LHLH – Spreading Festive Cheer to Underprivileged Families

Spreading Festive Cheer to Underprivileged Families

Ravi Subramanian

Festivals are cultural manifestations of community bonding, one of shared feelings, one of coming together to celebrate. It is a pinnacle of human bonding. So, when a partnership emerges that spreads this spirit of festivity to the underprivileged, it is the pinnacle of both human spirit and human bonding.

This is the spirit behind the Lighting Heart Lighting Homes (LHLH) – Sree Narayana Mission Singapore (SNM) partnership, launched in 2017.

For LHLH, it all started when a group of like-minded individuals had a calling. A call to make a small difference in the lives of underprivileged elderly and families. And a door opened, the festival of lights was around the corner.

These benevolent individuals came up with a novel way of spreading festive cheer. They decided to lighten up the festive moods of these underprivileged by visiting them and by giving festive goodies and “ang bao’s”.

Their initial target was modest – raise $2000, help 20 families. But the response from the donors was overwhelming. The team realised that many people in the community wanted to help, but needed a platform for this. Thus, LHLH was born. This was 2013.

They ended up sprucing several elderly homes, helping 80 households, 60 migrant workers and 28 boys at the Ramakrishnan Mission during its maiden initiative.

Today, LHLH continues to provide a platform for those who want to make a difference and connects them with those who will benefit from the help extended.

SNM’s mission is to serve with care and compassion, regardless of race, religion and language, all anchored on the profound philosophies of Sree Narayana Guru. It has been serving the community for 70 long years.

SNM understands community welfare work is a team work. It has been building partnerships assiduously.

In all these partnerships, the end goal is the same – let each member of the community lead a dignified life, empower each member to live a life to their full potential; where required, support to make this a reality.

And, there are many paths and each path can have many stages to reach this end goal. Once a path is identified, it is like a relay race; the partners hand over the batons. Each partner brings their best into the play. There are two winners in this race, the community member and the community.

So how does this SNM/LHLH partnership work?

LHLH benefits from SNM’s infrastructure to raise funds and to deliver longer term support to the needy. SNM benefits from LHLH’s last mile connectivity with the underprivileged family.

Once LHLH identifies a family, SNM brings its resources and taps into its own partner network to deliver succour to the family. There is a hand holding for a period of time.

A partnership of this kind lights hearts, lights homes and lights community. The ultimate winner is mankind!