Mission Share Forward: Kind, mindful donations

When my mother passed, she left behind not just her legacy, but a crazy number of saris!

My daughter and I had our pick. I donated many of them. Even turned a few into kurtas and dresses for myself. But there were still more.

I was talking to my friend, Jayashree Hatangadi, when she mentioned the tribal girls at a school she volunteers at. Deep in the Araku Valley, near Visakhapatnam, it’s a Telugu-medium school with 500 girls, who all come from underprivileged backgrounds.

The girls needed clothes, and I knew exactly what I had to do. The value of education is something I’d imbibed from my grandmother—herself illiterate, but she’d fought the odds to ensure her daughter studied, and studied well. I’d stumbled upon the perfect way to help at least some of these girls, and honour my grandmother and mother.

I didn’t have enough saris or resources to help all 500 girls, but I figured whatever I could do, was at least a drop in the ocean. Besides, Jayashree also assured me, that these children shared whatever resources they had, including their clothes. So every extra piece makes their lives a little bit simpler, a little bit brighter. I gathered up the saris and called a local tailor, who churned out 4 sets of upcycled lehengas and 21 upcycled kurtas. I bought the bottoms to pair with the kurtas, from the market.

At the school, the girls rushed to change into their new garments. As they came down the staircase, shy, giggling, their faces lit with happiness, I asked if they liked their new clothes. The entire lot of them chimed, ‘We love them, they are beautiful!’

In that instance, I knew I’d done the right thing. Mission Share Forward, as Jayashree coined this entire enterprise, was my moment of mindfulness. My mother—and grandmother—would be proud, today!