Remarkable stories of children and teens making the world a better place, one astonishing act a time.
LIGHTING THE WAY — UDAY BHATIA AGE 18:
Uday Bhatia, even as a child. He first discovered his passion for tech when he was gifted a drone in the fourth grace which sparked his curiosity about how machines worked. He soon began learning computer science and created his first video game on Roblox at 14 years.
But Uday’s head was never just buried in circuits and codes: He was also deeply conscious of the needs of others. During the pandemic, for instance, he developed a successful e-tutoring platform called Find Our Tutor to provide learning assistance to students. “I’ve always liked the idea of building something from the ground up and using technology to make things that solve real-world problems.”
Later, while part of a mentorship program, Uday, then 16, visited Bichpuri village in UP, where he discovered an alarming issue the villagers faced — six-to-eight-hour long power outages. “When I learnt that children were using flashlights and kerosene lamps to study, I wanted to come up with a solution.”
As he investigated the problem, Uday discovered that this was far from an isolated case. While most of India’s villages have been electrified, reliable supply remains a persistent problem. Many states, such as Rajasthan and Uttarakhand, face regular outages that could lost up to 10 to 12 hours a day.
Determined to find a fix, Uday spent the next six months learning from YouTube tutorials, collecting the second-hand components and experimenting in his terrace workshop in order to devise a low-cost, backup-based lightbulb that would offer uninterrupted illumination when regular power supply falters.
After 24 prototypes, he succeeded in making the Smart Outage-Guard (OG), a 110 lumen per Watt lightbulb with a lithium-ion battery, in a
9- or 12-Watt variant. The bulb costs Rs 250, about half that of other available options. What’s more, its dynamic lumen technology and pulse with modulation allow its brightness to be adjusted by the same switch used to turn it on. This dims the bulb by 25 percent, extending illumination capacity to up to 10 hours.
Since its launch in May 2022, the Smart OG bulbs found their way to 10,000 homes across eight states in India. He also formed Uday Electric, a for-profit venture, that collaborates with distributors, retailers, NGOs, company CSR branches and communities to bring light to semi-electrified rural areas in India and beyond. For non-electrified areas, Uday also developed the Glow Grid, a solar-powered lamp, which launched this month. “In the long-term, my goal is to provide energy at a subsidized cost to every home.”
The innovation earned Uday many accolades, including the 2023 Diana Legacy Award, awarded to youngsters for outstanding humanitarian work. Off to the US for college next year, he leaves behind trusted personnel to keep Uday Electric going. The entrepreneurial teen, however, is just getting started.
A WINNING SCIENCE PROJECT — Elizabeth Chen – 17 years:
One Saturday night in the spring of 2023, while most of her friends were vegging out, Elizabeth Chen was studying in the basement of her family’s suburban home. She was trying to crack the code on how patients with leukaemia respond to CAR T-cell therapy, one of the newest and most promising treatments for blood cancers.
Believe it or not, it was science project work. But instead of growing crystals or turning a lemon into a battery, the 11th grade Edmonton student was trying to find ways to make CAR T-cell therapy more effective. Unlike traditional cancer therapies, CAR T- cell therapy is a more personalized approach that involves tweaking a patient’s own immune cells to fight cancer. While it has a lot of promise, the failure rate can be high, depending on factors such as the type of cancer.
Elizabeth was drawn to cancer research for several reasons: She came across a fundraising campaign for another Albertan girl, nicknamed Penn the Brave, who was diagnosed with brain cancer at age three. And when Elizabeth was younger, her grandmother had breast cancer.
So, when Elizabeth was looking for a science-project topic and her father emailed her a news article about CAR T-cell therapy, a cutting-edge treatment that still isn’t well enough understood, she threw herself into finding out as much as she could.
She started with open access from a 2022 University of Pennsylvania and Yale University joint study examining one of the most common childhood cancers: acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Elizabeth also found a way to analyze the patient data using specialized computer programs rather than a lab. Some of that work involved uploading hundreds of gigs of data on patient’s genetic information into a free analytic software platform that would help look for patterns.
What she discovered was that certain genetic information in RNA sequences — which translate into everything from hair color to how your immune system fight diseases — could actually predict a patient’s response to CAR T-cell therapy and could one day help pave the way to more effective treatment and fewer side effects.
Starting the project two years ago, Elizabeth — now 17 and in Grade 12 — took months getting up to speed with the science. At first, she found reading primary academic research articles too difficult, so she taught herself by reading books, open-source papers and watching YouTube videos designed for lay people who didn’t have a biomedical research background.
Her original research paper, titled Optimization of CAR T-Cell Therapy Using RNA-Sequencing Analysis for Biomarker Identification, made Elizabeth not only a national science-fair champion but also won her first place at the prestigious annual European Union Contest for Young Scientist in Brussels.
LEMONADE FOR LAHAINA — EDISON JUEL – AGE 5 YEARS:
Edison Juel, of Seattle WA, became an unlikely hero for disaster relief last August, when, after returning from a family trip to Hawaii, he saw news about the devasting Maui wildfires that ravaged the historic town of Lahaina. Edison decided to do something about it.
His idea: a good old-fashioned lemonade stands to raise money for the victims.
He enlisted his parents to help and set up shop on their busy street with a yellow sign that read “Food and stuff and lemonade for Lahaina.” They priced the lemonade at a dollar per cup, but many customers gave more, handing over $5, $10, $20 — even $100 dollar bills — and telling Edison to keep the change for the cause.
The goal was to raise $100, but after the stand had been put away, the donations kept on pouring in. His parent’s workplaces even set up corporate matching programs. In the end, Edison raised more than $20,000, which he donated to the Hawaii Community Foundation.
“Edison marketed his stand with his signature delightful honesty. He now believes that he can make a difference and that he has good ideas and understands that “it is important to care about our neighbors near and far.”
RUNM IZMIR, RUN! — IZMIR KASSAM — 11 YEARS:
On his 10th birthday, on 6th February 2023, Izmir Kassam woke to the news of the devasting earthquake in Turkey and Syria.
Living in Calgary but named after Turkey’s third largest city, Izmir felt a profound connection to the tragedy. Driven by an urge to help, he saw a chance to make a difference through his love of running.
Two years prior, Izmir had run his first half marathon, raising money for Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan.
This time he set a new goal: to run 10 kilometers 10 times, each run marking a year of his life, and to use this challenge to raise funds for earthquake relief. Over the course of four months, from last February to June, he ran a total of 100 kilometers — adding up to more than two marathons. For his final run, on 10 June, the Canadian Turkish Cultural and Islamic Center helped organize a celebratory event, and Izmir was joined by his father, his teacher, his classmates and members of the Calgary Turkish Community.
In the end, Izmir’s project raised more than $ 18,000 for the earthquake victims.
“Sometimes I’d feel tired. But then I’d remind myself of all these people that I’m helping, and I’d keep pushing on.”
OSCAR’S EVEREST
Oscar Burrow — Age 6 years:
At an age when most children are still learning to tie their shoelaces, Oscar Burrow, an intrepid six-year-old from Lancashire, England, laced up to hike the equivalent of Mount Everest by climbing up the UK’s 12 highest mountains.
Last May, on the day of his final climb, to the summit of Ben Nevis, the UK’s highest peak, he was joined by his family. This momentous hike coincided with the 70th anniversary of the first successful ascent of Mount Everest, adding historical significance to his achievement.
His mission: to raise funds for Derian House, a nearby children’s hospice that offers respite and end-of-life care to more than 400 children and young people and their families in northwest England. Oscar has already raised almost $60,000 of his roughly $1,00,000 goal.
“The walks don’t scare me, but sometimes my fingers get a bit cold.” I’m looking forward to my next walk. I want to make a lot of money for Derian House because I want to help the children.”
