People I Met Will Be In (My Book)?

I always think to have a book as a media to inspire and share my thought to more people.  But I never find the right time to have one, until some of you (my readers) suggest me to have one. I never think that writing will be a media to have money, but it is more to a passion that I have, that I will use to fundraise for my activities. So, I am planning to use 100% of profit to benefit others through my activism. I am currently writing (eventhough there is no publisher that offers me to make one, but yeah, let’s say it will be published soon. Lol). It’s about *** (let’s make it secret), but what i can say, there will be a part where you can be inspired by those young people. They are young, very talented, and inspiring. When I met them for the first, I was surprised that there is such an amazing kids in this world. In my upcoming book, I will have personal interview with them to find out what are their reason, challenges, and their tips for other changemakers wanna be. So let’s find out who are some of them:

Jourdan, 19, USA

It was clear from a very early age that Jourdan was going places. At only seven years old and a prodigious violinist attending Juilliard, Jourdan developed a curious interest in the field of medicine, specifically neurology. While most children were still thumbing through picture books, Jourdan was engrossed in renowned pediatric neurosurgeon Fred Epstein’s autobiography. The man’s story fascinated him, and upon finishing the book, Jourdan wrote to the doctor requesting a meeting. Dr. Epstein gave him a tour of the pediatric ICU at Beth Israel North Hospital in New York City and Jourdan witnessed the isolated and underserved young patients suffering from devastating neurological diseases. A child prodigy on the violin and a firm believer in the power of music, Jourdan gathered other young conservatory musicians and produced monthly performances in New York City hospital playrooms to do his part. Proof of the healing properties of music, and one of Jourdan’s most memorable moments, came when he played for a previously unresponsive patient who had recently undergone neurosurgery: “Every monitor she was hooked up to commenced beeping as she began reacting to my music. It was a moment I will never forget; it demonstrated the profound synergy between medicine and music.” Since then he has produced and performed hundreds of Concerts for a Cure w/sold-out houses at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center and around the country through his organization Children Helping Children (CHC) to raise funds for neurological research and innovative hospital music therapy programs. To date, CHC has directly impacted over 42,000 people and has raised $4.7 million for its various charities. CHC now funds the largest music therapy program in America at the University of Michigan’s Mott Children’s Hospital, serving 5,000 inpatients per year; and Jourdan has been named Artist-in-Residence for the UN’s Council for Arts and Peace.

Talia, 16, USA

Talia is in the business of bringing people together. Talia understood the power in numbers after her first foray into philanthropy. By rallying youth from 4,000 United States school districts through her networking, Talia unified their fundraising efforts and managed to raise $10.4 million dollars for the Katrina/Rita Hurricane relief. Riding the momentum of this successful endeavor, Talia founded her non-profit organization entitled RandomKid, which brings youth activists together across boundaries of culture, race, creed, ability, and geography to address global causes. Through networking and the RandomKid website, Talia has managed to unify the efforts of 12 million youth from 20 countries, bringing aid to four continents for a number of different projects. Among their accomplishments are funding water-pumping technologies serving villages in Africa, Asia, South and Central America, funding a school in Cambodia, refurbishing a school and rebuilding a home in post-Katrina Louisiana, and providing crutches and artificial limbs to 400 Haitian children. RandomKid is so grand in scale and its causes are so various, that funding comes from a unique community pool, which Talia created. Ten percent of every dollar raised by the pool is put into new youth ventures to entice innovation and promote different causes. Talia’s platform is world-renowned and the United Nations has recognized it as one of nine international organizations identified as a premier model for promoting peace.

Shannon, 17, USA

While preparing for a family service trip to Africa, Shannon learned of the “book famine” taking place in East Africa, along with the deeply-rooted gender-bias that prevents many girls from learning how to read. Before her departure, Shannon collected 500 pounds of books and supplies from neighbors. She brought the supplies along on her trip, and with the help of her family’s volunteer group, Shannon turned a dilapidated classroom into a library. Shannon’s After-School Reading Exchange (SHARE) was soon in full swing. To date, Shannon has spent three summers in Tanzania, running reading programs in the libraries she renovates and stocks full of books to teach English to the girls there. Stateside, Shannon runs book drives, gives presentations to spread awareness, and promotes youth involvement, with over 800 American students having joined the cause. Her fundraising events have brought in $122,000 for SHARE, (her campaign “Light for Learning” raised $34,000 alone, providing three African schools with electricity) contributing over 23,000 books and thousands of school supplies to four school libraries. Currently, 3,200 African students and 45 teachers utilize the facilities. Thanks to SHARE, many girls are currently passing exams to enter secondary school. Shannon plans to implement a new program called “SHARE Scholars” to raise funds to support their tuitions so they may complete school and become the leaders of tomorrow.

Bilaal, 14, Canada

Bilaal’s compassion for those in need became clear at a very young age. When he was only 4 years old, Bilaal was informed that a religious leader from his community had been killed in the devastating 2001 earthquake in Gujurat, India. Deeply troubled by this news, he decided to raise funds for the victims of the earthquake by selling Clementine oranges door-to-door. Bilaal raised $350, no small feat for a 4 year-old salesman, and so his career in philanthropy began. At the age of 8, Bilaal founded “Making Change Now”, an organization through which he has raised over $5 million dollars for a variety of causes, including victims of the 2004 tsunami in south-east Asia, an orphanage for children who have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS in Kenya, and most recently, the earthquake in Haiti. As a UNICEF Children’s Ambassador, Bilaal has spoken to tens of thousands of children in over two dozen countries, leading by example and driving home his favorite saying: “Together, we can make a difference.” Bilaal’s knack for creative, outside-the-box projects (such as the annual “Barefoot Challenge”, for which Bilaal will not wear shoes for a few days out of each year to raise awareness about child poverty in the Global South) have garnered much media attention and Bilaal has now made more than 100 media appearances. Having already become an accomplished author with his book Making Changes: Tips from an Underage Overachiever, Bilaal looks to the future with zeal, considering career paths in neurology, politics, and possibly even space travel!

Interested to figure out more about them and other influential youths worldwide, including Indonesia? Insya Allah, it will be in my book soon (as soon as there is any publisher that interested to publish. haha).