This courageous young lady makes her village proud. A 15-year-old girl risked her life to save two youngsters from drowning in the sea in an act of bravery. If the efforts of a former MLA and others bear fruit, she will almost certainly be recognised for her bravery.
On November 4, 2018, a total of 20 schoolchildren were taken to the Revu Polavaram Beach in the district’s S. Rayavaram mandal. Kalagarla Sahiti of Kothakota village, Raavikamatam mandal, had also gone for a picnic with her family to the same beach.
The incident
Some of the kids went for a swim in the water after lunch. Two of them, Tirumalesu and Bhargavi, began to float away into the depths. The two children, as well as the calls for aid from others, caught Sahiti’s attention. She went into the sea without hesitation and rushed to their aid.
“I pulled Bhargavi with one hand while swimming ashore with my other hand and feet,” Sahiti told sources.
None of the other beachgoers knew how to swim, so they stood there in astonishment as the girl risked her life to save the drowning children. The word spread like wildfire, and people from neighbouring villages flocked to her side to congratulate her on her bravery.
Application for National Bravery Award
Peela Govinda Satyanarayana, the then Anakapalli MLA, submitted a letter to the District Collector in February this year, requesting that her name be considered for the National Bravery Award nomination. Such rewards, he believes, will motivate other children.
“We went to the then-District Collector K. Bhaskar, who accepted our application, but we later learned that it was not completed because the district administration was preoccupied with the general elections at the time.”
“Sahiti is also bright academically, with a 9th-grade grade point average of over 95 percent,” her mother exclaims. She took part in a NASA-sponsored’space settlement contest’ with four other kids from her high school. In June, she presented the project ‘Vajra Kavacham’ at the International Space Development Conference (ISDC)-2019 in Los Angeles.
