Dr Geetanjali Chopra, founder and president of Wishes & Blessings, recently joined NewsX for an exclusive conversation as a part of its special series, NewsX India A-List where she spoke about her journey, inspiration behind ‘Wishes and Blessings’ and her endeavour of reaching out to those in need.
Talking about her NGO, Dr Chopra said, “Wishes & Blessings is an NGO that I started in April 2014. As the name suggests, it’s a platform for connecting people who have unfulfilled wishes with people who can actually help them fulfill those wishes and get blessings in return. Essentially, it is a platform for connecting people who need help with those who can help.”
On her journey so far, she said that it has been a roller coaster ride. “I wasn’t born with the idea of Wishes & Blessings; it wasn’t something I always wanted to do as a child. In fact, just like anybody else I had my fair share of trials and tribulations, trying my hands at various careers, starting from a journalist to radio jockey to writing to teaching to traveling the world, doing research but the kind of satisfaction and happiness I have found with Wishes & Blessings is next to none,” she said.
Opening up about how she came up with the idea, Dr Chopra said, “The idea of Wishes & Blessings was rooted in my childhood. While it wasn’t something I was born with, it was something that just grew up as a part of me. While growing up there were several instances that made me believe I wanted to do something larger than just living for myself and the opportunity came in 2014, when I met a group of visually impaired children who voiced a peculiar request to me that they wanted to play Holi. I was completely shocked by the idea of young children who can’t see saying that wanted to play Holi with me and that became the seed for Wishes & Blessings. I ended up playing Holi with them and that Holi changed my life. Thus, I often say that visually impaired children gave me my vision for life.”
Talking about how Covid-19 impacted Wishes & Blessings, Dr Chopra said “Covid has been a silver lining for Wishes & Blessings. It’s made us realise our potential. Before the pandemic set in, there was very little that we were doing. However, as soon as the lockdown was announced, our work and our involvement on the field grew more than 100 times over. Before 25 March, we were feeding 600 people on a daily basis, but by April, this number had gone up to 9,000. So, more and more people joined the Wishes & Blessings family, both as beneficiaries and donors.”
Speaking about the success of the NGO, Dr Chopra said, “I think success is relative. For me, just the very fact that a crying person or a person without hope, starts smiling or has this little bit of hope in life is the biggest success story. In Covid times, I think the biggest success story for us is expanding to tribal villages in Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and to places and people I had never heard of or seen.”
When asked how each individual can contribute to Wishes and Blessings, she said, “Wishes and Blessings is a platform that caters to people right from the time they are born till their very last stages. The youngest beneficiary in our centres is about three months old while the oldest one is 92 living in our old age home. Any time and every time, you have something excess at home, things that you’re not using, clothes especially because it’s winter now, please do reach out to us and we would put your goods to good use. The point I’d like to make here is that every time somebody hears the word NGO, they think that ‘oh there’s another person after their money’. It’s not about money all the time, yes money is important, but more than money it’s your time and dedication towards making a difference. In case you want to volunteer or spend some time to make your life more meaningful, get little bouts of happiness by spending time with street children, the elderly, and the abandoned reach out to us. We are on the Internet, Facebook and Instagram are the best ways to reach out and we also have a website wishes and blessings.net. Do give us a shot and I can assure you that you will feel good about yourself if nothing more.”