Recently, I went on a trip to India with my family. Before I went on my trip, I had often heard about developing countries. I made donations to charities like Free The Children and Plan Canada, but I had never really seen with my own eyes where the money was going to. So it was really interesting for me to see what India is really like.

Visiting the school in India:

Before I went to India, I decided that I was going to take action and raise money for an underprivileged school there. My grandfather (who we went to India with) got in touch with one of his friends in India who knew of a school that we could help. I then wrote a letter to my classmates outlining what my fundraising goal was and where the money would be going to. After a couple of weeks, I had collected almost $400! While we were in Delhi, we visited the school. It was so different from my school here in Canada. For example, some of the classrooms were outside. I can only imagine what would happen if some of the classrooms in my school were outside during the the Canadian winter-we would freeze!!! Another difference is that the school was very small and it looked like it was in need of some repairs.

When we arrived, we were given a tour of the whole school.  First, we went into a grade 9 classroom where I gave a very small speech, where I said the first sentence in Hindi. Here is what I said:

“Hello, my name is Diviya. I am from Toronto, Canada and I am in grade 7. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to visit India because my grandma and grandpa are from here. This is my very first visit, and I am sure I will come back soon. Education is very important to me, so I was curious to visit a school in India. My friends and I decided that that we were going to give you all a little gift from Canada. I am really glad that I got this opportunity to visit your school.”

After I gave my speech, one of the students came up to the front of the class and personally thanked me for helping out his school. The students were very polite and every time we walked into a classroom they would all stand up and say “Hello Ma’am.” Also, all of the kids really took their education seriously and they worked really hard.

Before our trip, my younger cousin Preeti (who didn’t come on the trip) gave me some of her old stuffed animals to give to the little kids at the school. All of the kids loved the toys so much!

After the tour of the school, we gave the cheque to the vice principal, and she was so appreciative.

Thanks so much to everybody who donated!

Thanks for joining me on my journey to change the world!

-Diviya

Why is it that 87% of engineers in the world are male and only 13% are female?

In our society women are continuously thought of as not worthy of a career in science or math. However this is NOT true because girls and women are just as capable of engineering as men. The stereotype of an average 7 year old girl is a kid who loves pink, dress up, and barbies. But why are girls not interested in science and math? Well, because our society is influencing girls’ decisions. Many girls  think that engineering, science and math are not interesting. But they don’t think that just because it doesn’t seem fun, they think that because when they were younger they were not exposed to the world of engineering like little boys are. In an average toy store there are two sections, a boy section, and a girl section. The boy section is filled with lego and building blocks, but the girl section is filled with dolls, barbies, and everything PINK.

See the difference? The boys’ section encourages thinking, building, and using your imagination, while the girls’ section encourages playing with dumb dollies, which teach you nothing. This is a real problem because girls are not getting interested in science and math at an early age.

Fortunately, there are some solutions to this problem! One solution is ‘GoldieBlox’ which is an interactive toy for young girls to get interested in engineering. Many studies show that girls learn better from reading books. Therefore, founder, Debbie Sterling decided to combine a book series with a building set to inspire little girls to start building! However, Goldieblox is not the only solution. Parents can help solve this problem by buying “boy” toys for their daughters. Actually, in my family, my sister loves to play with Lego because my dad encourages her to.

Here are a few videos about GoldieBlox:

“Girls CAN literally build the future!”

Thanks for joining me on my journey to change the world!

-Diviya

She believed that education was a necessity for both boys and girls. This young woman lived in Pakistan, and at the age of only 11 she started a blog to share her story and the importance of education with the world. She was shot in the head by the Taliban. Who am I talking about? This inspirational young woman is known world-wide by just her first name-Malala.

Malala was born in Mingora, Pakistan in the country’s Swat Valley. As a young girl Malala Yousafzai attended a school that her father Ziauddin Yousafzai had founded.

The Taliban are a group that don’t believe that women are equal to men and for that reason they use violence as a way to state their opinion.

Malala found out that the Taliban were attacking girls’ schools in Swat, therefore she decided to give a speech in Peshwar, Pakistan. The title of the speech was “How dare the Taliban take away my basic right to education?”

At the age of only 11 in 2009 Malala started blogging for the BBC about her story and what it was like living under the Taliban’s threats. She disguised her identity by putting her name as Gul Makai on the blog. Later her true identity was exposed to the public as Malala Yousafzai.

As she grew older her fame increased which made the Taliban angry because Malala was using her voice to speak up about the importance of girls’ education.

On October 9th, 2012 on Malala’s way home from school, the Taliban came on the bus searching for a girl named Malala. The Taliban inhumanely shot her on the left side of her head.

She was then brought to England to recover. Now she is pouring her heart and soul into speaking up for girls’ rights and the importance of education.

On her 16th birthday in 2013 Malala gave a speech to the UN. Her speech was very inspirational and an important quote in her speech was the following:

“I speak – not for myself, but for all girls and boys.

I raise up my voice – not so that I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard.”

I like this quote because it really shows how Malala is not doing this to get fame, but she is standing up because she really does want to make a difference and promote gender equality.

This is her amazing speech at the UN:

Malala also now has a foundation called the Malala Fund where YOU can make a donation to support education by going to:http://www.malalafund.org/

Recently a book was released by Malala Yousafzai called I am Malala which is now a bestseller.

Thank you Malala for promoting the importance of education for ALL children.

Thanks for joining me on my journey to change the world!

-Diviya

What is happening in the Philippines?

On November 8th, 2013 typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines. It was extremely powerful and devastating. Thousands of lives were stolen and even more were injured. So many homes and buildings were destroyed. Many organizations are over there helping to support the survivors of the Philippines, but they need YOUR help. Your donation will be matched by the government to help improve the situation.

This is some crazy footage taking by Nickson Gensis who is involved with Plan Canada:

What am I doing to help?

At my school we decided we had to do something to help them. We came up with the idea to hold a toy store. We asked students to bring in new or gently used toys, and then we sold them to students in grades 1 to 8. We called it “The Fellowship For The Philippines Toy Store.” The Toy Store was open for 6 recesses, and we miraculously made over $1100! I am so happy that we all came together to help people in need.

What can you do to help?

#1: Hold a toy store at your school like the one that I did. (If you have any questions about how to do the toy store then you can comment below and I can help you out.)

#2: Hold a fundraiser. You can have one at your school, at an event, or with your family.

#3: Raise awareness. You can talk to your school about it or even talk to your friends about it.

#4: Make a donation. You can donate online on websites like the Canadian Red Cross or Plan Canada.

#5:  You can have a clothes drive, however sending money is recommended.

The Philippines needs YOUR help.

How will YOU help improve the lives of the survivors of typhoon Haiyan?

Thanks for joining me on my journey to change the world!

-Diviya

Bullying is negatively affecting so many lives of children and teens. This past week was anti-bullying week aimed to raise awareness about how horrible bullying is and to stop bullies in their tracks.

What are the different types of bullying?

One very common form of bullying is verbal bullying. Have you ever heard of the saying, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me?” Well, this saying is WRONG. Words do hurt, and they do affect peoples lives. Verbal bullying can consist of teasing, name-calling, gossiping, threats, and making insults.

Another form of bullying is physical bullying. This can consist of punching, kicking, and hitting. This type of bullying is much more common with boys, because girls tend to put others down verbally.

Because of the advancements in technology these days a more recent form of bullying is called cyber bullying. It is basically using electronic devices to put down other people. Actually, this is probably the worst type of bullying because it can reach people at any time, not just face to face.

This is an extremely moving video talking about cyber bullying, and it’s effects.

Why do people bully?

More often than not bullies are rude and mean because they want to feel better about themselves. By making the victim feel sad and upset they feel more powerful. Often, bullies have problems going on at home which make them angry, so they take out their anger on other people. These problems could possibly be their parents getting a divorce or money problems.

Bystanders:

A bystander is a person who is there, but not involved. These people are actually part of the problem as well. By not doing anything they are contributing to the problem and not improving the situation for the victim(s.)

How can YOU help?

#1: Stand up for someone being bullied.

#2: Give support to someone being bullied.

#3: Go with the victim(s) to talk to a teacher or trusted adult about the situation.

#4: Raise awareness about the bullying issue by talking to your friends about it, writing about it on social media, or speaking at a school assembly. Actually, a couple of years ago I spoke at my school’s speech competition about bullying.

#5: Apologize to someone you previously bullied.

How will YOU  stop bullying in it’s tracks? Please share any of YOUR bullying stories or ways that you are taking action to help stop bullying by commenting below.

Thanks for joining me on my journey to change the world!

-Diviya