2018 is turning out to be a breakthrough year for Soulfree in so many ways, everything seems new and exciting. So much work in terms of procurement, database and volunteer management, fundraising and warehousing has taken place this year that it’s unbelievable, but all the hard work has paid off and our beneficiaries have expressed their joy and gratitude vociferously!

As you can see on the left, this year’s gift box contains more than 30 items that are of vital importance to day-to-day living and good health of persons living with spinal-cord injury.

The bed-sheets have come all the way from Panipat. Each of the products has been sourced with painstaking care to ensure optimum quality. Soulfree has made it a priority to provide preventive Ayurvedic medicines that have experientially proven themselves to be beneficial, while having no side effects. For the first time ever, Himalaya Drugs Company led by Mr T. Suresh, the business director have seen fit to sponsor four vital medicines in the gift box.

This year our gift boxes will spread joy in the lives of 182 beneficiaries. These gifts, provided to a deeply stigmatised segment of society, who never get any gifts, contain not only joy, but will also fulfil many medical and other hygiene requirements, apart from the usual sweet and savoury treats. Not only that, the women in our group will receive special goodies like a chain and a pair of earrings. The value of every gift box is approximately Rs. 3000.

The journey towards the fulfilment of our mission was especially challenging this year as they faced many obstacles, not the least of which was the AirCel problem, making many phone numbers unreachable. Despite this, we began the ground work to compile all the individualised details including catheter size, updated address et cetera from the beneficiaries. This year most of the database management work has been done by two people, Sivagurunathan and our latest trustee, Ms Gayathri Santosh. We wish to express our deepest gratitude to both of them, because they have both invested hours of labour for our sake.

This year too, we have ensured home delivery for all our beneficiaries through the Postal Service, by sending the gift boxes through registered parcel, that costs in approximately ₹ 200 per box, but we think is worth it as it ensures the comfort of our beneficiaries.

We continue to receive full cooperation and tremendous support by Mr Abhay Mandot of LifeLinx, Chennai for all our medical purchases and wish to express our deepest gratitude to him and his team for their patient service.

We wish to convey our deepest gratitude to Mr Karthick Ramasundaram, Vice President Sales at Franco Indian Pharma, Mumbai, Maharashtra and our dear family friend, Mr Murali Iyer from Visakhapatnam for sponsoring the Dexorange, a very potent iron tonic to keep anaemia at bay. Special Soulfree bags were provided by Mr Chandra Kumar Daga and his family – they are like my brothers, and I feel grateful to have their support.

As always, our core team of volunteers led by Suraj has done incredible work. I also wish to thank the team of “VithaiKalam” led by Mr Prem and Mr Jayaraj for their awesome support. Special thanks are in order for Ms K. Hemaamalini, Mr Vinay, Ms N. Manjhulaa and several others for taking time out of their hectic schedules to come and work for the Soulfree effort.

I usually don’t, but this time I must mention the great hard work and sacrifice of my mother, Mrs Vijayalakshmi Srinivasan, Soulfree’s chief trustee. Our house was like a warehouse for several months, my grandmother who just turned 90 became severely ill and was in the ICU of a hospital, and yet my mother went out to make several purchases for the gift box and supported all our activities. Words cannot express my gratitude, but her contribution to Soulfree is so immense that without her there would be no Soulfree. Thank you, Amma!

All our efforts have been made possible only because of your encouragement and blessing, and we hope that it will continue now and always. Please do spread the word about our work amongst your family, friends and FB network. If you wish to a up-to-date on all our activities and also receive amazing, inspirational stories, please do “Like” our FB page – www.facebook.com/ Soulfreetrust . Thank you!

For more details is contact:

Name: Preethi Srinivasan

E-Mail ID: admin@soulfree.org

Phone: 9994282299

Website: www.Soulfree.org

Facebook: Soulfreetrust

Twitter @preetistan

With gratitude,

Preethi. S