Little Millennium Events Head Nabs Compassionate Educator Award From PETA India
For Immediate Release:
04 September 2024
Contact:
Sanskriti Bansore; [email protected]
Puja Mahajan; [email protected]
Pune – Ahead of Teacher’s Day on 5 September, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India is honouring Neha Vaz, head of events and strategic alliances at Little Millennium preschools across India, with a Compassionate Educator Award for her outstanding initiatives to encourage empathy for animals in young children and help build a kinder society.
The copy of the award is available upon request.
Vaz’s passion for animal protection began in her childhood. She rescued her first kitten, Laura, in 2012, and since then, she has been deeply involved in animal rescue, fostering, and adoption. She progressed to outreach and, in 2014, organised India’s first Vegan Fest at Phoenix Marketcity, Pune, drawing over 30 organisations and 3500 attendees. This groundbreaking event inspired similar initiatives over the years across India, helping vegan brands gain visibility and promoting cruelty-free living.
Vaz has played an active role in spreading the message of animal rights among young students at Little Millennium schools. In May 2024, she supported PETA India’s Environment Day “Bowl of Care” campaign, in which children received mud bowls to fill with water for community animals and were educated on the importance of keeping animals hydrated during the summer, fostering a sense of empathy and environmental responsibility. The initiative reached over 2400 children across cities including Bhopal, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Surat.
“From opening her own home to animals in need to teaching children to show kindness to community animals, Neha Vaz is an inspiration to educators everywhere,” says PETA India Director of Education and Youth Outreach Puja Mahajan. “PETA India encourages everyone to emulate Neha and others like her in taking action to help animals and sowing the seeds of compassion among young children.”
Vaz also played a key role in organising visits for Ellie, PETA India’s life-size, talking animatronic elephant – voiced by actor Dia Mirza – which offers a unique first-person perspective on the lives of real elephants used in circuses or for rides, ceremonies, or other cruel spectacles. Because of her efforts, over 3600 students had the opportunity to meet and learn from Ellie in Ahmedabad, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, and Vadodara. Since Ellie’s launch in May 2023, she has reached over 1 lakh young learners, inspiring them to stop using animals for entertainment.
PETA India also offers a free humane education programme, Compassionate Citizen, to help students between 8 to 12 years better understand and appreciate animals. It has been used by over 2 lakh schools and reached approximately 9.3 crore children across India.
PETA India – whose motto reads, “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAIndia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
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