Neha’s social enterprise all stemmed from her family’s tradition. Her grandparents would take Neha and her family to local orphanages to help provide meals to the children. At only 9 years old, this really opened Neha’s eyes and she was struck with motivation to help these kids in need. She organized a garage sale to sell her things to raise money. With the money she made, Neha began a library for the orphanage and got sweaters and food. Neha continued to find ways to raise money so she could provide for the orphanage and work to break the cycle of poverty.

Neha’s organization began from the empathy she felt for the children she saw in orphanages. The Empower Orphans website even states that “Part of our mission is to inspire youth to convert their empathy into action and join our ripple effect. Because we strongly believe in the power of young people to create social change, we are a fully youth-run organization.” All stemming from Neha’s empathy, she has now created a whole non-profit organization with the mission to provide for underprivileged children to get them on their feet and break the cycle of poverty.

This story is very inspiring to me to see how Neha’s empathy and motivation to help turned into a non-profit organization. I also find it interesting that this all started from family tradition. From a family doing good together and exposing their children to give back, lead to an even bigger result. It is amazing to see the impact that empathy had on Neha at only 9 years old. She took action without any hesitation. That is so inspiring to see in all these stories of young entrepreneurs who just did and didn’t hesitate to act.  I see how empathy and the desire to help others has been the driving factor is so many young entrepreneurial stories.

At just 18 months old, David was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma and was treated at Texas Children’s Hospital. Now 12 years old, David has started a non-profit that raises money to buy toys for pediatric cancer patients. His non-profit began by his mother asking him how he wanted to commemorate pediatric cancer awareness month in September. David, being only 6 years old, decided he wanted to “buy toys for kids with cancer.”

David memorizes script to ask everyone he passed by to donate to his cause. He even sets up a stand in his neighborhood to collect money. His very first year David raised $1,100 to buy 220 toys for children. Today, he even gets corporate donations.

I am inspired by David’s non-profit and the social impact he is making. David took his own experience being a pediatric cancer patient and used that to help others like him. It shows the immense empathy young David had to be only 6 years old and want to give back. I see how David, along with his family, took this horrible situation in their life and used it for good. David’s mom notes how they had to cling to focusing on the positives, which in turn is one of the reasons they started the non-profit. This model shows the entrepreneurial mind of David being empathic and using his own experiences to make a different in the world. He is meeting a need that he experienced firsthand. I think we can all learn from David, at only 6 he wanted give back to those who are in the situation he was in.