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I'm The Man Who Adopted 100 Kids Who Lost Both Parents to COVID-19

( words)
*For representational purpose only.

I am Jai Sharma, the founder of Joy Foundation. I always enjoyed helping others and started volunteering for NGOs at a very young age. My career was already decided for me, but not everything goes according to our plan, right?

I'm sure everyone remembers the 2013 floods in Uttarakhand. Well, that changed everything for me.

After that incident, I started helping more and more people in every way I could. I supplied food and other necessary things everywhere. Eventually, I wished to quit engineering and helped everyone and anyone. But, convincing my family proved to be difficult. They had stopped talking to me for almost a month. But, when they realised my passion, they came around and supported me as much as they could.

In 2015, I took a step towards my dream and started Joy Foundation, a youth-driven, non-profit organization based in Dehradun. We hope to spread love, hope, and happiness through this foundation. The journey was difficult for me as I was new to this, I found it challenging to find funding for the organisation.

Initially, I used my pocket-money, but that wasn't much of a help. Slowly but steadily, and with the help of my dedicated volunteers, we contacted many companies, and we started growing. This was the first step to strengthen our foundation.

During the Kedarnath incident, I met a child. Later, I learned that this child lost his father to Covid-19, and the family's responsibilities were on his shoulders now. Because of poverty, he had to stop his education at a young age, but now I was determined to change his life. I spoke to some of my friends who have settled abroad, and they agreed to take up his educational expenses. I took on the responsibility of providing him with food and clothing.

Then it dawned on me that many such kids had lost their parents to Covid-19, and they needed help. And today, I can proudly say that my foundation and I are fostering more than 40 kids. We've taken the responsibility to educate them and give them a better life.

I have to say that I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without the help of umpteen number of people who came forward to help these innocent souls. I understand the importance of education in one's life; that's why I help even those whose parents cannot educate their kids because of poverty.

Every living person has the Right to Education, and money shouldn't be an obstacle.

I also wish to preserve and conserve the beautiful and fantastic nature of Uttarakhand. Just recently, I planted 2,10,000 food-bearing plants. This has received tremendous support and love from the residents of Uttarakhand. It's been a complex journey, but we have been able to do a lot with the government's help and some kind and generous Indians.

Yes! Times are challenging, but I hope for the betterment of the society. Help each other as much as you can.

With each other's support and care, slowly but steadily, things can and will get better.

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