the late afternoon, 15-year old Saanya Hasan Ali can often be found in the comfortable family room of her home in Potomac, Maryland. But she isn't doing homework, and she isn't in front of a computer screen. She is cutting, drawing, measuring, gluing and folding, surrounded by a colorful chaos of paper, rubber stamps, buttons, stickers, ribbons and glitter.

"I just love arts and crafts," exclaims Saanya, whose talent for designing and making greeting cards is matched by her dedication to helping children and families in need. During the past six years, Saanya has raised an astonishing $26,000 through the sale of her cards, all while juggling the schedule of an active ninth-grader.

Saanya's unexpected success began in 2005, when her family was moving from Houston to Washington, D.C. "My mother received an e-mail from friends who had just founded the Pennies for Education and Health (peh) organization. They were raising money for children in Gujarat, India to be able to go to school," explains Saanya, who was nine years old at the time. Her mother, Salma, offered to donate $75 in Saanya's name, a sum that would pay for one child's schooling for a year. But Saanya decided she wanted to raise the money herself.

"I couldn't do it without my family," says Saanya, shown here with her mother, Salma, brother, Zayd and father, Arif, who adds that "sharing is a constant topic of discussion at the dinner table."

"I was in third grade then, and I couldn't even wrap my mind around the fact that kids couldn't go to school over there," she says.

Saanya and her mom unpacked one of the moving boxes filled with Saanya's crafts supplies, and she made cards to sell at a family wedding that summer. To her own surprise, she earned $600—enough to send eight children to school for the year—though her goal had been only $75.

"I kept on making cards, and the following summer I was able to help support the kids for another year," explains Saanya, who by then had established her own non-profit organization called "Children Helping Children." By 2007, she had earned a total of $10,000 for peh. One of her goals now, she says, is to support the schooling of these first eight children until they graduate from college.

"Saanya has truly been the most inspiring person and a great role model, not only for young girls and boys of her age but also for adults," comments Saleha Khumawala, co-founder of peh. "She has done this not only by making and selling innovative cards, which have now become fairly well known, but also through her eloquent speeches and articles, and—more importantly—by her passion, enthusiasm, relentless hard work and humility."

Nine-year-old Zayd Ali is planting trees in Kenya. Inspired by his sister Saanya, Zayd decided he too could raise money by making cards. But Zayd wanted to choose his own charity, and when his mother showed him the Web site for the Green Belt Movement (gbm), he was hooked.

Founded by 2004 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Wangari Maathai, gbm has planted more than 45 million trees in Kenya and inspired the planting of more than a million additional trees around the world. "I love trees and I love nature," explains Zayd, who will enter fourth grade this fall. "Wangari Maathai said that planting seeds of trees is like planting seeds of hope, so I decided to make peace-tree cards." Zayd, who started making his first cards, often with the help of friends, this spring.

Since then, Zayd has raised more than $300. "I really like it when my mom gets an e-mail telling us that I have planted 150 trees. It makes me feel so good inside," he smiles.

During his last birthday, Zayd raised more money when he asked his friends not to bring presents but to instead donate to gbm by purchasing his cards. "But my mom still gave me presents," he confesses with a twinkle in his eyes.

Pennies for Education and Health (peh) was founded in 2003 by Basheer and Saleha Khumawala in the aftermath of the earthquake in Gujarat, India. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, the non-profit organization provides funding through donor sponsorships for the education and health care of 510 children. It has more than 300 children on its waiting list.

Encouraged by success, Saanya began to support other organizations, including sos Children's Villages and the Central Asia Institute, which builds schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as earthquake- relief efforts in Haiti, Pakistan and, most recently, Japan.

In 2007 she led a card-making workshop at the World Children's Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and in 2009, an article about her appeared in Family Circle magazine. That not only brought new orders, but also unsolicited donations of card-making supplies. "We had Federal Express boxes full of supplies arriving at our home," recalls Salma.

As demand for Saanya's cards rose, card-making became a familyand- friends activity, too. "I didn't want card-making to become a chore, because it is something I love to do and it makes me feel really good inside," explains Saanya.

"I couldn't do it without my family," she emphasizes, adding that it is often hard to find the time to make cards amid school and sports activities. Her mother often helps assemble the cards now, and when her younger, brother, Zayd, was seven, he used his toy dump truck to help clean up. Now nine, Zayd is making his own cards. (See above right.) Saanya's friends join her during the summer and school breaks.

"The most important thing we have tried to teach our children is that it is important to give back at every stage of your life," emphasizes Salma. Her husband, Arif, notes that "sharing is a constant topic of discussion at the dinner table."

"I would love to continue making cards," says Saanya, acknowledging that her project has helped her to see the world through different eyes. "Now that I am in high school, I would also like to start giving talks in inner-city schools to try to inspire other kids to do their own projects. No matter who you are, there is always an opportunity to make a difference. Making cards is my small effort," she adds. "If everyone does their small part, it can grow into something beyond your expectations."

	Piney Kesting is a Boston-based free-lance writer and consultant. Inspired by her first visit to Lebanon many years ago, she has been exploring and writing about the Middle East ever since. She is a frequent contributor to Saudi Aramco World and other international publications.
	Aasil Ahmad (www.aasilahmad.net) is a freelance photographer and photo editor for Islamic Monthly magazine. He recently completed a project in Kashmir teaching photography to children impacted by the 2005 earthquake. His photos of the Hajj were featured in a series called "A Minox in Mecca" at the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto. He lives in Washington, D.C.