F.A.M.E India is a non-profit organization working with differently abled children. The executive director/program coordinator of F.A.M.E India was a part of my class at IIM-Bangalore’s management program for women entrepreneurs (MPWE 2006). I did not give much attention to the organization or the work that they do until this August when I met my friend(s) again at the F.A.M.E painting exhibition at Leela Galleria. The fact that I had some spare time (read as weekends & weekday evenings) and the intention to help a non-profit encouraged me to think about my contributions to F.A.M.E. Incidentally, one of the board members contacted me to help them promote the sale of Diwali Diyas painted by F.A.M.E children at my workplace.  And I decided to go one step further to arrange a F.A.M.E India product stall for two days at my workplace to help their fund raising initiatives. (F.A.M.E is trying to expand and they totally depend on private donations to run and maintain the place.) I don’t intend to brag but making this happen was no easy task. Permissions from the HR, Admin and coordinating for dates were quite time consuming and annoying amidst bschool apps and work. Thanks to one of my close HR friends, I didn’t have to run around too much.

The product stall cum sale happened on 17th and 18th of October and ended up being a huge success. Diwali Diyas, cards, pen-stands, t-shirts etc were available for sale in the campus. Diyas were sold out even before the cartons were opened and we ran out of stock in the first few hours of the sale itself. While F.A.M.E staff tried their best to replenish the stocks as soon as they can, most of my colleagues had to go empty-handed. Nevertheless, they did make some good money and I was happy that I could contribute to such a noble cause. I am looking forward to be an effective volunteer at F.A.M.E India. The whole process of organizing the stall gave me an immense satisfaction and this kinda job probably is what that keeps me ticking.

On the other side, while talking to my colleagues I also realized how helpful such stalls could be for folks working in the IT industry, esp during the festive season. They are crunched for time b/c of crazy work schedules; they hate to spend time in traffic; they don’t mind spending few bucks extra if products they want are available right within the same ceiling as their workplace/residence; and they do support such non-profit organizations in whatever way they can. May be some of us can tap this and provide tailored services to such folks???

Please do check out this website: http://www.fameindia.org/