Ongole: When one feels neglected, they turn ray of 'Hope for Life'

    : Before the blood-soaked and cracked feet of the migrant workers, who endured the pain to long march to homes caught the attention of the media and then of the country, before the stained dress of menstruating orphan girls pointed in public by their classmates, before the poor families take extreme steps due to their inability to feed their children, the volunteers of the 'Hope for Life Foundation' reached some of them.

The Hope for Life Foundation, which was started four years ago in Hyderabad, has received recognition and awards for its services and transparency in the auditing.

The foundation is known popularly for crowdfunding to the needs of lifesaving surgeries, education, blood donation camps in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka.

The volunteers of the foundation are also donating blood to the individuals in need, hours of service to create awareness on issues of social stigma and encourage poor children to understand that their education is the only ticket to bid goodbye to poverty in the future.

The foundation members and supporters in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu and abroad extended their helping hands to lend a shoulder to the destitute workers, orphans, and poor families.

They joined hands to support the people who lost their livelihood lasted their savings, and empties the groceries to feed children at least, due to the continuous lockdown.

In the three states, the Hope for Life foundation volunteers, charity workers and people with kind hearts come together and organized a help marathon for 64 days, starting from April 1, 2020.

They stood up for the migrant workers who are walking endlessly, daily wage workers who are neglected by the mates, children, and elders living in orphanages, and all sections of people, who require food for living that day and keep the hope that this day too shall pass.

In April, May and June 2020, the Hope for Life has organized 122 events, in which they distributed more than 800 pairs of footwear to the migrant workers at least to walk comfortably, provided 3000 plus packets of sanitary napkins to girls in orphanages for which they are short of supply, more than 5000 packets of food distributed to the poor people to survive the day and supplied essential groceries to 15000 plus needy families to give comfort and hope on the future.

Overall, the foundation spent more than Rs 14lakhs for help in the lockdown period, with abundant and generous donations from compassionate people.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Hope for Life foundation members and volunteers provided groceries to sex workers families in Tanuku, essential commodities to people in Visakhapatnam, Eluru, Vijayawada, Guntur, Ongole, Kakinada and Tirupati and distributed food packets to poor at Ongole, Vijayawada, Anantapur, Kurnool, and Kadapa. They also provided supplies to three orphanages in Tirupati and distributed sanitary napkins to girls in 20 orphanages.

Apart from the help, the foundation has sourced money and resources for heart surgeries for 26 people, treatments for a large number of cancer patients, supporting 2000 students in education, funding students preparing for competitive exams, providing nutritious food to athletes and regularly supplying sanitary napkins to girls in orphanages.

Ch Himaja Reddy, the founder, and president of the Hope for Life foundation appreciated all donors for their loving hearts and thanked them for coming forward.

She said that with all the help they provided in the lockdown, they are able to manifest that there are people to support the needy and destitute people to share their pain, to let them heal, to inspire, and to motivate them to move on towards the ray of hope.

She thanked M Mohan and M Prakash of Masterminds Guntur, M Rajasekhar of Prakasam district and K Rajasekhar of Vijayawada for sponsoring more events by the foundation and appreciated the foundation members from various places in Andhra Pradesh including the chairman of Child Welfare Committee in Krishna district BVS Kumar, P Tandon, U Raghavi, GB Prasad, V Sphoorthy, B Komali, VVSN Reddy, S Gouse and others for their timely help.

Himaja announced that they are extending the voluntary services to all corners of the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana with the help of many volunteers, who see the foundation above their personal credit.