In my country, every year volunteers participate in a run to raise funds for the humanitarian projects by International Association for Human Values (IAHV). I received the invite to participate in the run. Although I was very keen to raise the funds for IAHV via this run, I did not register because I had sprained my ankle and was not sure if I would be able to run and therefore did not want to take up a place unnecessarily.
A couple of weeks prior to the run, my ankle had healed sufficiently, so I checked if there were any places available for the run. I was told that all the places were taken and my name will be put on the reserve list. My wish to raise funds was very strong but I didn’t quite know what to do.
Few days later I spoke with one of my Art of Living friends and simply mentioned this. He offered me his place in the run saying due to health reasons he will not be participating this year. I was on cloud nine.
Now short time was left to raise the funds and practice for the run. When I was setting the target for my online fundraising page, I remembered Gurudev's words "Dream the impossible". So I raised my target to be five times more than what I initially had thought.
I gave my hundred percent in practicing for the run as well as fund raising. In every possible way, through emails, text messages, calls, social media, personal visits, I got in touch with all the friends, family members, colleagues I could think of and requested them to sponsor me.
The response was overwhelming. Friends, family members and colleagues from all over the world sponsored generously. The total fund raised was eleven times bigger that my initial target! Yes indeed, when we take one step, then the nature will take ten steps.
- Roopa Kakar
