BENGALURU : Bengaluru, like any other metropolitan, sees a large number of poor people residing in slums and on footpaths. Three alumnus of Sophia High School — Sharon Kumar, Ashika Gurumath, and Sunita Sylvia — were moved when they saw that these did not have access to even their basic needs. They decided to help them by establishing a foundation called In This Together.
They have already taken some important steps towards the upliftment of the poor, and their latest is the ‘In This Together-Goal 2018’ football tournament. The one-day competition was organised at Game Changers Academy in MSR Colony, which witnessed participation from 20 teams, who had to pay a certain amount as entry fee. ‘Team R5’ from Ramaiah College emerged victorious. With the help of various sponsors, the foundation managed to collect `80, 000, which will be used for the children in the Ellarnagar slum area in Koramangala.
“Our initial vision was to fight discrimination. Then we learned about these children, who are deprived of basic education because their parents can’t afford books and uniforms. Our major concern is to ignite in them the need for education. Thanks to our sponsors, the whole amount we collected from the football tournament will go towards the aid of these children,” said Sharon, co-founder, who has played an important role in getting six other friends to join the initiative.
This is not their first initiative. They have been visiting Angels Orphanage in Shivajinagar regularly to celebrate birthdays. The orphanage consists of around 65 children, who are always happy to see the foundation’s effort to bring smiles to their faces. “We saw that our visits made the children feel that they are important and belong,” said Ashika Gurumath, one of the founding members.
Having successfully accomplished their initial goal of finding funds for their project, they have a bigger mission now of wanting to provide job opportunities to the poor. “We are planning to carry out awareness programmes across educational institutions. We are also in search of finding job opportunities for transgenders and other marginalised sections,” Sharon signs off.