This teenager from a civic school chaired a convention on leadership and showed that confidence matters more than means

Friendly and unassuming, Mehejabeen Sheikh’s warm smile and humility belie her achievements. The fourteen-year-old was selected to be the Chairperson of the P N Singh Foundation’s Leaders for Tomorrow Convention this week, and when she gave her speech, she took the entire audience at the Nehru Centre auditorium by storm.

“Childhood goes by, age goes by, but self-confidence will remain forever,” said the bright and chirpy youngster in her speech. Confidence is something Mehejabeen has in plenty, considering she beat 59 other students to emerge on top after an elocution contest conducted in 45 schools to determine who would chair this year’s convention, held on November 19.

“We began this programme ten years ago, to reach out to poor children who have much less confidence than other students because of their backgrounds and consequences,” says Dr P N Singh, the man behind the idea, pointing out that they choose children on the basis of their simple backgrounds and their merits.

As her daughter sat among some big names in business including Mr Vithal Kamat, MD

Kamath Hotels, Ranjit Page, CEO, Cargills Ceylon Ltd, and S P Parasuraman, Director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, among others and had the audience floored by her speech that centered on self- confidence and hard work, Mehejabeen’s mother sat watching her proudly. “We must send our daughters to school and educate them so that they can stand on their own feet and make something of themselves,” she said.

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