4. Facilitation Philanthropy

Krishna is a boy hailing from a fisherman community at coastal village in South India. He is studying in a school exclusively for poor children. He was one of the active students of his class. He excelled in education and every activity he does. He was sincere in his life. He used every resource wisely and loved his family very much.

His father was a fisherman and went to catch fish with his fellow fishermen from his village. There was an unexpected storm in the sea when this team was fishing. High waves rose very high than the boat and turned the boat upside down. Everyone in the boat was in the sea now, struggling to reach their boat. As it was night, they could not see anything and were struggling in the sea to survive. Few found the wooden debris of the broken boat and caught hold of it. Not all the teammates were successful in grabbing one. After two days of swimming only three of the team reached shore with the help of the rescue team from the coastal villages. Krishna’s father never reached home. This was a heavy blow to Krishna and his family. For his father was the only bread winner of the family. There was no other go for a decision by her mother either she should go out to sell fish at doorsteps or send Krishna to fishing along with the fishermen of his village. On seeing the fate of her husband, his mother decided, to send Krishna to school and she would sell fishes. 

Years rolled by, Krishna scored well and he was the topper of the school and at the District level. He was the topper in the IIT –JEE as well. To everyone’s surprise, Krishna was not happy or excited about it. For him the admission fee amount was much higher and could not afford to pay. Almost all of his classmates got admitted in various colleges of their choice. Some who had scored very less marks joined in a college nearby. Though he felt painful, he did not let his emotions out, for it would hurt his mother.

The news of Krishna not admitted in any of the colleges despite high score, for want of money for admission and fees thereafter for four years, reached Mala Miss, their class teacher. The news was very shocking and she did not want the bright student to end up going to boat for fishing. She took a bold decision of paying the admission fee with her one month salary and arranged some means to arrange for the monthly fee for the four years till he completes the course. She took Krishna to the college, as if he was his own son and did all the admission formalities, as Krishna’s mother, being illiterate, knew nothing about this.

As Krishna was sincere in his studies and aware of the family situation, he topped again at university level. Before the results were out, there was a campus interview by a Multi National Company, whose head office was at the United States of America. Obviously the MNC offered him an appointment order with a good salary package.


He joined the office and soon was selected as a team member to work at the US. He flew and received his first salary at a distant land. He wanted to thank his Mala miss on the first day of salary. So he sent the entire amount to  Mala miss, with a request to accept it and give a mentioned small portion of it to his mother, as she did not know any banking procedure and have the rest for creating a Trust for educating children who are in need. He promised to send a good sum of money every month, as it is his turn to GIVE BACK TO THE SOCIETY.  

P. S. : Photo Courtesy Internet.

3. Illuminating Lives

Lim Matte, is a little boy living in a small tribal village in Nagaland. Being a mountainous terrain, it gets dark soon. There was no electricity or any development facilities available in that village. He was fond of education. He loved going to school, the only school in the adjacent village, for which he had to walk a lot to reach it which was 20 kilometers away. But he used many shortcuts to reach the school as he walked into the dense forest.

Reading / learning was a pleasure to him. He was delighted as he could understand the meaning of each and every activity which happens in and around him. Be it movement of Sun, appearance of moon in different shapes, different types of trees, plants, fern and cute creatures – tiny to big animals, various colors of flowers and fruits.

People in the tribal village live according to the sun. They begin and close their day with the sun. When Lim woke up early, he had to wait for the sun to start his daily activities. All the activities in the village close by evening. No outdoor activities at night except for festivals or functions. Lim wanted to study at the night, as it was calm without any disturbances. But the family had only one small light which his mother uses to do all the household chores and blows off at night to save the little kerosene available for future. Most of the time, he gazes the sky watching the star studded sky. He was longing to have light at night hours for studying and doing his homework given by the teachers, which he have to finish super fast before the sun goes down.

Jacques, an environmentalist, from the Netherlands came to Nagaland and reached this village to explore the biodiversity prevailing in that village. As the man-made development s had not entered the tribal village, nature had its upper hand. Flora and fauna was so diverse. Jacques was excited to collect many species of both plants and insects, of which some were new to him and to the entire world. Lim was his local helper, who escorted to show different places. He often took him to places through less tread ways.

After a hectic day Jacques and Lim decided to halt. Soon Jacques built a tent with the help of Lim, using the canvas, ropes and nails and camping gears which he carried. Lim was seeing the Tent for the first time. He thought it is a foldable hut with a magic in it. He could see something which he could not believe – Light without Fire. For Lim, Sun, moon and fire are the only means of light. Yes, Jacques had set up a solar light to illuminate the tent. Jacques could do many works like making notes of the day’s work, typing something using his laptop, preserving the samples collected and much more before he went to sleep.

Jacques woke up only after the sun rays extended its warmth on him. He got up from his bed and was surprised to see Lim, at the corner of the tent, sleeping along the solar light with few books and notebooks around him and the fingers still holding the pen. He understood that Lim had completed all his homework overnight and started sleeping only in the early morning. Jacques stayed for a week and felt his mission accomplished. He had thought it would take a month or two. His collection became voluminous to carry home, as he had to walk a lot to reach to board into a bus or any means of transport. On his final day in the village, Jacques gifted Lim the solar light and taught how to recharge it during sunny hours and used it in the night.

With this solar light, Lim started studying had and excelled in education. He topped the school and got scholarships to complete higher education. Now, Lim Matte is a District Administration Officer. His first official assignment was to provide solar electrification to each household of his district. Over years he had seen how electricity department had dug many parts of his tribal area and damaged the biodiversity of his homeland. With the availability of solar light in each household, almost all children excelled in education, skills, and areas of interest. The standard of living of the tribal district greatly improved because of education.

P. S. : Photos courtesy Internet

2. Books Transform Lives

Ranga was a thief, who used to steal things, usually bags, in a railway station for his livelihood. Once he stole a small bag from the same railway station. On seeing the size, being small and weighed moderately heavy, he thought it was a bumper, a BAG FULL OF MONEY.

Excited Ranga, thought of having a quick breakfast before opening the Bumper. So he rushed to a nearby hotel at the railway station. Though he ate a normal breakfast, felt very happy and stomach full, was thinking about the bundles of currencies in the bag he had just stolen. Then he went to a small hideout place, where he usually opens, sort and organize the stolen things. It was the outer part of the railway station, where rusted carriages / boogies / railway compartments were present. He had many dreams of using the money, to eat some delicacies he was longing for, to purchase few new clothes, as his most of the clothes were worn out. Then he was planning to watch a movie, and so on. As each need had a painful story behind them. 

When he reached the safe hideout, his domain, he carefully opened the small bag, to his disappointment, there was no currency note. There were three books –

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickinson, the story was more like his biography, he could travel along the story and he was moved after reading it.  

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl, again he was greatly emotional seeing how the poor boy remained calm, poise and truthful. He admired how the hardships were tested and at the end resulted in becoming a heir of the Chocolate Factory, where he could live with his family.

The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Leo Tolstoy, which speaks on the ways to spread love to mankind, emphasized the principle of nonviolent and asks to face problems instead of resisting it with violent means.

He resolved to leave the act of stealing things from others and decided to work hard to earn a living and give back to the society as a token of compensation. The first thing he did was to purchase good story books especially for children, as he had only limited knowledge in English. With the available money he purchased books from the shop which sold “Used books”, which was located at the platform near the railway station.

After reading all these books he opened a small shop of “Used books”, opposite to a school. He sold the books to those who had money; he rented some books for a small token money for the children who are not offered to buy the used books. He was the first reader of all the books available in the shop. He had been doing enough charity activities, especially for education. 



P. S. : Photos courtesy Internet

1. Education

Kathir and Raju are friends studying in the same class. Kathir is an orphan and lives in an orphanage and studies in the school close to the orphanage. On the other hand Raju is the only son of the rich parents. His house was close to the school, hence he joined here. Despite economic differences, the bond of friendship grew over years.

Raju apart from school, he got specialized coaching for the subjects he was weak. Kathir had no other option but orphanage. Only reason for which he goes out was to school. This reflected in the academic scores. After school Raju advanced to higher education at the nearby town but Kathir had to earn to meet his ends. Kathir joined a cycle repair shop of his relative. He lived with that family. He was given only the leftovers. Many days he filled the stomach with water and previous day’s porridge.

Years rolled on, Kathir joined a spinning mill as a labourer. The mill being new, he used to do many jobs from sweeping to fitting machinery. His income was quite good to live a decent life. In the spinning mill, one of the machines was not working. The functioning of that machine was crucial. The owner wanted to fix the issue. An expert, an engineer was invited to the factory, the next day. Kathir was trying to keep the premises clean, especially around the machinery. When he was still having the broom in hand, the expert arrived. Both had an embarrassing moment. Yes, eyes and heart of both friends met. 

Kathir felt very low seeing his present position and his friend’s. A deep pain, emotional wrath engulfed him. The whole day he was thinking about the divide caused by money and education. From then on, he started supporting poor children living in his area, whose education was restricted just because of money.

P. S. : Photos courtesy Internet