Young heroes bring a smile
Supplying villages with water, helping labourers and orphans are all in a day’s work for these teens
- Image Credit: Courtesy of Lara Mosgofian
- Lara Mosgofian, an American University of Dubai student, launched Project Smile by taking a group of 50 labourers to Safa Park for a picnic lunch, a friendly football match and other fun activities.
Dubai: Lazy, careless and spoilt are words often associated with teenagers. However, Gulf News caught up with some young adults who completely shatter that description. In fact the words motivated, influential and hard-working are more suitable descriptions for these youngsters. Supplying villages with running water, helping underprivileged workers and building schools are only a few of the good deeds Aqil Rashid, Natalie Barcicki and Lara Mosgofian have accomplished both locally and internationally.
Aqil Rashid
Over two years ago, Aqil Rashid was celebrating Eid with his family in Dubai. As part of tradition, children and younger members often receive gifts of cash from elderly relatives and family. Then 14 years old, Rashid realised he received more money than usual, but he decided to do what few teenagers would do; Rashid used the money to help the less fortunate.
The Pakistan national told Gulf News: “My dad was talking to me about how, living here in Dubai, we are more blessed than other people. He encouraged me to help people with the money I had.”
Since then Rashid has been working with Roshan, the leading telecom provider in Afghanistan, to help with their Build A Water Well initiative. The project focuses on building wells in villages that don’t have access to clean drinking water; a minimum of 700 people in each village have access to the well.
Now at 16 years of age, Rashid has decided to take the project one step further to encourage more young people to join the initiative, which is why he started ‘1 Well 700 Lives.’
He said: “Thank God, we’ve raised funds for 17 wells, which is $34,000 (Dh125,120). That’s 17 wells in 17 different villages, which impacts 11,900 people.”
Under their latest initiative, Hike 2 Overcome, or H20, the 1 Well 700 Lives drive has organised a trek in Nepal for anyone who wants to help with the project.
“What we’re trying to do is get children involved. Each participant has to raise funds for one well ($2,000/Dh7,360) with the help of sponsors in order to be able to come on the trip in August,” Rashid said.
He believes that many young people want to help communities around the world, but they don’t know how to raise the funds so “this is an easy way to have fun and be part of something good.”
Natalie Barcicki
Natalie Barcicki is one teenager who is not new to charity work and projects. In the March of 2011, she travelled to Kenya under her school’s service club called Habitat for Humanity. Along with the locals, they helped with the construction of basic homes in their village during the week.
Last August she travelled to Nepal for a personal initiative with a friend of hers. Using connections from her school with an orphanage called Ocean, the Polish 18-year-old and her friend stayed at the orphanage for two weeks.
She said: “We worked with the children all day. Playing with them, preparing food for them, studying with them and just giving them the attention they deserve. We took them to school during the week and helped them prepare for their exams.”
Barcicki is not just active on international projects. The Abu Dhabi-based resident also participates in different initiatives at her school.
“The projects have ranged from basic one-off fundraisers like bake sales to longer durations like the Global Issues Conference. I’ve also continued working with the Habitat for Humanity club,” she said.
She credits her interest in community service to her school’s “highly-developed” service programme.
“Every project or event that I participated in was enjoyable for me. At the same time, I got to help other people, which was the most rewarding part of all. The combination of both has allowed me to nurture an interest in service that I hope to carry through into the future,” Barcicki explained.
Lara Mosgofian
At 20 years of age, Lara Mosgofian finally got to accomplish one of her goals to start her own initiative. As part of her senior project at university, the Lebanese national created Project Smile.
“Even though there are many initiatives starting in the UAE, I wanted to start up my own. I love helping other people and especially making them smile. My school requirement was only a push to start this project,” she said.
For her first event in April, Mosgofian took a group of 50 labourers with the help of Adopt-a-Camp to Safa Park for a picnic lunch, a friendly football match and other fun activities.
Following the success of the first Project Smile event, Mosgofian is currently thinking of her next project. ““Before I started this project, I didn’t know where to start and if I would get people’s attention. My advice to others is that there is always a starting point. Nothing happens without hard work, but it is all worth it in the end.”
Aqil Rashid
"My dad was talking to me about how, living here in Dubai, we are more blessed than other people. He encouraged me to help people with the money I had."
The Pakistan national told Gulf News: “My dad was talking to me about how, living here in Dubai, we are more blessed than other people. He encouraged me to help people with the money I had.”
Now at 16 years of age, Rashid has decided to take the project one step further to encourage more young people to join the initiative, which is why he started ‘1 Well 700 Lives.’
Under their latest initiative, Hike 2 Overcome, or H20, the 1 Well 700 Lives drive has organised a trek in Nepal for anyone who wants to help with the project.
“What we’re trying to do is get children involved. Each participant has to raise funds for one well ($2,000/Dh7,360) with the help of sponsors in order to be able to come on the trip in August,” Rashid said.
He believes that many young people want to help communities around the world, but they don’t know how to raise the funds so “this is an easy way to have fun and be part of something good.”
Natalie Barcicki
Natalie Barcicki is one teenager who is not new to charity work and projects. In the March of 2011, she travelled to Kenya under her school’s service club called Habitat for Humanity. Along with the locals, they helped with the construction of basic homes in their village during the week.
Last August she travelled to Nepal for a personal initiative with a friend of hers. Using connections from her school with an orphanage called Ocean, the Polish 18-year-old and her friend stayed at the orphanage for two weeks.
She said: “We worked with the children all day. Playing with them, preparing food for them, studying with them and just giving them the attention they deserve. We took them to school during the week and helped them prepare for their exams.”
Barcicki is not just active on international projects. The Abu Dhabi-based resident also participates in different initiatives at her school.
“The projects have ranged from basic one-off fundraisers like bake sales to longer durations like the Global Issues Conference. I’ve also continued working with the Habitat for Humanity club,” she said.
She credits her interest in community service to her school’s “highly-developed” service programme.
“Every project or event that I participated in was enjoyable for me. At the same time, I got to help other people, which was the most rewarding part of all. The combination of both has allowed me to nurture an interest in service that I hope to carry through into the future,” Barcicki explained.
Lara Mosgofian
At 20 years of age, Lara Mosgofian finally got to accomplish one of her goals to start her own initiative. As part of her senior project at university, the Lebanese national created Project Smile.
“Even though there are many initiatives starting in the UAE, I wanted to start up my own. I love helping other people and especially making them smile. My school requirement was only a push to start this project,” she said.
For her first event in April, Mosgofian took a group of 50 labourers with the help of Adopt-a-Camp to Safa Park for a picnic lunch, a friendly football match and other fun activities.
Following the success of the first Project Smile event, Mosgofian is currently thinking of her next project. ““Before I started this project, I didn’t know where to start and if I would get people’s attention. My advice to others is that there is always a starting point. Nothing happens without hard work, but it is all worth it in the end.”
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