An Experience, An Emotion

As I write this on the last day of 2024, I have completed four months at Bala Mandir. And in this short period I have realised two things – Bala Mandir is an experience and one of its major initiatives, Kinship Care is an emotion!

Having started my journey into corporate communications about four years ago, after almost three decades of being a journalist, the current responsibility at Bala Mandir started with two inspiring incidents.

While contemplating a change from handling corporate communications at a law firm after four years, and wondering if I should get back to full-time journalism, I happened to have a long conversation with a dear friend who used to work with me – Akila. She was associated with Bala Mandir Kamaraj Trust in a crucial position, with a key responsibility of managing a large part of their Kinship Care initiative. She spoke to me at great length about Bala Mandir and the wonderful work they were doing and, apparently, was looking for a corporate communications person. It piqued my curiosity and I promised to meet Mr P Natarajan, Hon Treasurer and a key driver of the various projects, especially, Kinship Care. The two meetings I had with him and the Management team headed by Ms. Maya Gaitonde, Hon General Secretary, had me hooked.

As the phrase goes, I fell hook, line and sinker…the last two happened on the day before I actually took charge of my new responsibility. I was invited to attend their Annual Day celebrations at the nearby Vani Mahal. There, while waiting outside the hall for the invitees to arrive, the Bala Mandir Home children trooped in, in a disciplined single file. A small kid, maybe 3 or 4 years of age looked up from the line and offered a ‘High Five’ accompanied by a broad grin. I returned the gesture and then noticed that every one of the kids in the group had nothing but smiles on their faces! I was sold!

Walking into the office the next day, officially my first day at work, a kind of cosmic energy enveloped me. I found that everyone had a cheerful face and a positive attitude. On the first day, I was told that the most important responsibility in the current scenario was to involve myself in the Kinship Care initiative. Website development, fundraising activity, communications, the social media activities and the in-house newsletters for both Kinship Care and Bala Mandir, were some of the areas, I was to be involved in.

The fundraising, in its second consecutive year, was a crucial one for the sustainability of Kinship Care beneficiaries. Interacting with the website designers, fundraising programme developers and the two main drivers at Bala Mandir, Mr P Natarajan and Mr Ravichandran, stirred within me an emotion of unknown magnitude. Reading about the programme in Malarum Mottukkal and BM Connect, and watching videos of beneficiary mothers and children, brought out an empathetic side of me which I never knew existed.

And I happily volunteered to officially raise funds for the campaign. Given a modest goal of Rs 1 lakh, I managed to complete the task in the eleventh hour! And a few days later, added another Rs 15,000 to the kitty. This was an exhilarating experience, to say the least. As part of the WhatsApp group of volunteers, I was keeping abreast of the developments and funds being raised from several quarters. The overall enthusiasm and commitment from every individual was contagious. I could sense the keen sense of competition among volunteers who had apparently turned every stone in their path to generate funds for such a worthy cause as Kinship Care.

As part of my responsibilities as Head – Communications, my duty was to get involved in every unit of Bala Mandir. I found that the BM Madhuram Narayanan Centre was doing stellar work in the area of special children. The heads of both Vidyalaya and Satyamurthi schools went about their work with a zeal that was unparalleled. The BM Research and Resource Centre has been quietly gathering vital information and data relevant to child development, while Kinship Care was making great inroads into several districts of Tamil Nadu to make the lives of children from economically weaker sections of the society, a happier one.

Bala Mandir’s dictum Every Child Matters is something that’s followed to the letter!