Table of Contents
About “loving hearts”
loving hearts is a non-religious, non-political organization working to
create lasting change in the lives of children, destitute, abandoned
people on the streets by providing free Education, Food, Clothes, Love
and our time. loving hearts serves all people regardless of religion,
caste, race, ethnicity or gender. All development work loving hearts
carries out is focused on building the capacity and ability of
communities and families to ensure the well being of children. The well
being of children includes ensuring children have access to education,
health, protection, and participation.
When and how did you start?
We are a couple Usha Ramesh and Ramesh Raghavan who came out with a
noble initiative to serve the society in general and specifically the
needy in orphanages, old age homes, missionaries for differently abled
and other charity organizations for almost a decade. We have stepped
down the streets to extend our helping hands to the mentally challenged
and abandoned destitute by providing food, clothes, warmth, love, and
care. With the help of family, friends, and well-wishers our commendable
service and proven help rendered by the well-wishers and others had led
to the blooming of loving hearts (27th December 2014) and has gradually
elevated itself as an organization. As the founders of loving hearts, we
are highly elated to inform that we also identify and sponsor the most
deserving 10 kids every year shouldering the responsibility of their
educational expenses from Pre-kg to higher education.
How did you come up with the idea? Your inspiration moment
My wife (Usha) and I have been serving & visiting orphanages, disabled
people, mentally challenged people for more than 10 years now. Usha has
been telling me all the time about the real happiness in serving people.
On the eve of our younger son Arush’s Birthday (11th September 2014)
Usha was telling bedtime stories to our elder son Raush, Usha was
telling him about the Orphan kids and how difficult their life is without
parents. Suddenly Raush got off the bed and shouted bring them home
Mom, we will take care of them. I will look after them, That was running
in our minds from then, we wanted to start a home for the homeless
(NGO), When enquired, there were a lot of things that we were unable to
afford. So we decided to help the People who are in need of LOVE, where
we spend less money and give more love to people…. We wanted to feed the
people on the streets who are mentally challenged and who don’t know even
to beg… and then the loving hearts began.
Image Credit/Source: loving hearts
Brief about organization and founding members
Love is the only thing that keeps the universe running. May it be the
love of God, nature or fellow humans, LOVE is a magical word that makes
happen anything. History has taught us to conquer hearts instead of
kingdoms and territories. As the saying goes “There is no remedy for
Love but to Love more” I and Usha thank SAMARTANAM, an orphanage for
binding us together. We both were active volunteers of SAMARTANAM before
we met each other. It was destined for us to meet through a common
friend named Sona, a visually challenged inmate of SAMARTANAM.
Sona reached to us individually for raising funds for SAMARTANAM and
individually we became intimate to Sona and became good friends. It was
on weekends that Usha took Sona to her home, washed her clothes, ironed
them and made Sona ready for her weekdays. On the other hand, I was
astonished to hear all about Usha’s good Samaritan spirit. The more I
heard about Usha, the more I was triggered with curiosity to meet her
and Sona arranged for the meeting. It was on the halcyon day January 7
2008 that I met Usha and became friends with her. Usha was introduced
to my friends and most of our weekends were spent together in
SAMARTANAM. Those were the days which were memorable and still cherished
by me as I knew then that I was gradually falling in love with Usha.
Keenly waiting for an auspicious day to express my love, I was also
scared of losing her friendship. Inevitable thoughts crept in me like
what if Usha doesn’t have such intentions? Or what if she mistakes? But
one fine day she asked me out to discuss an important matter over
coffee. I was under the impression that Usha will definitely propose me
and on that pretext, I went carrying a bouquet full of red roses. I was
waiting anxiously in Koramangala coffee day. There she came with a
visage fully loaded with smile and charisma and devoured my heart like
an angel. Without much adieu, she came out with her proposal for me to
marry a visually challenged girl from SAMARTANAM and proclaimed that she
too will marry a visually challenged or differently abled person. Taken
aback by her straightforward nature and her empathy towards others I
came to senses and realized that my spirits were going down but not my
respect for her which was obviously creeping high. She felt divine.
Taking my chance I instantly proposed. She did not react but silently
sipped the coffee. I know the coffee was more impressive than my heinous
proposal. After finishing her coffee she gently denied my proposal and
politely explained that she did not have any such feelings for me.
Nevertheless, I was a good human being for her and she respected me. I
took another chance and tried to prove my goodness saying that I am a
good human being with a fair bit of love on her. She left me without
waving goodbye. I was breathing a little with disappointment. An ace
attempt was turned down. I didn’t want to lose her friendship though.
The next meeting of ours with Sona was fruitful as I was able to
convince Usha of being a good friend and apologized for my behavior the
other day, it was happy to see her convinced and gaining back to
normalcy. Now then again my loving heart subdued my thoughts. I was
overpowered by the sublime thought of Love. Friends who stand beside in
fun and frolic also shouldered at times of adversity. Especially when
someone like me was love-smitten, it was friends who always spoiled me
in a good way. Their terrific suggestions and sloppy advice sometimes
helped to generate self-motivation and sometimes gave an awful yet
useful courage to move forward. I moved forward with the thought of
winning her heart. I made sure that I meet Usha in every possible way.
I never missed an opportunity. I tried winning her heart little by
little. I slowly impressed her. The beautiful butterflies of Love that
were fluttering in my heart were also felt fluttering in her heart after
nearly 8 months of toil and struggle. These 8 precious months tutored me
that True love and hard work never fails it yielded. It reciprocated.
She responded and she accepted me and my LOVE. A sense of triumph and a
deep sense of satisfaction and fulfillment have occupied my life. I am
made complete by her. We are happily married now and are bestowed with
two blessed kids. After all, it was a triumph of Love, sincere and
unconditional. Throughout the journey, our combined love loves to love
and our love has extended and widespread to those who are left behind
loveless. As Charles Dickens says “A loving heart is the truest wisdom.”
We are traveling in the process of attaining true wisdom and we are
here with loving hearts.
Image Credit/Source: loving hearts
About funding, plans for growth
Funding is not great with “loving hearts” we do not receive any
donations as we do not ask for it. Our team shares the money and we do
charity in a small way, that is in our strength. In short, it is mostly
our earnings.
People willing to contribute can share their contributions to the below
ac#
Bank account Details
Canara Bank
Account Name: LOVING HEARTS
Account No: 1199101031839
IFSC Code: CNRB0001199
Branch: Chikkabidrakallu, Bangalore, India
Please mail us the following details of your donations to issue receipt
and for proper account maintenance.
Date and Mode of remittance
Transfer Amount
Transfer Reference Number
Donor’s address and phone number
Please email the details to lovingheartsindia@gmail.com
We are completing 3 years and we are in process of getting 80G, We have
plans of approaching the corporates for donations, as we are planning to
make a home for the homeless
Image Credit/Source: loving hearts
A quote from the founder on the journey, or dealing with
the challenge, or any inspiring moment.
Education is a critical foundation in every child’s life. It is
certainly something that we place great value in. As a result, it has
always been an ambitious dream of ours to provide education for underprivileged
children from nursery up to college level. Our goal is to
provide the highest-quality education at an affordable price, for the
children who live in a slum and across the streets in roadside huts. Most
government schools run in Kannada medium and teach very little English,
Computers, Maths or Science. We admit our kids that we sponsor in the
nearest English medium school, where most of the middle-class families
send their children in that area. We feel that all children, deserve a
chance at something better as far as education is concerned
.
” Nelson Mandela said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can
use to change the world” and we believe it is true. Education, good
education, would completely change the kid’s character and his / her
surroundings. We could not educate every child in our area, but can
definitely set the standard and be an inspiration to all the kids
and parents in our area ” Says Ramesh Raghavan
” We walk into huts/slums on the roadside, talk to the parents of the
kids and educate them about the value of education & explain how
important is the education in a kids life. We also tell them the importance
of cleanliness, discipline etc. We identify the kids and sponsor for
their education. We take care of their complete educational expenses
that include Uniforms, bags, shoes, stationery items etc., We also
provide free home tuitions for the children ” Says The Founders
Image Credit/Source: loving hearts
EXCLUSIVE: Founder’s advice to budding entrepreneurs
I will have to gain a lot of knowledge to give advice, Maybe I would do
that in the next letter.
Image Credit/Source: loving hearts
Your website / apps / and contact details
Website: www.lovinghearts.ind.in
Email: info@lovinghearts.ind.in
Facebook:www.facebook.com/lovingheartsindia
Contact: +91-70903901777 +91-9940325533
