Career plans can derail in the time it takes to finish a cup of coffee. Naresh Karthik was all set to go on an entrepreneurial journey, when a chance meeting with a victim of family-centred abuse, at a coffee house forced him to reconsider his career plans.
This was back in 2011, when Naresh was just 21 years old. He started a voluntary organisation — Seedreaps — that would work for the betterment of young victims of abuse, who are mostly at the school or college level. Over the last seven years, Seedreaps has grown across the country and now has 1068 beneficiaries.
Seedreaps attends to the needs of victims of many forms of abuse, which include physical and sexual abuse. Its intervention involves conducting programmes to help victims of abuse lead a normal life, despite the scars the abuse has inflicted on them.
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“We conduct after-school extracurricular activities, which include personality development and communication. We help them find government jobs. Seedreaps arranges for these children to meet doctors, police officers and other officials and observe their work. Most of them are attracted to these professions and are motivated to work harder,” says Naresh.
The team at Seedreaps consists of retired officers from Public Service Departments. Seedreaps conducts awareness programmes at schools and corporates once in a few months.
Before extending financial, educational, legal, medical or any other form of aid to anyone seeking its help, the NGO runs a background check. The victims are also asked to go through a procedure, which includes filing a complaint with the police and getting a letter of recommendation.
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Seedreaps is able to offer this help to victims as it has a network of public servants, doctors and other professionals, says Naresh.
People can make a financial contribution to the cause through the website and the system is transparent, says Naresh, adding that beneficiaries of the programme sometimes support it later on.
He cites the example of a girl who received help from the NGO and is now employed with a big corporate house and contributes ₹5,000 each month and has provided funding to help two children so far.