“In December 2004, when giant tsunami waves swallowed thousands of people in Tamil Nadu’s coastal areas of Nagapattinam, Chennai, Cuddalore, Velankinia and Poompuhar, my heart stood still. I could feel the emotional distress of the population affected by the deluge, but felt powerless to do anything to mitigate their woes,” recalls Raasamsetti Nanda Kishore, an employee of the insurance sector, who finds happiness in helping the poor and needy.
Soon he started, in a small way, reaching out to distressed souls around him and helped them in all possible ways. Impressed by his humane gesture, a few like-minded friends and colleagues joined him and gradually the team grew in size. As the circle of the beneficiaries of his services expanded, Mr. Kishore realised that the needs of people were many and diverse in nature.
Trust
To streamline the services, he founded Open Hearth Charitable Trust in August 2010, with his “supportive” wife Thanuja Rani as its president. Through this platform, Mr. Kishore, along with his wife and two sons, Bala Ambicanadh and Chaitanya Naga Bhadrinadh, and his 300-odd team of volunteers, carry out service activities like poor-feeding, distribution of food, clothes and books and sponsoring fee for meritorious students from economically backward sections besides taking up environment-related causes like sapling-plantation drives.
The trust in the past ran a home for the aged in a rented building at Krishna Lanka near the Padmavathi Ghat for four years with 30 inmates. But it had to be discontinued when the local municipal authorities asked them to vacate the building, as it was being razed for road-widening.
“It was a very saddening experience. Dropping the elderly inmates back in their homes was a difficult task as in most cases, their children refused to take them back. We had to seek police help, but their plight in such unwelcoming atmosphere was anybody's guess,” he recounts.
Allocation
Every month, Mr. Kishore sets aside a part of his salary for service activities. “I have seen tough times and have come up the hard way. I can very well relate to their plight,” he says, explaining that every second and fourth Saturdays and Sundays (holidays) he hits the roads and streets, carrying bag-full of food, clothes and other distribution material with the Trust members.
On International Women’s Day, the trust served sumptuous food to 15,000 women from slum habitations, at different points in the city. Last week, it distributed household articles to women.
Open Heart Charitable Trust so far has sponsored education of 735 students, conducted 54 medical camps, fed 6,1729 poor, facilitated vocational training to 285 youth and single women besides conducting awareness programmes in schools and colleges and the community at large.
“Some day when I have enough funds, I would start a home for the aged and a women empowerment training centre,” he says, adding: “I want to continue what I am doing because nobody has ever become poor by giving.”
