A Southwest Florida college student is one of the recipients of the prestigious Diana Award.
It's named for the late Princess Diana, and honors young people who start projects to help people in need around the world.
Nineteen-year-old Natasha Agarwal of Estero won the award, along with about 190 other young people world-wide. Agarwal is a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
She founded BelieveNBooks in April, 2021. Since then the organization has collected and distributed more than 275,000 books for young people in communities in need - from Florida to the Appalachians in the U.S., to Africa.
"It is very surreal," she said. "When I started with my first drive, I thought that would be it. But my non-profit mentors and some FGCU students and other community members helped me to see that we can carry on with the initiative."
Agarwal went to Canterbury School in Lee County, and sent her first set of books to the Guadalupe Center in Immokalee. BelieveNBooks now reaches young girls in remote African villages.
"I think especially with my work in Africa, we're sharing the stories of girl empowerment, and trail-blazers from that continent," she said of the book outreach. "I think it's really important to have role models who look like you, who've been in your shoes, who persevere and become successful. That's how I gained a lot of my inspiration growing up - just reading about girls who had been successful and who could make it in any career path."
Agarwal said The Diana Award does not grant money, but the prestige can help with fund-raising and collaboration with other philanthropists. She added that she hopes to build connections with global projects that are focused on helping young people succeed.
Diana, Princess of Wales, travelled all over the world on missions to help those forgotten or stigmatized by society: people with Leprosy and HIV/AIDS. She died in 1997. The Diana Award was established a few years after her death.
Agarwal said she began to truly appreciate books during the COVID-19 pandemic. She turned to books to imagine travelling in exotic places, and meeting people from other cultures. She said that is one of her goals: to provide that kind of mind-opening adventure to young people who may not have access to books.
Agarwal is studying Law and Society at Penn, which she said could be a pre-law major.
Mike Walcher is a reporter with WGCU News. He also teaches Journalism at Florida Gulf Coast University. WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you.
