How many of us think of ‘giving’ more than ‘receiving’? Basic human nature tends to want more, as it sees more, but it is hard to resist these desires. We put ‘I’ quiet often when we want something; ‘ I want a car’, ‘I want a good education’…But what if we all start saying ‘I’ in a different manner; like, ‘I want to help you’ or ‘I will give you’, the world will be a better place. At least that’s what the legend Michael Jackson portrayed through his songs.
But this is not about legends, prophets or saints who have told us to be good or do good; this is about simple people that come together in groups like ‘I HELP FOUNDATION’ to help and serve the society.
‘I HELP’ is a new born foundation that begun on 9th August, 2016 by the initiative taken by a group from Don Bosco College of Engineering. They celebrated their anniversary just four days ago remembering their virtues and values on what their foundation stands strong today.
This organization aims to provide financial assistance to extreme economical backward students for their education, as well as it brings awareness about addiction and drug abuse, health and hygiene and encourages youth to visit orphanages, old age homes and poor people.
They have tried to help people by asking the government to build toilets and maintain hygiene in schools and villages. They often spend time organizing games and dance at old age homes and orphanages.
They collect funds or sometimes donate from their own pocket for basic day to day requirements like soap, biscuits, towels, handkerchiefs, blankets etc.Since many of their members are working and most of them study in professional colleges, they donate some of their money to certain helpless places.
Apart from the pocket donation,’ Pop-Up bazaar’ stalls are put up to raise funds for the foundation. ‘Pop-up bazaar’ stalls sell products like hairclips, envelopes and decorated flower vases and bottles made by the members themselves. They also recycle the waste wine and alcohol bottles into decorative hanging chandeliers or vases. ‘Chat’, a food stall is also included, prepared by the members themself.
“Mostly everything is managed by the I HELP members and once in while some outsiders donate us few things for orphan kids and poor people”, says Praveen Maurya, one of the zealously working member.
Praveen also states that there is no specific person in charge of their foundation and everyone is assigned different important tasks and responsibilities. They are answerable to everyone and not one specific person.“Because we believe in involving everyone equally in our foundation…”
Maurya carries on, “This is what we do and what we have done this entire year. Our foundation is about all the members and not an individual member… we believe that our action and position will always be limited to a certain post but our responsibility towards each other and to the society is limitless.”
The foundation’s motives looks into minute details of life. Just as youth, we have a lot of time, resources and the energy. We need to use these elements in little ways to make a difference in the society. Small acts like avoiding throwing chocolate wrappers or chips packets on roads, helping someone cross the road, feeding a poor friend or teaching someone helps us feel better as well as brings a smile on someone else’s face.‘I Help foundation’ is not about doing great things but small acts that should come through the will power of each person.
Maurya completes his narration saying, “As someone said it right that unless you start seeking well-being of everybody, you will die frustrated. So, I want to die happily.”
Another member Deepa Parab, a civil engineer student, talks about her inspiration while joining the foundation. She said, “My father used to always tell me about his childhood struggle to study. He had only one pair of clothes, no slippers and would walk bare feet miles away to go to school. Today after so much of hard work he has settled down, his stories have inspired me to study well.”
Parab feels that she should help people in education and finance, so that they too can grow up and help others someday. “My father could not study further even after being a bright student because of financial problems. I don’t want other people to face these problems so I decided to help.”
Sometimes incidents leave a stigma in your life, but through those very same incidents an inspiration seeds up… builds strong roots, stems and grows into a big tree.
‘I Help Foundation’ has recently taken a new initiative ‘I Clean’, which involves cleanliness drive on a small scale. Soon they will be coming up with a scheme called ‘I –Warriors’, this is a crash course of self-defence for girls. An awareness campaign for girls in government schools from standard 6th to 10th is going to be organised in a few days. It includes menstruation talks and different kind of touches with the opposite gender. Free sanitary pads too will be provided to girls. The initiative was taken into account because no one usually talks about these issues in government schools and in few orthodox families.
Their activities are continuously updated on Instagram and Facebook page: Ihelp_foundation_goa (Instagram) and @ihelpfoundationgoa (Facebook).
In today’s world, we are losing ourselves to toxic insensitivity. Making people happy in little way can help us gain that respect and love for one another, so that someday everything will fall in line and all will live in peace and harmony.
