Anjali has already won 38 international prizes and awards for her paintings/artworks, with eight international calenders and three international greeting cards to her credit.

The young lass is now all set to leave for Rome, as one of the five global prize winners of the International Congress of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Italy.

The only child winner of the coveted ‘2007-08’ global grand prize winner of the ‘Global Inspired by Diabetes Creative Expression’ competition, her artwork creation, is a gameboard containing pictures and phrases illustrating her experiences, having watched her grandmother and other family and friends struggle with diabetes for years.

“I’ve experienced the effects of diabetes, through interactions with family and friends as if it had affected me as well” she told Deccan Herald here.

Anjali now heads for Rome on September 8 to accept a trophy and also to make a donation of US $ 5000 to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) that has auctioned her prize winning creation to an undisclosed bidder in Europe. The program is a global collaboration between Eli-Lilly and the IDF’s ‘Unite for Diabetes initiative and the International Society of Pediatric and Adolescent Diabetes (ISPAD).

Educate, inform

Anjali in her accompanying narrative said, “Education and awareness are powerful tools in the fight against diabetes. I have learned that diabetes is not a death sentence, and that people can live a normal life”.
Daughter of a railway officer from the City, Anjali is currently studying in class ten, at the Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School in Chennai.

What started off as a creative hobby, with her mother and grandmother as inspiration, Anjali has ambitions to become a professional artist, though she says it’s too early for her to decide on the profession she would choose.

Her artworks on climate change, global peace and environment have been selected by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and the American Association of Paediatric Surgery in Washington DC.

Her achievements include: mural selected for 2008 year of the frog and Detroit Zoo’s 80th Anniversary in Michigan, USA; World Water Day 2008 poster displayed at National Mall, Washington DC, USA and paintings on greeting cards of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Colarado, USA.