This Teenager Made Her Own Hand Sanitizer and Donated All of the Money to Yemen

This Teenager Made Her Own Hand Sanitizer and Donated All of the Money to Yemen

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This Teenager Made Her Own Hand Sanitizer and Donated All of the Money to Yemen

 

By Isabella Ullmann

For 15-year-old Julia D’Amato, the coronavirus pandemic was not an obstacle for her passion for social activism, but rather a unique opportunity to give back on a global scale. In early July, Julia launched Julia’s Cleanser’s, a homemade sanitizing business that sells eight unique sanitizing scents such as Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, and mint that kill bacteria and viruses. 100% of proceeds go to save the children’s Yemen branch, as Julia mentions on her site that it’s suffering the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

https://23jdamato8.wixsite.com/julia?pgid=kbzjjam1-5c10ab7b-0a3b-4587-9ede-682d2c6bc0ce

Julia decided to raise money specifically for Yemen given that “in order to save this country from extinction, 2 billion dollars must be raised,” according to her website. With a fundraising goal of $1,000 to donate to save the children branch this summer, she’s already surpassed it by 400 dollars by August 1st. She wrote, “Thank you so much. I did not expect nearly this much success for a local student-run initiative! I am so grateful.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDWlpYyFOcy/

In addition to the sale of her homemade hand sanitizers, Julia is working to spread awareness surrounding the crisis in Yemen on her Instagram through interviews with Yeminies. She has interviewed Yeminies such as Aliya Nehmi who came to the US only two years ago and have first hand knowledge on the experience there. Julia tackles topics such as “Secret Yemen prisons,” access to food or clean water, and the health care http://healthsavy.com system.


To see our live interview with Julia, click here:

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Innovating the Future of Tech: Girls in STEM || Gia Mar Ramos

Innovating the Future of Tech: Girls in STEM || Gia Mar Ramos

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Innovating the Future of Tech: Girls in STEM || Gia Mar Ramos

 

By Isabella Ullmann

When Gia Mar Ramos decided to take a robotics summer course when she was in fifth grade, she was one of only two girls in the program. While her love for computer science grew, this trend continued in other summer courses as well as in AP courses. In 2018, Gia launched Girl Innovation, a program that introduces middle school girls to basic coding, robotics, and cybersecurity skills.

The program offers girls ages 10-17 in Puerto Rico training and mentorship programs with core values of dare, lead, innovate, impact and equality. Gia believes that these programs will allow girls to learn skills that are crucial to success in today’s economy. 

Since launching the program, Gia has had immense success and was a 2019 T-Mobile Changemaker finalist, a 2018 HERLead Fellow, and won the Governor of Puerto Rico medal in 2018, among other feats. She also has been interviewed on various talk shows around the world, and is an extremely important influence for young girls in STEM. 

For these reasons, Shine Global has decided to shine a light on Gia Mar Ramos this week. See the whole interview with her here: 

 

Subscribing to Shine Global on YouTube is one of the easiest, most helpful ways to support us in our mission of making films about underserved youth and their families. Thank you so much for your support!