Monday, July 23, 2007

A fistful...

The wonderful thing about my job is you get to see the hope. And hope comes in all shapes and sizes. The most recent sighting of hope came in fistfuls.


There are these three bunches of women, three groups of around twenty women, who decided to contribute a fistful of rice every week*. Thus, their giving began. A fistful a week. Fistfuls every month for a few months. In the end, they had 120 kilograms of rice. This rice, they decided to give it to a hostel run for girls with visual impairment. Girls who have been rejected by families. Girls who were considered a burden. Girls who are educated and wanting to contribute to the functioning of society.


It was a wonderful sight to see. A bunch of women gathered together in an asbestos shed put up on the terrace of one small neighbourhood. The givers and the receivers. It was difficult to identify who the givers and who the receivers were. Those who gave received and those who received gave.


This incident continued to resonate the truth that I am learning. One's ability to give does not depend on one's wealth. It all depends on one's willingness. Willingness to look beyond oneself. Willingness to look at others. Willingness to give. It all depends on one's heart size and not on one's wallet size.


Above all, giving empowers the giver. There is dignity in giving. It makes you rise above your situation of needs and wants. It makes you realise that even you can give.


*They called it புடி அரிசி திட்டம் ("Pudi Arisi Thittam" meaning "fistful of rice plan").

Note on pictures: One is a picture of one of the girls reading from a Braille Bible. The other is a picture of a couple of our clients holding fists full of rice.

22 comments:

Ryan said...

A fistful of comments are coming...

Awesome! There is so much I want to say but do not have the perfect words...

That Squirrel said...

very nice...I'd love to see scenes like these!

PurpleHeart said...

Amazing to know that there are still such things happening !

Gomathy S said...

Nice to see this..
Btw whats your profession if you dont mind sharing?

Anonymous said...

What a wonderful plan. Giving benefits everybody!

Zak said...

really wonderful! u have a video! snapshots!

Jude said...

hullo

Bungz said...

Ryan - Lol... The bane of language. You never find the right words when you want them...

Anju - :) They keep me going at work.

Sandhya - Oh yes! Such stuff happen all the time. Just that newspapers don't report them. It seems only bad news sells.

Scribbler - No. I don't mind sharing. I am a development worker working with a microfinance company.

Trish - Oh totally. Such actions are a great inspiration.

Mahathma - Nope. Did not do a video.

Jude - Heya... :)

Ryan said...

Trish said what I was thinking... Giving and saving are most important.

I remember a study in america, it was found that the poor give a larger percent of their income than the rich.

Anonymous said...

are you talking about ranka's
Chennai food bank?

You can make contributions at

The RYA Madras Metro Trust, 12, Saravana Street, T Nagar, Chennai -- 600 017.
Phone: 91 44 2431 2096.

also
Contributions to Chennai Food Bank can be drawn in favour of the 'RYA Metro Trust A/C Food Bank'.

Bungz said...

Ryan - That reminds me of the widow's two mites.

CW - Nope. These are women that we are working alongside with. Thanks for the info nonetheless.

SandyCarlson said...

This is really powerful. Beautifully written. Meaningful. Here in the US there are campaigns and projects to get people to eat locally and to share. A fistful a week--you make it real. Thanks.

Me said...

:)

SandyCarlson said...

This is so great. I'd love to highlight it on my blog with a brief paragraph and send folks to this site. Would that be okay? God bless. (Around here, we get very complicated about how to raise money for food and so on. The utter simplicity of this is very powerful.)

Bungz said...

Sandy - Oh sure. No problem. Yeah, sometimes solutions to problems are so simple and we don't realise it.

Me - *smiles*

Praney ! said...

Hmmmm, not at all surprised to see her reading Bible.

Vadapoche said...

Beautiful post!

" Those who gave received and those who received gave." This really struck a chord.

SandyCarlson said...

Hey, I wrote a little something. Thanks! I see the mood today is "depressed." I hope you're okay!

Bungz said...

Praney - Not surprising in the sense?

Jollyroger - Thank you. :-)

Sandy - I read what you wrote. :-) Thanks for asking after me. I guess i will be fine soon. :-)

Brad Lewis said...

Brilliant idea!

Proma said...

Thats a real touching real story - thanks for sharing

Bungz said...

Brad - It is indeed! The simplicity of it is amazing...

Proma - :-)