Help for 2500 children in Central India

Last week, the help alliance received a donation of 300,000 euros from the RTL Children’s Foundation

In November 2017, the Sponsorship Circle India project was part of the RTL donation marathon. Help alliance project manager and Process Owner Employee Experience, HR Consultancy LH Group & Process Excellence and Head of HR Management Executives Aviation Services, Ralf Steuer explains what happens with this enormous sum.

Mr Steuer, 300,000 euros were raised at the RTL donation marathon for the help alliance project Sponsorship Circle India. What happens to this money?

The money secures the project’s operation for the next three years. 65 percent of the sum is needed to cover the running costs of the 20 boardings in Madya Pradesh in Centralinden. This gives the 2,500 children who are taught there, and most of them also live there, a perspective that they would not otherwise have. The donation is used to pay for food, clothing, teaching materials and teachers’ salaries.

And what happens to the remaining 35 percent?

25 percent of the money goes to the Health Awareness Program. Behind it is a mobile medical station, which heads for more than 65 villages scattered over an area of more than 24,000 square kilometres each year. These communities are completely cut off from normal health care and conventional medicine. The bus goes to a village on a certain day, which will of course be arranged in advance. People then flock in from the surrounding areas on foot, by ox cart or bicycle and have the opportunity to be treated or prescribed medicines by the doctors in the mobile clinic. This means that with this programme we are saving lives immediately!

That leaves 10 percent.

We use it to finance the station children project in Khandwa. Some may remember the story with the title “Farewell Platform 5” from the Lufthansa magazine. In India, children of all ages are often simply put on a train by their parents in the hope that they will be taken in and cared for by other families because they are unable to do so themselves. But this is very rarely the case. So these kids are stranded in Khandwa. To survive, they organize themselves with other children, beg or, and unfortunately this also happens, are hired by the police to pick up body parts from the tracks for a few rupees. These children are severely traumatised and also require special care. But first we have to convince them that they have a better future with us than on the road. In our accommodation in Khandwa live 25 to 30 children, who are cared for by specially trained psychologists.

You have been with the help alliance since 2004 and have been an honorary member of the board for a long time. How do you assess the development of the aid organisation since the foundation of the gGmbH?

The establishment of the gGmbH naturally brought with it many changes, which I evaluate however absolutely positively. There are now significantly faster decision paths, more flexibility, for example with regard to the project portfolio or the use of funds. The focus on the sustainability of the projects has been significantly increased. Opening the projects to employees, for example for the talent management program Pro Team, is also very helpful in anchoring the corporate citizenship concept deeply in the company.

Your commitment to the help alliance and the Sponsorship Circle India has now been 21 years. What has motivated you over all these years to invest time and passion?

Even though it may sound hackneyed, it is the fervent desire to help the poorest of the poor, the children and to provide a perspective for the future through our education and health programmes. Without support they would have no chance at all. The deep gratitude I experience, the smiles of the children, is the reward for my work and drives me on.

What would you like to give your colleagues who are toying with the idea of having their own project supported by the help alliance?

It is extremely difficult to generate donations. The help alliance offers a really great opportunity to do fundraising for your own project. I would therefore take every opportunity to have my project supported by our aid organisation.

Find out more about the project here.