As part of her non-profit organization, Sanya continues to partner with Feed My Starving Children and Community Action Partnership of Scott Carver & Dakota Counties (CAP Agency). However, the scope of her projects has expanded and she continues to strive for both local and global impact. Apart from winter clothes drives, school supply drives, and food drives, Sanya works with the CAP Agency to conduct the Christmas Bag Project. This project involves various phases where Sanya teaches children how to sew bags for homeless children, and, later during the year, purchases school supplies and toys to fill them. The bags are then donated to a local homeless shelter as back to school gifts. Some of her global projects include conducting a book drive to raise 10,000 books for Books for Africa. Last year, Sanya also collaborated with the Red Cross to conduct a diaper drive for victims of Hurricane Harvey.
Sanya’s efforts have received widespread recognition. She has received the Hands on Twin Cities Award, Outstanding Youth Volunteer Award for YSA, and the Prudential of Spirit of Community Award for selfless community recognition, among many other achievements. She is also frequently featured in several local newspapers and has been invited as a guest speaker by churches, schools, and elsewhere to speak about her non-profit organization. Her advice to anyone seeking to start a non-profit organization is to never give up. “When volunteering, you will hear more ‘nos’ than ‘yeses,’ but the ‘yeses’ are powerful enough to keep going.”
While running a non-profit organization can certainly be time-consuming, Sanya is, in fact, a well-rounded individual. In her spare time, she figure-skates, swims, and plays volleyball. She also plays the piano and clarinet, enjoys writing, and is in the process of having her first book published.
Sanya wants to keep education the top priority of her organization. She hopes to send at least 10 children to school, and someday open a school herself in Sub-Saharan Africa or Pakistan, where individuals often survive on less than $1.90 a day. She would also like to go on mission trips to see impoverished communities to better understand their needs. She says, “Children are the main impact of society. They are the next generation.”
Sanya efforts to help people around the world prove that children can, in fact, have a great impact. She embodies the humanitarian spirit of leadership and volunteerism and carries hope and example for our future generations.
