On 17th November 2017, over two hundred guests gathered at Venue 5 in Ruislip to be Appreciated, Thanked and Entertained for all their hard work and support to their favourite Charity, Food For Life Vrindavan (FFLV). The charity, which is operating in Vrindavan, India, educates and empowers girls and their families from the poorest communities.
As the delicious vegetarian starters were being served, the function was kicked off by UK actor and serving Trustee Ravin J Ganatra who welcomed the guests. Ravin explained the essence of this well-run charity, which is to support and empower young girls, giving them hope in life with the provision of education, food, clothing and medical care. The charity has been instrumental in effecting a change to the status quo and challenging cultural norms of the girl child being seen as a liability rather than an asset.
The chairman of FFLV UK, Mr Ashish B Parmar explained how in local villages of Vrindavan some residents live in abject poverty. Through the involvement of FFLV, the communities are realising the importance of education and the empowerment that it brings to their daughters and are now accepting their right to education including to university, rather than forcing an early child marriage, which was the norm but is illegal and detrimental to the affected girls.
Praful Patni of The Lions club of Finchley who were in attendance then presented a cheque for £4000 which was raised from one of their events earlier this year.
The evening continued by acknowledging the dozens of individuals and organisations including Asian Voice who have assisted FFLV Projects over the past 25 years – Highlighted also was the efforts of a group of individuals who have participated on some dangerous yet fulfilling expeditions in recent years to Mount Kilimanjaro, Stock Kangri in Ladakh (Himalayas) and the more recent the three-wheeled Tuk Challenge in India. These Committed groups through their participation in these adventures have raised in excess £170,000 for the charity!
Then following on from the mouth-watering main course the audience listened attentively to the Charity’s Founder Rupa Ragunath Das who gave an inspirational presentation explaining the progress of the charity over the past 25 years and the need now to fill the schools with girls and the sponsorship programme which supports them.
Former Schools inspector and newly appointed trustee Kaushi Silva then launched The FFLV Ambassador concept, which is looking to do just that by encouraging supporters of FFLV to introduce new donors to child sponsorship.
The evening's entertainment was provided by The Voice 2015 Semi Finalist Vikesh Champaneri as well as dances by Epikadance troupe and music by DJ Kash.
To find out more about FFLV, please visit www.uk.fflv.org. Help change a life by sponsoring a poor girl in Vrindavan, India.
