Hi friends,
I thought of sharing a few ‘nice-to-know’ experiences of mine which strengthened my belief in miracles and my faith in the way forward for BRIDGE.
Last month, I was sitting with a BRIDGE volunteer discussing the distress of one of the families that was brought to my notice. This family, which lost its breadwinner, was struggling to eke out a living with the lady of the house selling goodies made by her to some bakery shops nearby. She has two daughters studying in Second PU and Grade 9. Even as I knew the family was in dire straits, I had to disappoint our volunteer saying that BRIDGE was not in a position to take up fresh cases. (I had informed you in my last mail that May was a bit tough for us as fees had to be paid in several schools). I could read the sadness on the face of our volunteer when I said this. Just then I received a message on my phone, but I did not open it then as I was busy in conversation. In a few moments, I received a call. That was from my close friend and the first Associate of BRIDGE, Rakesh Bedi from New Delhi. He asked me to read the message that I had just received. I did and the message was really heartening. He had just transferred Rs 25,000 into BRIDGE account.
Guys, it could have been just a coincidence. But that message just when I was almost denying help to somebody was indeed a reassurance that when you are really doing God’s work, He will always be with you. I do not have any doubt that we will ever be short of funds to reach out to the needy. I sanctioned the request immediately and that’s another happy family BRIDGE has created.
Miracles do happen. I wish to tell you that most of our contributors are very low salary earners. There is this lady who herself is a kidney patient needing dialysis and works in a national bank but sent me Rs 5,000 and bought 5 books (Dare to Dream by Akshita) by paying Rs 500 to be distributed among her son’s friends…
There is this gentleman who was invited to give a lecture to some school students and transferred the Rs 1,500 fee he received into the BRIDGE account…
There is this Associate of ours who supported BRIDGE right from the beginning and transferred Rs 5,000 several times into BRIDGE account and often without informing me…
There is this well-known personality in Bengaluru who guided me at the start of BRIDGE and gave me a cheque of Rs 50,000…
There is this lady who lost her husband some years ago and is taking care of her mom and daughter with her sole salary but makes sure she sends me Rs 2,500 every month…
There is this journalist-friend who himself finances the education of several slum children, but keeps aside Rs 1,000 every month for BRIDGE…
There is this retired uncle who sends me Rs 1,000 every month from his pension… There is this lady who makes occasional contributions of Rs 5,000 incognito (until I found out recently)… There is this family of five children that sends to BRIDGE Rs 5,000 (Rs 1,000 per person) every month…
There are several occasional contributors who transferred funds and told me, “I just felt like transferring some money”… There are several persons who go around tirelessly speaking about the genuine work BRIDGE does and arranges funds for us…
Some of you have asked me how BRIDGE is able to help so many families. To all of you my answer is, miracles do happen and the people mentioned here are the real miracle workers. What can I tell you all, other than the fact that God sees your every gesture.
I am also happy to inform you that our maiden publishing venture Dare to Dream has raised so far Rs 26,000 with hardly any publicity. And since there was no cost involved in this project, the entire sale proceeds have come into our BRIDGE pool.
I am never in doubt about funds availability for BRIDGE as I have learnt from my experiences that money will come from some place when we really need it.
I also wish to share with you another good news. We have three new Associates who have joined us and I would like to introduce them to you. Meet Shaji Thomas and Suja S Thomas, the husband-wife duo who are known for their philanthropic work. An architect by profession, Shaji runs a successful interior design business in Bengaluru and proves that one can make money through ethical way of doing business. The duo joined BRIDGE by contributing Rs 50,000 and replenishes the BRIDGE pool every now and then. Suja was a senior nurse at Manipal Hospital, and is the point of contact for BRIDGE for everything related to medical issues.
Prakash Pillai is a Mumbai-based financial consultant who came to know of BRIDGE activities and was quite impressed by our service. His family is known for its charitable activities. He said that although he knew and helped several charitable institutes in the past, BRIDGE was the only organisation that did not spend a pie on itself but is passing on the entire contributions it receives to the needy. Prakash family makes monthly contributions to the BRIDGE funds pool. I am happy to appoint Prakash as the BRIDGE Associate for the Western region.
Please join me in welcoming our new Associates Shaji, Suja and Prakash. We are indeed proud to have you guys with us. Take care and have a nice weekend