Bengaluru :

Nikhiya Shamsher, a student of the city’s Greenwood High International School, has become a role model for fellow students at the age of 15. On Tuesday, she won the prestigious National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement 2017 from President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The Class 10 student, who has achieved a milestone in social service, runs a registered NGO spearheading various campaigns to ensure that every child has equal opportunities to access basic necessities, learn and become successful in life. The award, instituted by the Centre in 1996 to recognize works of those aged 5-18 in various fields, carries Rs 10,000, book vouchers of Rs 3,000, a silver medal, certificate and a citation. Nikhiya’s initiative of Bags, Books and Blessings aims to provide schools and students with basic supplies such as uniforms, pens, paints, crayons and schoolbags. This campaign, which is in its third year, has helped over 7,700 students. The focus is mainly on underprivileged children and government school students.

Another campaign run by Nikhiya is Yearn to Learn, which opened free science and maths labs in schools and colleges that lack infrastructure. Thirty-five laboratories set up at various schools have been serving 6,000 students. This year, she launched an ecommerce website, knicnacs.com, to raise funds and sustain the activities of offline campaigns. The website sells quirky and unique gifting products. “I hope this will help me reach out to a wider audience and encourage more people to get involved in social activities. The world’s population is around seven billion and some people see this as a burden, but I see it as a huge opportunity. If we can get 10% more students into technological fields, we can solve a lot of problems, such as climate change, scarce resources and conflicts that plague us today. It is simply a statistical advantage,” Nikhiya pointed out

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bangalore News / TNN / November 15th, 2017