Teddy bears, dental kits and a nonprofit started at 18

More than 200 dental kits, distributed with schools and local organisations. Winter essentials and hygiene products for people experiencing homelessness, through Hope Mission Wetaskiwin. Meals in downtown Edmonton. A bottle drive for YWCA Edmonton, and back-to-school supplies for Indigenous students. These are the projects Vanitpal Panjeta lists for United Selfless Service Initiative, the nonprofit she started when she was 18.

"I was tired of seeing people wait for someone else to help," she says. She is a student at the University of Alberta.

“Work hard to create opportunities for yourself, then give back enough to create them for others.”

Vanitpal Panjeta

Project Teddy Tales, run in partnership with Edmonton HOPE, brings books, teddy bears and comfort packages to children at the Stollery Children’s Hospital. "What I care about most is the feeling that people are not forgotten," she says. "Whether it’s a child in a hospital, a family struggling to make ends meet, or someone facing homelessness, I want them to know that their community sees them and cares about them."

At the start she says she "didn't have funding, a large team, or years of experience". What she had was a conviction. "I just had the conviction that if I was waiting for someone else to solve the problems I saw in my community, I would be waiting forever. So I decided to start."

She says many of the projects "are limited by resources, not by ideas or community support."

This fall she plans to apply to law school. She does not see it as separate from the nonprofit. "I want to use the law as another way to advocate for people, remove barriers, and create opportunities for those whose voices are too often overlooked," she says.

The nonprofit has more projects planned, more communities it hopes to serve and more partnerships it wants to build. "We're only scratching the surface of what's possible," she says.