My dear friends,
It has been a while since my last mail to you. While a busy schedule
is no excuse for not updating you about BRIDGE’s activities, I must
say that visiting our beneficiaries, managing my professional job and
keeping up with my other responsibilities forced me to delay writing
this mail. I hope you will understand. Yet I know it’s my duty to keep
you abreast of our activities and the impact we are making in the
lives of people.
I am happy to inform you that we have once again resumed our family
visits to our beneficiaries after a two-and-a-half-year Covid break
which had restricted our personal interactions. It was overwhelming to
see our families picking up the pieces and moving ahead in life. We
will now try to keep these visits as frequent as possible even though
we have a larger number of families in our care.
I do not know if I will be able to cover all our activities that
happened during the intervening period since my last mail, but I shall
make it as brief as possible and keep some for my next mail.
I had received requests from some of our well-wishers for sponsoring
the education of some children directly. I was able to identify a few
and facilitated this. Some requests I have not been able to attend to
as the criteria did not match our philosophy.
In this context, I want to specially mention BRIDGE CA Om Jain sir of
BOCO, an altruistic and socially conscientious person, who has
sponsored the education of a girl who is pursuing Law. She is one of
eight children of a very poor Bihar family based in Bangalore. The
family is excited as they were about to give up the girl’s hopes of
becoming a lawyer. Hats off to you Om sir.
We have had several requests for educational help from several
children of families that had lost their breadwinners. After careful
scrutiny, we have part-funded the education of following persons:
* Daughter of Orotha, a nursing student in KGF, Bangalore
* Venkatesh from Kalyan Nagar, Bangalore, pursuing Plus 2
* Mallikarjun an aspiring MBBS student from interior Karnataka who is
preparing for next year’s NEET exam
* Anu from Nilgiris who is studying for BEd
* Daughter of Anil Kumar Madukka, a nursing student in Hyderabad
* Christeena, a nursing student in a Mangalore nursing Institute
* James Pulluvazhi, who is pursuing a hotel management course in Trissur
* Jessintha from Kumarakom, who is learning German language for a
nursing course in Germany
* Vanmaraiyan who is preparing to become a veterinary doctor (he is
in the final year in a Tamil Nadu college)
I must highlight the sad situation of a family whose two young
children and their father face medical issues. This family from Tamil
Nadu, living in Bangalore, have been struggling to find means to buy
medicine. The youngest, who is just one-and-a-half-year old, has to
undergo dialysis two-three times a week. The elder who is 7 years of
age suffers from epilepsy due to which he cannot attend school as his
frequent seizures, according to his teachers, disturb other children
in class. Their father has issues with his back. The only breadwinner
is the mother who is an office staff in a private company and her
salary isn’t enough to meet the medical expenses as well as to keep
home fires burning. So BRIDGE has joined some 5 other volunteers to
raise around Rs 20,000 every month for this family which is much
relieved with our timely intervention.
I must also share the story of Neha whose 54-year-old father has been
suffering from kidney issues needing dialysis. For want of money, they
have been skipping it and that’s when someone introduced BRIDGE to the
family. The girl has just completed her CA course and due to her
father’s condition is unable to go to work. We have agreed to meet the
dialysis expense of the father for one month after which she hopes to
join for work and return us the money.
Another sad case is of Alana, the 23-year-old bubbly lady who had
completed her nursing course and had just started working at Mumbai’s
Jupiter Hospital. She has a father who had lost an arm in an accident
and was unable to go for regular jobs. The family had pinned its hopes
on Alana who was preparing to go abroad for better prospects. That was
when fate intervened a few months ago and she was diagnosed with blood
cancer. She is undergoing treatment and we, along with some of her
friends, have helped her family by sharing the medical expenses. I am
told even though chances of her recovery are very low, she has been
the life of the hospital ward where she was admitted for a long time
keeping all other patients in good humour. Let us all keep her in our
prayers as nothing is impossible for God.
Friends, thanks to the early contribution of some of our generous and
regular donors, we have been able to help these persons mentioned
above even as we continue to help other families who are the regular
recipients of our goodwill. Since the number of our beneficiaries have
risen, I must tell you that we have to replenish our resources. Thank
you our regular donors as well as Mala Bhojwani who sent another Rs
50,000 recently. If it were not for you, my dear friends, we would not
have been able to touch the lives of so many of our less fortunate
ones. I bow my head before each of you for your support and
encouragement throughout our journey.
Thank you
Shibu