The journey begins

The Journey is the Destination – Dan Eldon

Finally, have embarked on this journey with no final destination mapped out. This has been on my mind for quite a while now, but like most people, was completely lost in the humdrum of everyday life and had successfully put this on the back burner. One fine day, in the recent past, something clicked – simply put my mind just went “if not now, then when” – for which I really did not have any answers. With this, the decision making was that much easier.

The first question (and the easiest to answer) which popped up – who should be my partner. Since I have only one sibling – the decision was obvious. The small nuance of the name was quickly closed – we decided to continue with our pet project name (which we had started around 5 years back – but for a different reason) – the name was good enough for this journey too is what we thought. Gift Elves. A little bit about the name – Elves are mythical supernatural beings with magical powers. And any charity work will be gifting – and hence the name – Gift Elves.

The toughest question was which area we want to work in. So many avenues – so many people need help, I was completely lost.

“The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes” – Marcel Proust
So I changed my perspective to see – what is it that I can actually give. That’s when the seed of an idea started building – a quick brainstorming with sis and other near and dear ones – gave shape to the idea. We decided to start with something close to our heart. Books. We also did a quick survey with as many as 40 to 50 orphanages / old age homes to understand the ground realities and challenges. All of these organizations are so fraught with everyday existential struggles – like food, utilities, medicals etc. Libraries or any sort of story books are a luxury which they can ill afford. We have seen the vast difference between children with good reading habits and children who just focus on their text books. Reading definitely widens ones’ horizon. Clichéd but true – Knowledge is Power. The more you read, the more information and knowledge you have. We believe that this approach helps children transition from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’.

Which lead us to believe that as a first step we would take up setting up of libraries in Orphanages and Government Schools. So, here we are today, completing our first book drive for Vishranthi and Thayimane.

We will keep you posted on our ongoing activities through our website and blogs. Do stay tuned and pitch in for the cause.