(Image source from: ysa.org)

The Indian American twins are striving hard to spread the knowledge of the disastrous side effects that are caused due to consumption of drugs, smoking and vaping.

Seventeen-year-old Indian American twins from New York were recognized with the ‘Everyday Young Hero’ award by Youth Service America. The twins, Renee and Rhea Mendonca are said to be seniors at Susan E. Wagner High School in New York and also the founders of Wings of Hope.

A press release has said that, the twins have started an organization at the age of 10, when they had been prompted to do so after the death of their grandfather which was caused due to pulmonary fibrosis. The aim and mission of the twins is to educate the young and the youth and also to spread the knowledge regarding the dangers and the disastrous effects of vaping.

The seventeen -year- old twins have a 24-hour online helping on instagram and email where in they can be contacted by vaping addicts anonymously. The instagram account being @wings_ofhope and the email being This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

It is said that around 150,000 youth have been reached out by the Wings of Hope. The youth were said to be from around several countries which includes the US, Haiti, Congo, Malawi,, Nicaragua, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Columbia among the others.

The twins had also written letters to the governors of 50 States in the US and the President Donald Trump, in order to ban e-cigarettes in the US as they had observed that 85 per cent of students between the age 12-17 were hooked on becoming a slave to flavored e-cigarettes. A letter has also been written to the JUUL, which is an e-cigarette company, as they protested against the social media advertisements which are misleading the teenagers for the usage of e-cigarettes.

It has been said that, the marketing campaigns and flavored pods that are targeted towards underage teenagers have been withdrawn by JUUL. The press release has also said that it had been first banned in New York which was then followed by ten other states.

A song, “Break Free Of All Addictions” have also been composed and sung by the twins in order to get their message spread across. Various online articles have been initiated in order to spread their message and a blog has also been created, which is called as Anti-Vaping Mondays, wherein the stories of youth across the globe who were addicted and how they gradually came out of it and set themselves free from addiction with the help of Wings of Hope, is being written.

The President and CEO of YSA Steve Culbertson has said that, everything that YSA looks for in the young leaders has been exemplified by the twins Renee Mendonca and Rhea Mendonca.

By Shrithika Kushangi