Shortlisted Entries
Nitasha Kumar
- Age: 47
- City: Bangalore
Abhiveer is a young public speaking mentor at the age of 9! Assertive and adventurous is what we call him today but thats not what he was two years ago.
Flashback to August 2018, we were returning home after a decade in New York.home to India, home to everything familiar, home to everything we loved. We had done our checks of a good home, good schools, top notch sports facilities etc. Everything that we believed would help the children integrate well into India. We were all set!
But imagine my pain and anguish when Abhiveer, my then 7 year old cried inconsolably and refused to go to school after the first three days into the new school year. My immediate reaction as a mom was, everything is so new, give him a week or two and he will start loving it. But no I was wrong...This otherwise fun loving, bindass confident US returned kid just refused. Week 1 turned to 2 then 3 then 4. Four weeks of non stop crying. No amount of coaxing, shouting, bribing was working. Until one night, during our pillow talks he confessed, he was scared and intimidated. My heart broke into a million pieces. I have been a toastmaster for the longest part of my life, and here I was, the heartbroken mother of a 7 year old who could not speak up among his classmates. And thats when I decided to take things into my own hands. I worked with him, bit by bit, day by day, helped him find his voice and regain his confidence and his energy.
With this decision of using my passion to overcome a personal challenge was born my third child WeeTalk, a public speaking program for children ages 6 years to 13 years. Two years later, with constant personal development Abhiveer has found his voice and is able to speak freely and confidently in front of any audience. I founded WeeTalk so that i can reach out to so many other little children like him that are either shy, or bullied or intimidated, not picked for that coveted speech competition at school or those who just want to build more confidence and fluency. I urge you to join me in my journey today to nourish and empower the leaders of tomorrow.