Aryana Sahai’s family trip to India was bittersweet. The temples were gorgeous. The food was delicious. But the 7-year-old South Florida resident was saddened by the poverty she saw.
“My heart broke every time we left the house,” she writes on her website about the 2018 trip. “I had never seen so many poor children and parents, and I could not imagine how they lived. No clothes. No house. No food. No education.”
Aryana gave away snacks and toys but wanted to do more. So she came up with a plan when she visited Ladli, a nonprofit, non-governmental organization that rescues girls from the streets and gives them education, food, housing and counseling.
She saw them making beautiful bracelets and worked with them to create a custom, handmade collection with natural gemstones designed to inspire mindfulness, meditation and positivity. Aryana then purchased the bracelets, brought them home and sold them to help fund the girls’ education.
Now 8, Aryana has her own company, Ladlis, that sells the bracelets made at Ladli; each one pays for one month of a girl’s education. Her first year, she funded 237 months’ worth.
Her promise: “One hundred percent of the proceeds go to empowering lives and driving freedom.”
Visit ladlis.com.
