Be a genie, fulfil a wish

AIESEC’s ‘wish tree’ aims at bringing a smile on a child’s face

October 21, 2013 03:05 pm | Updated 03:05 pm IST - VISAKHAPATNAM:

Members of AIESEC decorating the 'wish tree' in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Photo: K.R. Deepak

Members of AIESEC decorating the 'wish tree' in Visakhapatnam on Sunday. Photo: K.R. Deepak

During the festive season, we love to be showered with gifts and feel a sense of warmth and love when relatives and friends indulge our every want.

The excitement and joy of unwrapping a present is a feeling we not only enjoy as children but continue to do so as adults.

Unfortunately, there are children in society who have never experienced the joy of unwrapping a gift to find something they have wished for.

To enable you to put a smile on a child’s face by gifting something special, student organisation AIESEC has come out with a novel idea called ‘wish tree’ that enables you to fulfil a child’s wish by buying him or her a gift.

The first ‘wish tree’ was installed at Barista in Pedda Waltair on Sunday.

The students of AIESEC, who volunteer at various schools where underprivileged and special children are taught, found through their interaction that although the NGO that runs the school satisfies the basic needs of education, food, and clothing, the students like any other child their age wish for a lot of things such as toys, bags, balls, bats, and stationery, among others, that they do not have the means to purchase.

Wish list

The members of AIESEC compiled a list of all the wishes that the students had and put every wish into a white envelope and hung it on a tree with the price of the wish written on it.

A customer can walk in, choose a wish that he would like to fulfil according to his budget, make a donation, and replace the white envelope with a green one that has a smiley drawn on it.

The objective is to turn all the white envelopes into green envelopes as fast as possible, thus fulfilling all the wishes of the children studying in a particular school.

The tree will then move to a different location with the wishes of children from another school hung on it.

Sudhiraj Ghosh, who is one of the organisers, says that the ‘wish tree’ closes the gap between children who are needy and those who want to make a difference in society.

Affordable

He hopes the concept will catch on, and there will be many wish trees across the city soon.

The envelopes are very affordable and a little generosity will make a huge difference in the lives of children who will be able to experience the warmth of being gifted something they wished for.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.