Local girl creating 'ripples' with charity efforts

Prior Lake American

Sanya Pirani is a very busy girl.

At 11 years old, Sanya is the founder and CEO of her own nonprofit, an ambassador for Community Action Partnership in Scott, Carver and Dakota counties, the author of a fantasy book currently under review by a publisher, the organizer of numerous charity events and a sixth grade student in Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools — and that's not even close to the whole list.

"I used to wake up early, but since I can't do that right now since I'm in middle school, I sew after school since school ends earlier a lot," Sanya said. "I sew or do whatever I need to at the moment during breaks between sports and activities — basically every day, I get one to four hours done depending on how long I have."

When she was 7 years old, Sanya watched a YouTube video of a girl in a war-torn country. The girl was alone, likely starving, with torn clothes and tears in her eyes.

Visibly upset, Sanya ran to her room with her mother, Dilshad Pirani, on her heels. Sanya turned to her mother and said she had lied.

"I asked her, 'Didn't you say that God loves everyone? Where is God for her?'" Sanya said. "She said that 'God created people like you and others to help other people.'"

That was all it took. Early the next morning, Dilshad awoke to find her daughter typing away at the computer.

"She took it to her heart that he created her," Dilshad said. "She said, 'I'm finding ways to help that girl.' And she did find a way."

Her research led Sanya to the Feed My Starving Children project, a nonprofit dedicated to getting food in the hands of hungry children across the world. For a long-term goal, Sanya is raising over $56,000 to feed an entire village of 700 people for one year. So far, she's raised $26,000.

For the first year, her goal was $8,000 — Sanya raised $16,000.

The Feed My Starving Children is a larger and global project, but Sanya wanted to help local children as well. Sanya can rattle off statistics for problems facing children in America — one in six people in America deal with food insecurity, 13.1 million households with children that go without food.

"All the time I hear people suffering ... some people have to walk miles to get places, some people don't have rights to go to school, some people don't have the basic necessities of life and I feel so bad for them — it melts my heart," Sanya said. "It's so sad and I decided I really needed to go on and help these people who are suffering because it's not right for them."

In the past, Sanya has held bake sales, hosted diaper drives, sold bookmarks and raised funds in a variety of ways through the Community Action Partnership.

Eventually, Sanya created her own nonprofit, Sanya's Hope for Children. The nonprofit has its own website domain where people can learn more about Sanya and her mission. She's also hoping to set up a marketplace soon, where people can buy items emblazoned with her non-profit's logo, another way to raise money for charity.

But Sanya is not alone in this. She's inspired by a Mother Teresa quote: "I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples."

Sanya is a regular girl — she plays clarinet, she hangs out with friends — but she's making ripples.

During a coat drive, a local woman named Diane donated a number of handmade items. A CPA in Edina, Brian Markwell, helped her set up her nonprofit tax ID. Riverfront Printing in Shakopee prints her labels and business cards. Embroidery Central in Burnsville will embroider her logo on materials for the marketplace.

This includes her latest project, which is creating and packing 500 bags to donate to children for Christmas. Women in New Prague and Prior Lake helped her sew the bags. Toys 'R' Us donated materials for the bag. A few nearby Barnes and Nobles chipped in, too and that's not including everyone who donated materials.

"We have so many good people in the world," Dilshad said.

Sanya has been recognized for her work in the philanthropic community. She won the Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals and the Leadership Award from the Community Action Partnership Agency in 2016. She's a "Food Hero" for Feed My Starving Children and has been invited back to the awards for the Association of Fundraising Professionals as a speaker.

She also speaks to school, interfaith and community groups locally.

"She gets invited to come and speak so they can speak to their youth, which is, in a way, good — it helps her, too," Dilshad said.

There's more to be done. Sanya's latest project is the bag donation for homeless children in the community. She still needs donations and school supplies. And it won't stop here — Sanya said she thinks she could do this forever.

For more information or to donate, go to www.sanyashopeforchildren.org.