Rattled by the growing indifference around her, Ayushi Mukhopadhyay’s recent social initiative, Bangalore Reach Organisation (BRO) is a by-product of channelising her concerns in the right direction.
The student-run NGO is back in the spotlight — after recently having entirely doing up a dilapidated animal shelter in town. The proactive youngster, who was recently nominated under the youth category at the Namma Bengaluru Awards ’17, shares the inside track with us...
“The idea struck post the heart-wrenching Nirbhaya case. I was having a heated argument with a friend who cheekily exclaimed there’s little I could do as I was still very young. The remark triggered that dormant spark in me, and I thought to myself about how many teenagers would be out there, who really wanted to make a difference but didn’t have a start,” shares the 18-year-old medical aspirant, who founded the NGO in August 2014.
Glad that something good sprouted out of the tiff, Ayushi exclaims it was aggression coupled with the backing of a faithful bunch that ensured the idea transpired into reality. “My team consists of four core members, Veda Rao, Shourya Tomar, Manisha Raju and Diya Shenoy. We’ve just taken baby steps and have a long way to go. But, the only thing that helps us wade through the complexities is the intent to focus on ways to fix the problem,” says Ayushi.
While BRO marks her debut as a social entrepreneur, charity was always on this young Bengalurean’s mind. “Our first bake sale was a Cupcake Carnival in 2014, and we used that money to help rebuild a deaf school,” adds Ayushi, who was also felicitated with the Mother Teresa Award ’16 for social service at her school. Driven by the passion to extend a helping hand to those in need, Ayushi lets us in on one of her recent projects, which remains closest to her heart.
“The past weekend, we took a group of 40 volunteers, repainted all the walls of a dog shelter. We repainted and plastered broken walls and built a sewage system all by ourselves. The idea was strenuous and we got our hands dirty, but the feeling of having done something fruitful to help creatures that give us positivity and unconditioned love was priceless,” she adds.
A handful of social projects in the pipeline aside,there’s always some creative downtime for this enterprising lass. “It’s all about putting in adequate time and effort to make things work. I’m trained as a classical ballerina and in Hindustani classical music, so I love to get in to a hectic session of either. I’m always game for tennis,” signs off this Bengaluru lass, with a glimmer in her eyes.
