How my Alumni resulted in a Foundation

I wanted to share something about a very important activity that I have got involved in recent times. You may consider this as a promotional blog but I believe the cause is more important.

I studied in Prince Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Madipakkam, Chennai. I passed out in 1997 from my school. I did not have connect with any of my school mates. In fact was in touch with only one of them which I know is quite shameful. But that's how I am. I don't have a big network. Have only a limited circle of friends with whom I interact.  That too not very frequently. Lets say family and work life has kept me occupied a lot. 

It was in Feb 2018 when I got a friend request from one of my school colleagues. Frankly, I was a bit surprised. She said that couple of them are trying to get the 1997 batch together. I must confess I didn't remember a lot of them but I was very excited. Soon a whats app group was formed and we had a lot of friends coming together. The initial days were really crazy. We were spread across the globe and the group used to be active round the clock. When I used to get up i used to see 1000+ messages. But it was fun to see my old friends after so much time. Today is group has over 100 members.

In March 2018, 14 of us met in one of our friends mini function hall. It was a wonderful evening indeed. We connected with a few over the phone as well. There was a Facebook live event streaming of the meet as well. We had a small cake cutting celebration followed by a dinner. Over the past 2 years some of the guys have been meeting regularly and attended family functions. There was one more meet arranged in May last year which I could not make. But I am happy that the group is still live and kicking.

The most important aspect about this alumni group is that we started initiating conversations about our contribution towards the society. As a first initiative we decided to contribute towards education for special children. We contributed to the Tamil Nadu Spastics Society in Chennai in 2019 and followed it up this year as well with a 3 lakh rupees donation.

This year due to the COVID-19 pandemic situation many lower income section of the society have been impacted. One of our group members came up with this great thought of helping our school helpers. We contacted our school principal Mr. K Vasudevan and he was kind enough to allow us to visit the campus and provide the needful to all of them. We arranged for a 1000 rupees essentials kit for all the 35 of them. Some of our group members managed to visit personally to distribute it in presence of our principal.

Since we wanted to get involved in more such activities, some of the group members thought why not have a trust. And instantly many of them had provided their consent. So now we have named our foundation aptly as '97 Foundation. The registration of the trust will be done shortly. Right now we have the below objectives:

• To provide financial support for economically weak
• To transform lives of special kids
• Women Empowerment through supporting girls and women in crisis
• Socio Economic upliftment of economically weaker sections of the society

Recently we have launched a Online Art competition to raise funds for the special children. More information on this competition is available in this link

Some of our group members have been working rigorously to promote our foundation and its campaigns. God bless them. This blog is my tiny contribution to promote our foundation.

Whenever I watch the movie 96, I believe this movie could have been a reason for a lot of alumni groups today. Not sure what was the starting spark for my group but that is not relevant now. The foundation that has resulted out of my alumni group is the most remarkable thing that has happened according to me. 

Let God provide more strength and will to people for helping others in need. Thank You!!!!!