The joy of giving – Shruti and Deep are selfless givers

Diego Villaveces believes kindness has to begin within ourselves. “Sometimes we lock people out to keep ourselves safe, but that also isolates us from the rest of us the world”, he says. “Every major religion has love as a universal principle. Kindness takes love to a more gentler and more accessible level that most people feel comfortable with. Showing a little bit of kindness to people recognizes that everyone around you is just like yourself”. It doesn’t matter what motivates people to give. What matters is that they have chosen to give in the first place. If the helper and helpee both feel good, it’s a win win situation. There’s no wrong way to perform an act of kindness.

One such example is the relationship of Mumbai Smiles with its volunteers. We are the helpee and the volunteer is the helper. It definitely makes us feel contended to see many volunteers coming forward to selflessly support us.

Two such volunteers are Shruti Pandit and Deep Desai. Both are involved with the New Glances Project of the Awareness Department of Mumbai Smiles. They came in contact with Mumbai Smiles through their institute, Instituto Hispaniam, which teaches Spanish to students. Somewhere in December 2013, their institute organized a visit to Mumbai Smiles so as to enable the students to learn more about the organization and its projects. They were impressed by our projects and expressed their desire to be part of Mumbai Smiles.

Being fluent in Spanish, it was apt that both of them be volunteers for the Awareness Department. Consequently, their work involves assisting the Awareness department team in organizing group visits for International visitors. One such visit that they recently organized was that of Manu Orozco and his 11 friends, who visited us in the month of January. During this visit, both Shruti and Deep actively aided in guiding the group, arranging logistics, helping the visitors clear their doubts about various projects and assisting them in understanding the culture of India.

Shruti, in fact, also  administers the official whatsapp group for all the volunteers and team members. She updates it thrice a week to keep the volunteers updated about the work and activities of the organization. Both of them enjoy their roles as they get an opportunity to pursue their hobby and at the same time work for a noble cause.

THANK YOU Deep and Shruti for your selfless service to the organization. Your dedication further inspires us to work towards our goal of uplifting the society.!!