An Austin lemonade stand started by two young siblings in 2018 has grown into an educational non-profit that has shared 100,000 books, 125,000 learning supplies, and thousands of mental health kits across Texas. What started as a small local fundraising effort soon grew into the Let’s Learn Foundation, a non-profit that now works with 13 Texas school districts, hospitals, and youth centres. The foundation has directly reached more than 15,000 students, according to figures published by Global Indian.
Indian-origin brother and sister Rohan and Anya Satija began their work after learning about “book deserts. These are neighbourhoods where children have limited access to books suited to their age. It provides books, classroom supplies, and kits to support emotional well-being in low-income and underserved communities.
Rohan, who was then 10 years old, joined forces with his sister Anya, who was two years younger.
“I was alarmed to hear of the prevalence of book deserts in Texas,” Rohan told Global Indian. “Mental health and education are deeply intertwined,” Rohan explained to Global Indian. “This program emphasizes the impact that storytelling can have on youth mental health, fostering therapeutic self-expression and reducing mental health stigma,” Rohan said. “The real reward is seeing the joy on children’s face when they receive their first book or realizing that our mental health kits are helping students feel supported,” Rohan told Global Indian. The organisation plans to expand its distribution network to more school districts across central Texas, according to figures published on the Let’s Learn Foundation’s official website. “We want to ensure that every child, no matter their background, has the resources they need to learn, grow, and succeed,” Rohan said.
During a middle school project, he learned that many children in his local community did not have enough reading materials. This inspired him to take action. “I found comfort in books and storytelling, but I was alarmed to hear of the prevalence of book deserts in Texas, areas where reading materials are difficult to obtain. At first, they baked cookies and sold lemonade in their neighbourhood to raise money to buy books. Within nine months, their small community effort had grown into a registered non-profit organisation working to reduce educational inequality. Over the past six years, the siblings have expanded the foundation’s work beyond reading and literacy. They have added mental health support to their programmes and started providing resources to help students manage their emotions. Understanding that school performance and emotional well-being are closely connected, the team began preparing and distributing special mental health kits to schools. “By addressing both simultaneously, we can create environments where students are not just learning but thriving. The foundation has also started the Vibrant Voices Project, a creative writing and theatre programme at the Hays County Juvenile Centre. It encourages young people in detention to work through mental health challenges by writing and performing monologues based on their own experiences. Despite gaining national attention and corporate support, the Satija siblings continue to organise local donation drives and manage the delivery of supplies to schools themselves. It will focus on rural communities and low-income urban areas where access to public libraries remains limited. As the siblings balance their high school studies with running the non-profit, their main goal remains the same. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.