Making a Difference

Blog 26 of 30

Working with the Heroes Project was a fabulous experience for me. I got to learn about new issues, meet different people, understand their challenges and so much more. And as I had all these new experiences, I learned something about myself.

I realised that I craved intellectual stimulation, new ideas, new concepts, new challenges, and the Heroes Project gave me just that. In some ways the corporate work I was doing in Masterpage was getting mundane and repetitive and I was not feeling challenged. The other great thing was working with a team of people with new ideas and backgrounds. The constant interaction and brainstorming again helped stimulate me to think and dig deeper and deeper to do better and better.

When my role with the Heroes Project came to an end, I realised that I loved working in the development sector so I choose to do two things – work with larger NGO tackling different issues and challenges on one hand and at the other end of the spectrum work with smaller NGOs where I could use my experience to help them out.

Over the years, I worked with larger NGOs such as Care India, Save the Children and Population Services International (PSI) across issues as diverse as woman’s empowerment, open defecation, smoking, child trafficking, domestic child labour, and special education among many others.  With each project, I learned more and read more and developed a deeper understanding of the way things work.

But perhaps the project that had the greatest impact on me, was one I did with PSI. This project involved setting up programs to support people with HIV by partnering with corporates, the government, celebrities and more and it ended up being another turning point in my life.

While this was going on I got a call out of the blue from someone residing in Delhi who had somehow got my number and assumed I was a counsellor.  He had recently had an injection and realised later that he could not remember the nurse taking a fresh syringe.

He was worried about getting tested, terrified he could be HIV positive and thoroughly confused as he was getting married in two weeks. He was distraught, panicked and needed a counsellor. But every time I suggested that he call one, he would resist. He did not want to put down the phone and call someone else. He kept talking about his fears and what would happen to his wife to be, whether he should take a decision to call off the wedding or wait for his test results.

I had worked a lot in the field of a HIV but, while I interacted with people, most of my work was at arm’s length and I had never had to hand hold anyone in a crisis in my professional work. This was a different experience. He kept talking to me and the call went on for almost an hour before I calmed him down and had him agree to get tested. When I put down the phone my hand was shaking, and my heart was racing. I had met enough HIV positive people to know that suicide is a strong thought when faced with a positive diagnosis. It was a scary experience for me, but somewhere all the work I had done did not compare to that individual impact that I felt I was able to make through the call and that was unique and special.

In the meanwhile, PSI introduced medical insurance for HIV positive people. It was a little expensive and, since most people who declared their HIV status were below the poverty line, a little unaffordable. So, I conceived a project to raise funds for insurance for children living with HIV by using a celebrity voice on radio. I hoped that in this way I could continue to see the impact of the work I was doing on individual lives.

I was fortunate enough to have met and interacted with Mr Kamal Haasan in my role with the Heroes Project and when I approached him, he readily agreed to support this initiative. On the side, Mr Rajeev Nambiar who was the CEO of Hello FM the radio arm of the Dinathanthi newspaper also willingly committed himself to the project. With such a wonderful partnership, the magic began to happen.

The response from the public was incredible. School children emptied their piggy banks, prisoners of Vellore jail wrote to me wanting to do their little bit from their savings, a young boy who delivered newspapers gave us one month of his salary, a group of drivers pooled in resources and turned up at the radio office to make their contribution. It was incredible. More and more it reinforced the fact that within everyone there is something good and wonderful, and if we can give them a way to help another, the space and that initiative, we can bring out the best in everyone!