14-year-old millennial advocates kindness, the universal language of love

At a mere 14 years of age, Chandani Grover from Bhopal is raising awareness for the well-being of strays. Her work includes hands-on help through de-worming, vaccination, sterilization, and feeding on the streets. Chandani’s venture began the day she witnessed a vehicle run over a stray puppy. She sees a lack of empathy as the root problem underlying instances of animal cruelty, neglect, and abuse.

Her mission, through her organization Kindness: The Universal Language of Love, is to change society’s attitude towards stray animals. For almost a year, she has been working on Facebook to highlight the plight of stray dogs. She has also conducted various drives in support of dog health in her city, Bhopal.

In involving her community as a part of these drives, which include everything from dog vaccination and deworming to providing these animals with food and water, Chandani has actively brought together her society to create a meaningful impact and begin to change mindsets. For just over six months, she has been working with her family, a veterinary doctor, and other animal enthusiasts to make her mission a reality. Daily, they feed 70 dogs and 3 cats, and Chandani has seen that the drives they organize have created a ripple effect, one where other people begin similar campaigns in their own neighbourhoods.

She is one of 12 teenagers from India shortlisted for the first Global edition of the Young Changemakers Programme from Ashoka Innovators for the Public.

Chandani knows the importance of building a reliable network when it comes to creating measurable change; it is this reason that inspires her to be a part of the EACH movement. Moving forward, she hopes to reach out to different companies and local governments to embrace protecting animal rights as part of their social responsibility, spreading her message on a larger scale.