Twelve-year-old fundraising activist Bilaal Rajan has raised more than $5 million for humanitarian causes.
It all started with an earthquake and a clementine. He said that eight years ago, he climbed onto his parents' breakfast table and saw a photo in the newspaper of flattened houses and scattered buildings.
"At the age of four, it was something pretty crazy to me - I read the article, what I could of it," Rajan said. "And it explained that there had been an earthquake in India, and people's lives had been changed dramatically."
He said that although the victims lived on the other side of the world, he understood they could still use his help. So he sold all his fruit to the neighborhood.
"I was eating a clementine at the time," Rajan said. "I grabbed the whole box of clementines from the fridge, and I went out that day and I finished off the box. I sold eight more boxes and raised $350. It was just that small spark that really lit a whole fire. My parents walked with me and stayed on the sidewalk."
This young Canadian author just published a book called Making Changes: Tips from an Underage Overachiever. It's available everywhere, he said.
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"It's simply about how kids all over the world, anywhere, no matter what language they speak or their age, they can change the world through my passion, which is fundraising," he said.
He preaches the value of eight principles in the book.
"Think before you act, know your destination, practice a no-lose policy, listen hard - don't hardly listen," he said. "In chapter two there's 90 or so ideas you can use to make a difference."
Among his accomplishments are raising money for UNICEF to build a school in Tanzania and raising $50,000 for hurricane victims in Haiti.
This week, he's not wearing shoes.
"It's definitely very different going around without shoes, especially outside where it's wet and cold, and but that just goes to show how other children in other parts of the world have to live each day of their lives," Rajan said.
People from Canada, the U.S., Afghanistan, Australia, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Malawi and Tanzania have mailed him saying they would go without shoes this week as well.
"They're all going to participate," he said. "I'm not asking people to go for the whole week. An hour or a day - however much they feel. All I'm trying to get across is that children across the world don't have things we take for granted. Here in Canada now it's National Volunteer Week. I'm hoping others will reflect on the causes they are passionate about and simply get involved in that way."
He said he plans to have a separate career when he's older, because he doesn't want to profit off his charity work.
"I definitely want to keep on being an activist and making a difference, but I've always realized I don't believe, personally, that I should be paid," Rajan said. "As a career, I'd like to be an astronaut and a neurosurgeon."
