Mark your calendars, Mumbaikars!
On 3rd February 2019, Indian Ocean, the popular rock band will be in Mumbai for an extraordinary charity concert.
Curious?
Read more!
The Angel Xpress Foundation is a 12A, and 80G certified NGO set up by Anubha Sharma and Beenaa Advani in 2012 to improve the future of slum children in Mumbai. The organization is the brainwave of Anubha Sharma, ex-financial services professional with a flourishing career spanning over two decades and alumnus of Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata.
The Birth
During Anubha’s one year corporate sabbatical, she volunteered at a street school for slum children and found that the educational quality and services were poor and underwhelming.
When her Facebook post seeking warm clothes for the slum children resulted in over 3000 people coming forward to help, she saw hope and potential. She realized that she could be that bridge between the socially conscious people and poor children who needed quality education and dignified life.
One of the 3000 people who reached out to her was Beenaa Advani, a preschool founder who expressed interest in Anubha’s vision. Thus, was born The Angel Xpress Foundation.
Since then, both Anubha and Beenaa have quit their commercial work as they believe that life should be led meaningfully and not spent pursuing money alone.
The Vision
AXF is a staunch believer and proponent of the dignity of life as a fundamental human right.
The Angel Xpress Foundation hopes to enable 2000 committed volunteers and 10,000 children every year through the AXF Free Learning Center Program.
Recently, the program has extended to include youth mentoring that provides academic, vocational, career guidance and training to its graduating students. The youth mentoring program has added the crucial missing piece in the creation of sustainable employment opportunities for underprivileged children and their families to help them rise from poverty into a life of dignity.
How it works: The Good Karma Express
AXF pursues its vision in a humanistic way by being inclusive of all sections of the society. It promotes and enables volunteerism as a lifestyle choice for the socially conscious educated to help bridge the huge economic divide that keeps generations of Indians locked in the vicious cycle of poverty.
Angel Xpress Foundation offers free franchise and resources for citizen groups interested in adopting their format for a free learning center operated from neighborhood gardens. It allows the educated affluent of the community to spend an hour interacting with first generation learners from nearby slums who register for tutoring in English, Math, life skills and values.
Currently, nearly 500 women and few retired men are trained volunteers in various aspects of teaching by the AXF program team. At every center, a small group takes up the leadership positions and actively manages the day-to-day activities under the guidance of the AXF management team.
The AXF’s “Free Learning Centers” is managed by local citizens and currently operating in 17 locations across Mumbai where over 1900 first generation learners from slums come for an hour every day. Each volunteer is assigned his/her small group of children.
AXF centers are increasingly becoming community hubs with everyone from the neighborhood looking to make a contribution finding their way onto what AXF calls the Good Karma Xpress.
A daily snack is provided for the kids who register for the program. There are several outings, fun and educational workshops, weekend extracurricular activities scheduled throughout the year for the children to enrich their learning experience.
The Transformation
What keeps the volunteers engaged and coming back year after year is the gratification they get from seeing the impact they are making by investing just a small amount of their time.
There are real-life stories of violent and sullen kids turning into loving happy children. How their school performance is improving and how parents are reporting better and more responsible behavior of their children in all aspects of life.
The Accolades
AXF’s “Free Learning Centers” concept to bridge the social gap by recycling available resources made it to the final round of the prestigious IDEO bridge builder worldwide challenge 2018. There were 690 ideas from 195 countries submitted to address the global problems of peace and poverty.
“Day of Grace”: An evening to celebrate and remember
On 3rd February 2019, Indian Ocean, the popular rock band will be in Mumbai for an extraordinary charity concert. The event will be part of the ‘Day of Grace’ an annual event conducted by the Angel Xpress Foundation (AXF).
“Day of Grace” is a tribute to the achievement of the children and contribution of all the Mumbai volunteers.
The last year ’s graduation ceremony saw 120 students had been with AXF come together. The confidence with which the children spoke and the depth of feeling with which they expressed gratitude for the contribution that their AXF teachers had made in their lives left not a single eye dry in the gathering. The genuine love and acknowledgment in this space are what keeps them coming back, most AXF volunteers say.
The evening will kick-start with a performance by Sunita Bhuyan, acclaimed violinist who has been associated with the cause for over five years now. Sunita will perform with Nihal Jaiswar, a 14-year-old musical protégé from Angel Xpress. Nihal was discovered by a reputed music school during an AXF event years ago and since then, has been receiving free classical music training from them.
The program will be held at Bandra fort amphitheater very close to the very first center AXF had set up in collaboration with Bandra Bandstand Residents Trust.
How to register
You can donate Angel Xpress to avail a free pass. For inquiries about the donation process for passes, please message “Day of Grace” and your email id to 9930070086.
If you are in Mumbai this weekend, please grace the event with your presence and make it a memorable one.
