The four friends
In literature, the idea of children cobbling together a team for a cause, and going about it with the courage and tenacity of an adult, is as fresh as a cricket ball that had been walloped around the park for 50-long overs.
Though wornout, this theme continues to be lapped up, even when it resurfaces in old formats. That explains why we still cherish “The Famous Five” and “The Secret Seven”; and even the team of six children who utter the shape-shifting codeword SHAZAM to transform themselves into one Captain Thunder — in Flashpoint, an old series from DC Comics.
Now, how about a more modern and hyperlocal version of this timeless theme? How about replacing Finniston Farm, Milton Barn and Tigger’s Barn with readily recognisable addresses in East Coast Road, Old Mahabalipuram Road and Perumbakkam? SHAZAM with “All Out”? Adventure with charity? How about calling this group of children “The Fundraising Four”? How about bringing three orphanages into the picture? How about setting it against the backdrop of a global pandemic?
Only that all these things are real. Besides, their methods have Gen-Z tech-savviness written all over it.
In 2019, four school students, at that time in Class XI, launched “All Out”, an initiative that uses sports to promote sports.
They had mapped out the strategy: Organising fund-raising sports tournaments to buy sports equipment for underprivileged children, particularly those in orphanages.
By doing so, they believe, the talent pool would get wider. One of the four young changemakers, Harshit argues that in India a huge number of sportspersons have emerged from an economically modest background. Hence the necessity giving such youngsters a leg-up by providing them with sports facilities they can’t afford.
They admit to having a bias for football, though they consider themselves out-and-out sports buff, who would like to dabble in a variety of sports, racquet, contact, non-contact and so on.
“The four of us met at Vael’s Billabong School and are friends for many years,” says Harshit Abichandani. The other three are: Sushaanth Krishnan, Stavya Ramesh and Shaamil Karim. All four are students of Class XII now.
“We organised a football tournament on November 16 last year, and had teams from all over Chennai participating in it. Our school has an artificial-grass field, and it helped the cause by letting us organise the tournament there. With funds raised in this manner, we planned to buy sports equipment for the underprivileged and organise the distribution in March 2020,” recalls Harshit.
The plans went awry due to the pandemic.
However, two months into the lockdown, the four realised they had to go ahead with the distribution, but not before scaling things up.
For, there were additional priorities to tuck into the charity package.
They decided to provide groceries and snacks to orphanages around Chennai. In addition, there would be sports equipment (examples: carrom boards and badminton racquet sets) that would mitigate the boredom children would feel being locked down.
Organising a sports tournament being ruled out, they took the crowdfunding route.
Harshit explains that they started a fund-raising drive on Ketto, and also approached their known contacts for support.
A note shared by the four, reads: “Spanning 20 days, we managed to raise over ₹ 1,14,000 rupees with the help of 40 amazing donors, who supported us from the United States, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates and India!”
They four settled on three orphanages — New Hope and New Life Trust in Perumbakkam, Little Hearts in Sholinganallur and Paradise Home in Muttukadu.
The note further adds: “Together, these three orphanages are home to over 300 children. We purchased essential items ranging from rice to dal, and sports equipment ranging from cricket bats to carrom boards with the money raised with the help of our supporters — splitting the resources in accordance with each charity’s demand. The glow on the children’s faces was priceless and definitely brought a smile on our mask-covered faces.”
R.V Gopal, secretary, Paradise Home, finds it really refreshing and encouraging that school students have gone to the trouble of organising a fund-raiser to help other children in need of help.
