Make A Wish Foundation - India's Social Genie

Originally written for IDEX at http://commonthreadx.ning.com/blog/make-a-wish-foundation-india-social-genie

With Mr Vijay Ladha. Hon. Program Director,
Bangalore Division, MAWF India

Someone has rightly said, "Life is a struggle between birth and death". Some are definite to know about their struggle well before and for the more fortunate ones, the struggles comes as a surprise. Every individual makes efforts in this journey to achieve their dreams, fulfill their wishes and satisfy their desires. Life is never fair with everyone and that's how it is. Some, are destined to get all they desire without any effort and some, even after all struggle, end up with no returns. While I was talking to Mr Vijay Ladha, Program Director of Make A Wish Bangalore, I was thanking the Almighty for blessing me with all that I need to live a contented life. At the same time, I was pained listen to so many stories of people struggling between life and death. Especially the stories of these little young children who are supposed to laugh all along and live merrily, but the cruel world puts them into adulthood very early. While there are kids laboring to earn a meal, there are many suffering from life threatening illness. Each sunrise is an achievement for these kids.

While on one hand, there are kids planning their future to be a doctor, an engineer, a lawyer, etc., there are these kids who can not even dream of such aspirations. Undoubtedly, these kids too have wishes, as small as buying a doll to as big as being a great businessman. Most of these kids, when questioned, revealed very similar wishes that we all have, i.e., to be happy and successful, work in the profession of their choice, have a good family, own things like a doll, a pair of shoes, a bicycle, a toy car, etc. However, destiny plays different games with these kids and they end up focusing all their efforts to make sure they survive, to say the least.

I was extremely delighted to learn about Make A Wish Foundation (MAWF), an organization that toils to fulfill the wishes of these innocent kids to whom, in my view, life has been extremely unfair. After all, what justifies the kind of life these innocent hearts are exposed to, by their birth.

There are numerous social enterprises focusing on providing facilities to make living better. The unique aspect of MAWF is that they are working on providing a platform for the kids to help them satisfy mentally and emotionally. One of the most important determinant of human happiness is their dreams. We all want to be something and when we become what we want, we call it success. Psychologists study about negative emotions and say that negative emotions are necessary for a human to flourish but positive emotions are by nature subtle and fleeting; the secret is not to deny their transience but to find ways to increase their quantity. MAWF believes in giving reasons to children to be positive and thus, help them think and move ahead with a positive frame of mind.

If we are enjoying music, it is not exactly the music that makes us happy. It is the expression of our love for the music that creates our joy.  If we are happy in our job or career, it is not the job that makes us happy but the expression of our love for what we do that creates the experience of happiness. If we are enjoying a beautiful day, it is not the day that is flooding us with emotions. It is our love for the experience of the day that we are flooded with. MAWF is building it efforts day by day to enrich such experiences in the lives of these kids.

MAWF started in the United States and now, it is growing in India. It began way back in 1990s when a couple from Mumbai went to the US to get their son treated on a life threatening illness and they came across MAWF. Seeing the struggle that children were undergoing and how MAWF was trying to support them, the couple decided that this concept should get implemented in India too. They began MAWF in Mumbai and further expanded to 9 cities including Bangalore.

How it works

• MAWF trains volunteers to interact with kids.
• MAWF gets kids' profiles from hospitals.
• Volunteers spend time with the kids and learn about their wishes (without the kid's knowledge)
• MAWF starts working on fulfilling the wish by collating resources, monetary or otherwise
• Wishes are generally from one of these categories
1. To own things
2. To visit a place
3. To meet someone, especially celebrities
4. To become something, especially a career dream
• Donors, Contributors and Volunteers are appraised of the requirements.
• The network works together to make the child's dream come true.

Conclusion

MAWF is working on such a critical field. This is an amazing work and no less than a genie making their wishes come true. This is such a wonderful initiative to create hope and happiness for children facing life threatening illnesses and providing these kids an experience they will remember forever. If life is a race against time, MAWF is helping these kids who find it impossible to fight against time. I hope MAWF continues to contribute more and more value in making lives colorful.

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Here are a couple of stories sourced from Make A Wish Foundation's Bangalore Blog

The Bangalore Division was started in February 2008 and as of March 2013 we have fulfilled more than 1500 cherished wishes of children with life threatening illnesses.

Make-a-Wish has fulfilled more than 30,000 wishes nationally since its inception in India. Everyday the Make-a-Wish Foundation adds many wish sponsors. With their support and encouragement, the Make-a-Wish team works towards fulfilling wishes of hundreds of young children and brings smiles to their faces.

Wish to be a Policeman

With a tube running from his nose, frail six-year-old Anwar Razaak was carried into Sanjaynagar police station at 11.30 am on Thursday. His eyes lit up seeing men in khaki and there was a sudden surge in energy. Then came the small-size khaki uniform along with a toy gun. Soon, he was all dressed up to play the cop, sporting uniform, cap and gun. Anwar’s big wish had come true.

Anwar has dreamt of becoming a policeman ever since he saw police beat up people in his village, Naragund in Gadag district. But the road ahead may not be smooth for this young boy as he is suffering from brain cancer and is being treated in Baptist Hospital. It was the Make a Wish Foundation that brought Anwar's fantasy to life. He was taken to Sanjaynagar police station to make him feel like a policeman for a day.

I wish to read Bengali Poetries

Our volunteers came across with a 13 years old cheery and lively girl suffering from Rheumatic Heart Disease referred from Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital. She lives with her parents and 4 elder brothers in one tiny village of West Bengal.

Make A Wish Volunteers met this kid in the inpatient ward, they gave her a small soft toy to play and started talking with her about her interests and hobbies. She told them that she is having in-depth interest in drawing and learn more Bengali Kavitas. Most of her leisure time, she will spend with her blossom friend Meherun. Both of them will having keen interest in drawing, writing kavitas, learning different types of Rangolis and Mehendi designs. She expressed her aspiration to become a doctor and treat the kids without taking any money. And she is keen on doing social service for the orphans and provide them food, accommodation and educational service with free of cost.In addition to this, she is having habit of reading Bengali Kavitas which her class teacher as taught. She told 4 kavitas to our volunteers though shewas under the pain of dialysis. As our volunteers told “ Her kavitas inspired her to sang those many kavitas in the ward”, all other kids in the ward listen to her kavitas with lots of hope and joyfulness.  Then our volunteers start talking to her about her wishes, she said her only wish to have Bengali poetry books of books of Rabindranath Tagore, Bankhim Chandra Chatarjee and Aurobindo Gosh in Bengali.

They fulfilled her wish in the hospital when she came for her follow up treatment; there are no words for her to express her happiness. She thanked all our volunteers who made effort to got those books and make her wish come true.