Vedika Dayal, seventeen, may seem like your average teenager. She works hard in school, loves music, and sees herself heading off to college next year. But while most seventeen-year-olds are focused solely on their own futures, Dayal has taken strides to better the futures of others, too.
In 2016, Dayal founded Stick the Stars, a nonprofit which she now co-owns with Simran Buddhadev. The organization sells handmade key chains and duct tape wallets whose profits go directly to sponsoring women’s education in war-stricken countries.
Dayal drew inspiration for the effort from a hobby she had when she was young. “I’ve been making wallets since sixth grade,” she said. “I wanted to take that hobby and use it to make the world a better place and that’s where Stick the Stars came from.”
The last woman Stick the Stars sponsored, according to Dayal, was an Afghan woman named Nooriza. Through the support of the nonprofit, Noorzia allegedly received a year of business education and was able to begin a business in her own community. “She was able to become economically sufficient… and break free from her abusive household,” Dayal said happily.
Stick the Stars shows projected growth in revenue for the remainder of 2018. Dayal herself is optimistic for the organization’s future and plans to manage it well into her college years as well:
“By then, I hope we’ll have created an entire community of self-sufficient woman that are using their businesses to better their hometowns and the world.”
Samhita has introduced her classmate with all the appreciation of the serious commitment with which Vedica Dayal has taken up her childhood hobby and converted it into a purposeful act of charity that lends a helping hand to someone who is genuinely in need. The write up displays Samhita’s writing skills as well as a streak of creativity that she has.