Daniela’s Story
Service has no age limit
Meet Daniela
My name is Daniela Tejada, I am 17 years old and I want to share with you a little bit of my story and what led me to start the Meds4Kidz Foundation.
All my life I have witnessed poverty and its devastating effects, especially in my mom’s home country, Bolivia. I grew up with the desire to help those less fortunate and help them improve their lives. I always helped and volunteered to various causes with my parents, as community service is always one of our priorities when we travel.
However, it wasn’t until 2012, when I went to the United Nations as a Student Ambassador, that I figured out how I could really help at a larger scale. At the UN, I saw how I could open a non-profit organization, and with the support of others in my community, we could all together help save these children.
Sometimes you think: ‘Oh, you have to wait till you grow up’ but you really don’t. There’s a lot of things we can do even at our young age…just try your best. Even if you can’t open a non-profit, you know there’s always something that we can do.
– Daniela Tejada, Meds4Kids President & Founder
First Steps
I felt empowered to take action and started Meds4Kidz Foundation Inc. in 2013. Initially I sold hand-made rubber band bracelets, but soon realized this was not enough to get the kids all the help they desperately needed. So, after giving it a lot of thought, other ways to raise funds started taking shape, like organizing 5Ks and fundraising events, which I continued working on to make the organization grow and help more kids.
My First Successful Campaign
After speaking to many people and working hard to raise awareness in my cause, I was very excited to get my first big contributor. In December of 2013, a larger non-profit, called Smiles Foundation, chose to support my foundation by giving Meds4kidz a check of $1,000.00 and named me their Ambassador of 2013.
Shortly thereafter, the Director at my school also gave us a very important donation. These motivated me to keep working as I saw I could get the kids more help, and the idea to organize Meds4Kidz Family 5K Fun Run/Walk was born. We had our first Family Fun Run that year, May 18th 2014 and it was a huge success.
Meds4Kidz Awards & Recognition
2019 Local10 News LifeChanger Youth Award
2019 Prudential Spirit of Community State Honoree
"Why I became a social entrepreneur” - My 2019 Tedx Talk about Meds4Kidz
2019 TV Interview by RedUno Bolivia news network and El Deber Newspaper
2017 Pinnacle Award
Meet Ariela
My younger sister Ariela, 11, has always actively participated and helped out with Meds4Kidz. Due to her constant hard work and support, Ariela is our Vice President, and helps run Meds4Kidz alongside me. She has always been extremely enthusiastic about putting together campaigns and recruiting her classmates to help out, she is definitely one of Meds4Kidz’ biggest supporters.