Young Indian boy in Dubai conferred the prestigious Diana award 2021 in the UK

Young person from Dubai is honoured with The Diana Award for going above and beyond in daily life to create and sustain positive change.

Raghav Krishna Seshadri Sumanth, an Indian expat boy aged 12, from Dubai, a grade 7 student at Delhi Private School, Sharjah has been recognised with the highest international accolade a young person can achieve for social action or humanitarian efforts – The Diana Award.

Established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Diana Award was set up in 1999 by the British Government to continue Princess Diana’s legacy by establishing a formal way to recognise young people globally who were going above and beyond the expected in their local communities. It later evolved as an independent charity with a very prominent Board of Trustees including Mr. David Cameron, the former British Prime Minister. It has the full support of both her sons, Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge, and Prince Harry, The Duke of Sussex who are also the grandsons of HRM Queen Elizabeth II. Due to COVID restrictions, a Virtual Award Ceremony was held on 28 June 2021 where Raghav received his award and his name entered in the Roll of Honour.

He secured this award for his humanitarian efforts for the education and empowerment of children of determination and refugee children. Raghav and his team created cost-effective and innovative solutions to provide education to Syrian refugee children and submitted their ideas to ‘Dubai Cares’ which awarded him the Young-Philanthropist Award in 2019. Many of the ideas and strategies were implemented by Dubai Cares which created a positive impact on the education of thousands of Syrian refugee children displaced in Jordan. Raghav also took a lot of effort to make teaching videos for the refugee children in Math and Science and is continuing to do so to utilize his teaching talent. Committed to supporting the children of determination i.e. those with conditions such as Down syndrome and Autism, Raghav used his mathematical talents and made amazing videos and posted on social media and also conducted one-to-one sessions with donors in Zoom, where he amazed them by solving complex math calculations instantly using advanced metal calculation techniques and raised over 30,000 Dirhams along with his younger Brother Madhav Krishna for their campaign in “Yallagive” portal for the Ta’alouf program of “Al-Jalila Foundation”. This fundraise facilitated the scientific training for 73 teachers across 23 schools in the UAE in 2020 during peak COVID lockdown, which in turn benefitted the children of determination thereby creating a positive impact through his efforts towards the noble cause and was felicitated by His Excellency Dr. Abdulkareem Sultan Al Olama, CEO of Al Jalila Foundation, Dubai, UAE.

Raghav Krishna says: “I am humbled to receive the Diana Award 2021 and thankful to the Judges, my Parents, Teachers, and Supporters. I look forward to being part of the Diana Award Alumni network and participate in the Development Programs conducted by the Diana Award institution. This recognition comes with a lot of responsibility, and I pledge to continue to work towards various humanitarian and social causes. I believe that the higher aim in life is to be a responsible citizen and a good humanitarian. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai is my role model and as a proud resident of UAE I will do my best to keep the UAE flag fly high and also my home country India flag fly high”.

Tessy Ojo, CEO of The Diana Award, says: “We congratulate all our new Diana Award recipients from the UK and around the globe who are changemakers for their generation. We know by receiving this honor they will inspire more young people to get involved in their communities and begin their own journey as active citizens. For over twenty years The Diana Award has valued and invested in young people encouraging them to continue to make positive change in their communities and lives of others.” 

Raghav is a high achiever who also won several other awards including the coveted Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Award for Distinguished Student for 2020/2021 just a few months ago. He was recognized as a gifted and talented Indian student in the UAE by His Excellency Mr. Vipul, the then Consulate General of India to Dubai, and awarded him the prestigious Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas Award 2020 for Outstanding Academic Performance. Through various prize monies, he sponsored the education for 2 years for an orphan girl child in India. As Youth Ambassador of Water Alliance, UAE he is giving the water a voice and became a Handwashing Hero and conducted webinars at a leading Indian University and one-to-one sessions and trained over 125 people on the proper handwashing techniques in the context of COVID both for water conservation and for safety and was awarded the Gold Badge Certification by Water Alliance for creating outstanding impact in the society during COVID in 2020. As Youth Ambassador of Smile Train, UAE, Raghav is currently raising funds to sponsor operation for 12 poor children in the MENA region suffering from Cleft, to transform their lives. As an active member of Emirates Environmental Group, he had participated in various activities like planting trees, clean up UAE, and attended sustainability workshops.

Vedavalli Sumanth, mother of Raghav says: “We are truly humbled for receiving this award. I am proud that he has used his talents towards noble cause was given such a global recognition that too at such young age.”

For Raghav there more accomplishments are like the gold medal in Math Olympiad, representing UAE National team in IMSO Olympiad in Indonesia, securing in top 5 ranks in Junior Mental Calculation World Championship in Germany too.

Sumanth Seshadri, father of Raghav says: “I am delighted to see Raghav being recognized for his efforts towards humanitarian causes. Diana Award is the ultimate recognition for a young person. This will motivate Raghav to do more for the society on a continuous basis.

Photo: Supplied