Taking the leap: From telecom engineer to do-gooder
Children’s health and education and the environment are the focus areas of the Belawal Foundation
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2015-09-07 06:15 GMT
Bengaluru: After 18 years in the corporate world, Sanjay Belawal decided it was time to do something that he could truly be proud of. The son of a forest officer who was known for his generosity, Belawal grew up in an atmosphere of charity. “My father never expected things from people, but he always did everything he could to help those who needed it,” said Belawal.
It was a tradition that remained with him. His corporate career, which was in the telecom industry, had him working with the giants of the industry. Through it all, he kept up his enthusiasm for lending a helping hand. “I had sort of earned a reputation for helping people, so they would approach me,” said Belawal.
Working with children and the environment had always been his passions and last year, he decided to go about it in a more organised manner. “I thought I would use my expertise to help people out,” Belawal explained. This came after a couple of initiatives that didn’t really take off — a bid to teach value education in schools, which received a mixed response and another project with a local NGO called One Laptop Per Child. “The schools gave us a lukewarm response, even though we offered to work with the kids for free. We didn’t want to force anyone, it’s up to them entirely,” he said.
The Belawal Foundation was set up as a tribute to his father and the focus areas were children’s health and education and the environment. He started out by identifying NGOs that work along these lines, because he didn’t have the funds to reach out to the masses. “We decided to join hands with other NGOs and work with them until we have a mass reach on our own,” Belawal explained.
On Sunday afternoon, over 700 people gathered at Cubbon Park for the Bangalore Blind Walk 15. This is one of the biggest projects that the Belawal Foundation is part of and as always, participants walked for over a kilometre blindfolded. “It was organised by the Rotary District 3190, which I am closely associated with,” said Belawal. “There are over 20,000 deaths happening every day, but the number of eyes available for donation is still negligible,” said Belawal. “Also, even those who want to donate their eyes don’t know where to go.
Those gaps need to be filled.” Their next project is with My Dental Plan, to spread awareness about dental hygiene among children. “We’re targetting a world record by bringing more than 15,000 kids together to a single location, where they will learn about dental care,” he said. Teaching English to lower middle class children is another campaign, this time with Karadi Tales, a Chennai-based company.
“We’re also conducting a tree plantation drive that will involve planting over one lakh trees across the country,” said Belawal. “This is a tribute to my father, because he wanted me to join the Forest Service like him. I didn’t have an aptitude for that, but he taught me about the environment. I understand that we need wider roads, but for every tree that is cut, ten need to be planted.”
Belawal funds the NGO through his other businesses. “That’s the only way to keep things afloat. I have seen a lot of NGOs misuse their position and that’s something I don’t ever want to come to. Until the NGO can raise funds on its own, I will help it along.”