“The year was 2000 June I had just graduated and was finding it hard to find a job and I landed in a job after 6 months of ardent search, and this came as a tipping point for me. Being a Christian my faith propelled me to align my values and deeds with the Bible.

In that regards one primary value we learn from childhood is to always give back to society in whatever capacity possible for us. So in this journey, we wanted to serve the weaker section of the society. We began in the year 2001 January where I received my 1st-month Salary and donated my entire first salary to the Church initially and then from the next month to various orphanages in the city of Chennai. I have been setting aside 10% of my salary every month for the past 20 years.

It started with 10% and has now grown to 23%.
With my wife also helping me in this initiative it has become an even more meaningful journey travelling together to do our small bit as a family to the society in need. Every month we use the money which we set aside to help any orphanage for kids or elderly people in a kind and this has varied from Groceries, toys, blankets, stationery items, medical kits and anything and everything that a person could need. We choose places to shop in bulk and delivery them personally to all these orphanages. We never give money directly to any orphanages.

When the Lockdown rolled in we started seeing a lot of people on the streets of Chennai struggling even without the essentials. This was disheartening to watch so many of these people and hence we started distributing food packets in different places.

Once a fine day as I was going through my regular Bible reading I came across the very famous Bible story of Feeding the 5000 by Jesus. This made a sudden impact and I decided why not serve food for
5000 people in 1 year. So the same night on the 30th of May I decided to start with this initiative and prepared a quick budget of Rs 50 / person for this 5000. To achieve this we have to serve to have 400 people in a week if we have to complete with June 2022.

Even during the lockdown period, we continued with this and thankfully we were not stopped by any police personals while we did the distribution. We as a family of 4 wives, myself and 2 kids have successfully distributed to around 800 people so far.

I have come to understand that there is a lot of Joy in Giving than receiving. More than being blessed ourselves we need to be a blessing to others as well and it is our responsibility to serve back to our community in all ways possible. So in this regard, I hope to drive this message home that Kindness begets Kindness and the blessings that come our way needs to be paid forward. I am happy to see my Kids take this up seriously and I hope and pray every person comes forward to take up social responsibility in this world.”

#teaching #lifelessons #kindness #hope