Letter from the founder
“I want to
make charity fashionable and cool” –
Robin Raina
I am often asked why I decided to set up
this charity foundation. Over the last ten years, I have traveled
across the world and had time to reflect on what I saw on the
streets and hospitals in Asia and Africa - malnourished, sick
& handicapped children who had given up hope and underprivileged
children on the streets without any education.
As I reflected more on what I saw and tried to think
about my own life, I realized that even though I had built a so
called "successful business" it did not guarantee happiness
to me irrespective of who I was or how much I had. I thought I
had built security, I thought I had built success. But in reality
what I had built was an illusion. I realized that no one ever
really has security or success unless it comes from within one's
own self. That was when I promised myself that the next thing
I built; no one would be able to take away the associated guaranteed
happiness from me. I decided that I wanted to be in the business
of imparting and spreading happiness. And the Foundation was born!
I realized that giving is something that no one
can take away from you. The rewards of giving go far beyond money
and material things. Giving is something you will be able to take
with you wherever you go for the rest of your life.
The foundation was setup in 2003 to help bring hope
to under-privileged children all across the world, while providing
education, clothes, medical care, shelter and food to these children.
Today, the foundation has adopted in excess of 3,500 children
in terms of all their needs. In the process, we run multiple schools
across India, an orphan home in Mumbai, medical ambulances in
Delhi, an hospital ward in Pakistan and today run India’s
largest private charity initiative in Delhi, where we are building
6000 concrete homes free of cost for the slum dwellers of Bawana.
During these five years the success stories are
innumerable. Thirty of our children have passed professional graduation
courses like Engineering and Medicine. Fifty-four of our blind
children have passed graduation studies and are now studying in
the Masters programme in eminent schools in India. Forty-eight
of our blind children are presently finishing Graduation studies.
Two hundred twelve girl children in Mumbai are studying in private
English medium schools at present. Thousands of children are studying
in schools run by the foundation.
While trying to provide education to the slum dwellers
children, we soon realized that continuous education for these
children can only be ensured if their parents continued to live
in the same area. In 2007, the foundation conceptualized a project
to build 6000 concrete homes on legally owned plots of land, free
of cost for the slum dwellers of Bawana. Today we have finished
building 325 homes and allocated these homes to the under-privileged
slum families of Bawana. The overall cost for this project is
presently estimated at $ 15 million. We hope to continue building
these homes at a fast pace and eventually hope that the success
of this project becomes a model that can be replicated across
the world in the slums.
Charity knows no boundaries of region, color, sex,
language, religion or race. In fact, I believe that poverty is
the single biggest religion in the world. Towards that extent,
the foundation today supports projects across regions irrespective
of religion or race. Whether it meant adopting 1300 Christian
families in the villages in Kotilpadu and Pudur in South of India
after tsunami ravaged lives in these villages, or sponsoring a
cancer ward in the Shaukat Khannum Hospital in Lahore, Pakistan,
the foundation has tried to step up to the occasion.
I am often asked if I have undermined the cause
of charity while glamorizing it through the use of celebrities
as ambassadors to the cause or through the pages of a glossy color
magazine like Lifeline. My belief is that we live in different
times today where we will need to use the latest tools to advance
our cause if we want to be effective. The younger generation today
needs to embrace charity if we want poverty to be erased from
the surface of the earth by 2050. The younger generation today
looks up to anything that is “hip”. Towards that,
I have always wanted to make charity fashionable and cool.
The foundation intends to reach out to all well-meaning
people around the world, who want to contribute in terms of their
time, energy or money. I decided to do that after receiving countless
communications from well meaning people across the country, wanting
to know my views on a variety of issues related to the challenges
facing humanity today. Lastly, let me appeal to each one of you
to sponsor a child or to sponsor a home today. Make giving a priority
in your life. The rewards are immeasurable.
As members of this Foundation, let us all harness
our energies and become the messengers for help for the underprivileged.
Each one of you has the ability to involve your friends, relatives
and others into this cause. We have the opportunity to make a
difference and let us do it now!
Sincerely,
Robin Raina |
