Liav Shamriz, VP ICB Charity Committee
Let me take you back a little bit. When I just took over the position of VP Charities exactly two years ago, I’d joined a charity event where I tried to help ProVision Asia raise money.
ProVision is involved in a variety of activities to help support disabled people, and one of their main initiatives is providing wheelchairs for those who can’t afford them. For someone who can’t walk, a wheelchair is crucial to help navigate daily life. The cost of every wheelchair is 15K approximately and unfortunately, without ProVision’s help, many families can’t afford this basic and essential aid that helps their disabled family members overcome their challenge and become, simply, differently abled.
Every year Provision has a big event (as part of the TCS 10K race), where dozens of volunteers push a differently abled Champion through the streets of Bengaluru in order to raise awareness and money so they can continue with their good work. This year, before starting the campaign, I spoke with Krupa, the manager of the NGO and brainstormed different ways of raising money for the cause. I would have been very happy with getting enough money for 1 chair, but we decided to “Try and reach the sky”. Why not aspire for 3 wheelchairs? I was certainly very hopeful that the ICB members would donate generously. What I didn’t anticipate was how generous our club members were. Within hours we reached our goal and kept raising the bar. We finally raised almost 2 lakhs, and to put it in wheelchair terms- we got funding for more than 12 chairs. That is 12 people, whose lives will be transformed!
On the day of the event, I was joined by Marieke (a brilliant ICB member, whom I recommend everyone get to know) and her husband. We were pushing our Champions knowing that our efforts were not in vain and excited by the success of the campaign. As we all know, nothing can be achieved alone. The brilliant success of the fundraising was only possible by the generosity of many ICB members who donated, trusting us that the money will find its way to the right hands. I can’t name all of the wonderful people who donated, but must mention the Mahjong group who made a collective effort and helped us by spreading the word about the campaign, and, obviously, being generous with donations. The fundraising campaign is still open until the 6th of June, so you still have the chance to donate, or at least, spread the word. I must conclude by thanking all our ICB members for showing us that the sky isn’t the limit and together as a Club, and a community, we can reach way beyond our goals and truly raise the bar.