Only if philanthropists come along to help them build their lives from the scratch.There are those who scream from the rooftop on the charity work they are doing. And some who work silently. Bangalore Midtown Ladies Circle 54 is one such voluntary non-profit charitable organization comprising members of the wives of the Round Table India form circles who do projects to improve the lives of these underprivileged children. Bangalore Midtown Ladies Circle 54 is a chapter of the Round Table 129.

“Our main focus is to educate a million children by the end of 2008. We adopt government schools every year and provide the necessary infrastructure like classrooms, toilet blocks, class room furniture, computers etc. To achieve these goals we raise funds by approaching corporates, individuals and also conduct ticketed events, says Rita Ajmera, current chairperson of Ladies Circle 54. Recently the organisation conducted “Dhoom Dhamaka Diwali” to raise funds for a school in Munireddy Palya for which they are planning to build classrooms.

“Our aim is to motivate women to join the movement for the cause of underprivileged children. So that they can join us as volunteers and realise the hard realities the children have to face day after day. What we do is educate the children of the schools we adopt and turn them into professionals in whatever field they choose to be,” she adds.

More importantly, they give HR training for teachers on AIDS awareness programme, oral hygiene, so that they could inculcate awareness about these in the children. To be precise, so far they have adopted around 250 government schools in Bangalore in all these years.  What the members do is meet once a month after which a project is undertaken. Recently we took our children to watch some spastic children painting. We adopt the very young and we also donate limbs to handicapped children every year as they outgrow them .We also provide mid-day meals to the children .” It’s not the child that they are looking at and looking after The organisation recently took the inmates of the ‘Little Sisters of the Poor’, home for charity, to Lalbagh and had a picnic with them. What is even more interesting is that  most of the funds are raised by collecting newspapers from housing societies. We actually collected Rs three lakhs from 500 flats Any couple below 40 can join the organisation or provide donations.

The subscription for the year is Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000. “More than anything it’s all about donating time,” Rita sums up.