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To be the change... Click Here to join as Yuva-ites.
In May 2005, Amitabh Shah quit his job as senior Systems Configuration Analyst at Hewitt Associates in Atlanta, to visit his family in India. He had got the highest scholarship ever offered to an international student at Texas A & M, College Station, Texas. He was to start MBA in August, 2005. He had come to India after living in the U.S. for eight years.
To his shock, he found that his 84-year-old nanny, KamalaBen, was unwanted by her only son’s family. Kamalaben had no money and nowhere to go but suffer the insults, cry and pray for death. He enrolled her into a nearby old people’s home. He shouldered her financial responsibility. He was touched by the poignant stories of several other elderly people there. Soon dozens of his friends started visiting them twice a week. They also started going to orphanages, local Blind People’s Association, two slum children’s schools as well as poor vagabonds found near the railway stations. He decided to postpone his MBA for a year.
He founded a new organization called “YUVA Unstoppable.” It provides a platform to young people to give 2 hours a week towards helping an NGO that works for children.
From four people who helped him with his initial project, now they have over 3500 leaders across the state of Gujarat in 1 short year. The progress of YUVA Unstoppable hasn’t been anything short of a miracle. Since its inception in July 2005, YUVA Unstoppable Yuva-ites are helping more than 8000 underprivileged children through education, entertainment and medical help. They are also feeding close to 1,000 poorest of poor children every month.
They bring hope to poor children by teaching English, math, science, drama, dance and indoor/outdoor games. Besides, YUVA Unstoppable has started providing clothes, blankets, shoes, books and other amenities to hundreds of children of various slum areas. They take them out to movies, restaurants and our homes. They also celebrate social, national and religious festivals with these children. Our message to the slum children is that they do not have to lead a life of quiet desperation and frustration, or live a life of crime, or do drugs and alcohol. There is a better way. There is hope for a significant future.
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