Giraffe Heroes India - Neha Gupta

Under the guidance of Sh. Vijay Saluja, Giraffe Heroes India’s new Director, Giraffe Heroes India (GH/India) aims to bring Giraffe vision, strategies and tools for change to the 1.3 billion people on the Indian subcontinent – making it potentially by far the largest Giraffe global affiliate launched to date.


GH/India will tell the inspiring stories of the country’s heroes, motivating others to become heroic too. GH/India will also offer practical tools citizen activists need to succeed, as well as Giraffe civic engagement programs in schools, helping young people build lives as courageous and compassionate citizens serving a vibrant India.

Dwarka Parichay being media partner for the Giraffe Heroes India program, starting a series of inspiring stories of heroes in India. This will definitely motivate others and more Giraffe Heroes will join the GH/India brigade.

Check for criteria & nomination form for a Giraffe Hero India.

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Gupta, Neha

Since she was very young, Neha Gupta has traveled every year from her home in the United States to visit her grandparents in India. One of her family’s traditions is to celebrate family members’ birthdays by providing food and gifts to orphaned and underprivileged children in India.

When she was just nine years old, Neha observed something about those orphans’ lives. “When I realized that there is no one in the world that really loves them, and they could not get a good education because they didn’t have the money to buy books, I felt sad.” That sadness motivated her to create her non-profit organization, Empower Orphans.

Neha has asthma, severe allergies and gastrointestinal problems, but none of that stopped her from leading Empower Orphans to provide a range of services and supplies needed by the children she had visited.

She estimates that over a thousand children in India have benefited. “Empower Orphans” has:
Opened three libraries; ·
Created a computer lab; ·
Developed a sewing center for older girls and donated sewing machines to graduating girls so they can start their own businesses; ·
Started a science lab; ·
Conducted eye and dental clinics for 360 children; ·
Sponsored the complete education of 50 children; ·
Provided nutritious food, school bags, shoes, warm clothes and blankets to 2,000 children.

Neha has led her family members and other young people to join in her cause—Empower Orphans has chapters in the United States, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

—Profile by Carolyn Tamler

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