This Christmas, Gift a Smile to a Child

Christmas is the season of joy, love, celebration, gifts, and charity. As young children, do you remember the excitement that you experienced as Christmas approached? Our homes and outdoors would be all decorated in green, red, and white. One of the next-door neighbours would play act as Santa Claus and drop gifts at our doors. And, we always wondered, who the Santa could be!

As small kids, our parents and adults in the family or neighbourhood would be our Secret Santa. As we grew up, our friends became our Santa and when we started working, our friends were replaced by colleagues during Secret Santa games. The whole idea of following this tradition is to keep the festive spirit alive in us. It reminds us of the basic lesson - when we are happy, we radiate happiness to everyone around us; and joy just keeps growing bigger and better!

Given the constant struggle to move up ladders and change roles in our lives, we forget to expand the circle and reach out to people who are in dire need. Spreading joy and happiness to them through charity is one of the most thoughtful form of celebration. Even though many people have the will to do something for others, their regular schedules make it difficult for them to do so. This is one reason why there are many NGOs in India and around the world that provides a platform to us for extending help to the society by contributing funds.

Support NGOs and help towards social causes; all your support is needed to make this world a better place to live in. Many NGOs work towards many causes – charity for old age homes, charity towards poor children, donation towards school mid-day meals, etc. Choose the cause that is close to your heart and show that you care.

For instance, you can choose to donate to children on special occasions like Christmas. Along with reliving your childhood memories, you can also play an important role in changing lives of children around you. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one of the NGOs in India through whom you can change lives of children with nutritious school meals. This NGO has been working relentlessly towards its goals since the last 19 years. On a daily basis, it feeds 1.8 million+ children across 12 States and 2 Union Territories across India. It implements Mid-Day Meal Programme in 16,856 Government and Government-aided schools. It provides freshly cooked, nutritious meals to children on all school days.

It is Christmas! It is the season of giving. Spread the spirit of this season among children who are a little less fortunate than you in terms of resources but have the equal zeal to achieve big in life. You can be the reason to bring a smile on their faces and fulfil their dreams. Join hands with Akshaya Patra and spread the warmth of this festive season. This year, let children enjoy hot & tasty wholesome food in schools with "Jingle Bells! Jingle Bells! Jingle all the way….." at the backdrop!!

BE THE SANTA FOR A CHILD BY FEEDING THEM SCHOOL MEALS WITH Rs.1100!

LET IT BE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Author Profile:

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an Indian NGO implementing the Mid-Day Meal Programme along with several child-centric initiatives. Your support to Akshaya Patra this Christmas Season can potentially improve lives of millions of children across India and also avail you tax exemption. Merry Christmas!

The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an Ngo in India providing food for 1.6 million school children across 12 States and 28 locations.