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The basis of my idea for a charity program started when one day, my mom was talking to me and said that my grandmother had glaucoma, an incurable disease that gradually closes in on the vision and slowly drives the victim to a devastating state of blindness. That very summer, I got glasses, due to slight power in both of my eyes. I had always had 20/20 vision, but suddenly, my eyesight deteriorated, and I became the first one in my family (at the age of 14) to get glasses. Afterwards, I thought about my aunt on my dad's side. When she was about seven or eight years old, she lost one of her eyes to an infection. My grandparents had neither the money nor the resources to go to an optometrist to save their daughter's eye. She had to have an operation, and her entire eye was taken out. Now, she has power in her remaining eye. Then it came to me. What about all those other adults and children in poverty-stricken areas of the world that do not have the financial support to get a needed eye operation? I suddenly felt the strong need to do something about it. The worst thing I could do was nothing.

In June of 2011, I got started. First, I put up a website to inform the public about the program which I named “Small Acts of Kindness". Next, I found my organization, which was Sankara Nethralaya, a non-profit organization situated in the USA. They collect money from any patrons and send it on over to Chennai, India, to supply poverty-stricken people with free eye operations. Then, I put together a group of 72 children, hence "Small" Acts of Kindness, to show India that people around the world have not forgotten their culture and that WE CARE.

August was when the real work began. Junior year was just starting to kick up for me, and with five AP classes and one honors class, competitive tennis, piano, and vocal lessons, I was forced to juggle between things that were equally important to me—academics, community service, and extracurricular activities. Despite a myriad of difficulties, I finally managed to draft up a schedule that allowed me to spend time for each of my activities, and so the rehearsals for the grand program continued at full speed.

Every rehearsal was specifically scheduled, and it was my responsibility to document every child’s strengths and weaknesses, so that I could figure out where to place everyone; in short, it was a long process, but a rewarding one.

Finally, October 8th, 2011 arrived, and I was filled with anticipation. I didn’t know how many people would attend or how much money we would raise. Nonetheless, the program was a big hit in the Dallas area. It featured multicultural songs from India, America, and Europe, something that had never been done in the area. One hundred percent of the $16,000 we raised went straight to Sankara Nethralaya, potentially providing for 267 eye surgeries.

After the program was over, I looked back at everything I had done, everything I had prepared for, and realized that anyone could do it; it just takes a little determination, hard work, and a dream.

Filed under: Shruthi Prabhu • All-Around High School Students • Meet the Winner