situation, calling it “Pedal2Prosperity”. In her application essay, she wrote:
To date, we have provided bicycles to 237 orphaned girls in rural India. Since each bicycle helps two girls, we have effectively changed over 450 lives. Every one of these girls is still in school today.
Since Pedal2Prosperity’s beginning in 2013, Renita has contacted over 250 schools and has held over 140 Skype sessions with fellow students nationwide. Along with maintaining a 4.0 GPA in school and participating in extracurricular activities, Renita manages to dedicate at least an hour everyday to her cause.
How can a high-school student from New Jersey affect real, substantial change 6,500 miles from home?
But then I remember Kusum’s jubilation at the thought of being able to attend school and become a nurse thanks to the efforts of a few students in the U.S., half a world away. Receiving an education and being able to support oneself for the basic foundation of human life—for living merely to survive is not living at all. And that’s what pushes me forward.
After high school, Renita plans to take a gap year to dedicate solely to growing Pedal2Prosperity. She plans to use her award to purchase more bicycles for students in third-world countries and raise awareness of her organization.
Congratulations, Renita. And thank you for your continued efforts to provide transportation for orphans pursuing education.
