Lucknow Girl Wins National Geographic Honor

Picture Credit- NationalGeographic

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, D.C.-Aaliya Fatima Rizavi, a Class 9 student at La Martiniere Girls’ College in Lucknow, has won first place in the 2026 National Geographic Slingshot Challenge. She earned the award by turning discarded fabric scraps into hand puppets to teach children about the environment.

Textile waste is a major problem in India. Tailors and households often throw away fabric scraps that are still in good condition. Aaliya decided to collect these leftovers instead of letting them go to waste.

She turned these scraps into colorful puppets. By using these puppets to tell stories, she makes it easier to teach kids about recycling and why it is important to take care of the environment.

This project also helps keep an old tradition alive. Puppetry has been used in Northern India for generations to entertain people and share messages, but it is becoming less popular as more technology-based entertainment takes over. Aaliya’s work brings this traditional art form into modern classrooms to talk about modern problems.

The project started as a small test in her school but grew into something much bigger. It shows that you don’t need a lot of money or high-tech tools to help the planet. Sometimes, it just takes some creativity and a few pieces of scrap cloth to make a difference.