Volunteer(s) of the month

The Christmas holidays are a great time at Snehalaya as we welcome visitors and volunteers from across the globe to our Rehab Center. This year saw another full house as we welcomed the Modi family from Dallas, Texas, USA, - Apurva and Seema and their daughters, Krishna, Sahana and Aditi - and their friend, Nitiya and her daughter Nidi. They are connected through Arpan Foundation in the USA.

Snehalaya UK trustee and special education needs educator, Ash – a regular visitor in her school holidays – also came to help with our Christmas program.

We were also delighted to welcome back Hanne after a long gap of 10 years. She volunteered for many months and played a key role in our Malala Fund campaigns in 2015 and returned with her boyfriend to catch up with her old Snehalaya friends. Now working for the Dutch government, she works internationally with and for human rights activists and journalists and was very keen to share with our Founder, Girish, that he had been her inspiration in pursuing this brilliant career.

Also here to celebrate Christmas with us were one of our American families with their adopted daughter from our Snehankur project. It was amazing to see our little girl all grown up with a broad American accent. Still fondly remembered by our Snehalaya children she was given the VIP treatment by all, especially her former caregiver, Savita. We were also heartened to hear first-hand from the family how her HIV status is managed confidentially and sensitively in the US, giving us hope for future adoptions of children living with HIV. In fact, the family are already planning for a second adoption of another little girl, hopefully also from our adoption center.

During their time here all our volunteers threw themselves into our holiday preparations and celebrations. They were a great help in preparing Christmas sticking for around 250 of our women and children, gift wrapping, bicycle construction and so many more tasks in a very organized manner backed by a suitably festive playlist. They also enjoyed our full day Christmas program, managing activities with our women and kids, including making thousands of bracelets, taking even more photos and running a special Christmas beauty parlour. We truly couldn’t have done it without them!

Any time of the year is a great time to visit Snehalaya to see our projects in action and better understand our work. Most promise to return having experienced a truly unique insight while making friends for life. If you are interested in joining us please contact give@snehalaya.org.