Chennai was hit with a tremendous period of rains starting around Diwali (Nov) 2015. The city was devastated as homes and businesses were swept away or drowned in the aftermath. The city suffered as poor disaster management failed to protect the city from the vast bodies of water that swelled and burst swamping the lowlands in and around the city.

A result of poor and slow national and local governmental support, Indians and Companies from surrounding unaffected areas started to buy or collect donations of essential items to be distributed locally to the worst affected areas.

I joined one such food drive, with a Bangalore based company that had raised funds and bought goods locally that was to be driven to Chennai.

The whole journey was a 24hr trip. We started out at 3am on a misty Sunday morning, spent 10 hours driving there and back and the remainder of the time working with locals and organizing, moving and distributing foods and essential items to approx. 350 impacted families in and around Ayyapanthangal & Poonamallee poor suburbs of Chennai.

The experience was intense, humbling yet rewarding giving back, having an impact and seeing the joy of food and essentials be placed in the right hands.

I won’t go onto write more here, I will let the photographs talk for themselves. One note to say is that this was also the first assignment taken using solely an iPhone 6S. 

ABOUT THE GLK STUDENT FUND

In Tanzania, there are so many wonderful students who appreciate the value of an education and who deserve the chance to prove themselves. Almost everyone in Tanzania knows the phrase "Education is the key to life", and works hard for every possible educational opportunity. In a country with so many needs and yet so many blessings, supporting worthy students who would otherwise not receive a decent education is an excellent way to improve the future for them, their families, their communities, and their country. 

The goal of the Gayle Lyn Kliever Student Fund is to raise and distribute scholarships directly to worthy Tanzanian students. Scholarship help will be given to those students with ability, motivation and potential. Recipients may be of any age. Priority is given to those with little or no family presence. The fund will also support worthwhile educational projects in Tanzania. - See more at: glkstudentfund.com

ABOUT CATCHAFIRE

Our mission is to provide talented individuals with meaningful pro bono experiences in order to build capacity for social good organizations.

CATCHAFIRE is a community of individuals striving to push the social good sector forward by focusing on efficient and effective ways to give back. One way we do this is by matching professionals with nonprofits based on their skills, cause interest and time availability.

We’re committed to providing transformational volunteer experiences, so all of the nonprofits we welcome into our community must have demonstrable impact, strong leadership and be aligned to our mission. Our nonprofits are required to make a financial investment to confirm their commitment to our partnership and Catchafire Consultants’ time. This also allows us to continue to provide high quality matches and support to our partners. Our goal is to provide a significant return on investment for our partners and save them time, money and resources in finding talented and passionate individuals who have the potential to become long term advocates. See more at: catchafire.org