26/11 – Two years and counting.

It has been two years since five terrorists ripped into our city's peace creating havoc, despair and a sense of vulnerability nothing has been able to restore.

It has also been two years since a group of shaken up, but determined women (and a couple of men) set out to address the unease inside them, the angst and desperation of wanting to reach out, met in a coffee shop. It has been two years since they embarked on a journey of help and support, and came together to from India Helps.

India Helps is not an organization, it isn't a company and it isn't a professionally managed Not For Profit. It is a part of each and every one of the people present in that first meeting, and those that joined after. India Helps has a heart, and soul. It has ethics and morals. It is a reflection of all the hard work that's been put into creating it. Reaching out to victims, fund raising, managing professional and personal lives and most of all, dealing with our own feelings and trying not to be overwhelmed with the victims trauma are just some examples of the work that's gone into India Helps.

India Helps has grown. Where we started with a few 26/11 victims, we now raise funds for pavement schools, teaching over 200 underprivileged children with limited or no access to education.

As we mourn the loss of family, friends and other victims of the attacks, we also in a small, muted way celebrate the strength with which India Helps moves into 2011. Eveready and Energized to go. With renewed faith we await new avenues of reaching out to people.

We'd like to thank all those of you who follow our blog, write in to us, have sent us funds. India Helps would not have sustained such active fundraising if it hadn't been for benevolence such as the kind we've received from you all. Thank you, truly.

 

By Suma Nagmote on behalf of Team India Helps