Looking beyond ourselves

In April 2020 I woke up each day to see the suffering and misery caused by COVID-19 across the globe through the news and social media. This made me feel very sad and helpless. I discussed it with three of my friends and we lamented how people were losing their jobs and daily wagers were unable to feed their families. We noticed that while we were safe and comfortable in our homes, what was happening outside was disturbing us and making us unhappy. This is when a common realization struck us — the purpose of life is not to just be happy personally, but to be useful, honourable and compassionate to others. It is about that deeply satisfying feeling of having lived and lived well. This was how SAHAY (Social Association for Helping & Aiding by Youth) came into existence.

SAHAY is an NGO founded by us four friends. It is a platform for benevolent individuals and groups who are willing to help and support the needy, to come together and contribute monetarily. While there are government bodies and NGOs working on similar initiatives, there is no doubt that there is room for much more. Our primary objective was to reach out to maximum people who are in need of food, clothing, and shelter. We used our personal contacts and social media platforms to approach people and were amazed to see the overwhelming support and response we received.

Meanwhile, we were actively in talks and had identified teams in Bihar and Assam who were actively carrying out relief activities at the ground level. They were happy to partner with us and SAHAY started funding the ground partners to buy essentials to make them available to the needy. Till date, SAHAY has positively impacted more than 10,000 people via its ground partners and the support of our benevolent donors.

It is commonly said that the youth today has gone astray but I am proud to note that more than 95% of our donors are below the age of 30. The happiness and satisfaction in the faces of the needy once they get some support is the real driving and motivation force for the SAHAY team. We hope to bring more smiles and significantly impact the people we touch through our work in the times to come.

(This blog was penned by Ravi Shekhar from the KAM team at ClearTax.)