My India Visit – back home

I came into contact with Save the Children through our partnership at work and had been involved in the typical way, through donations and sponsoring fellow Reckitt Benckiser employees. I knew of Save the Children as a global, trusted organisation focusing on children’s issues abroad but no more than that. I was interested to find out more, so a few months ago I decided to get involved by donating my marketing skills to the charity as an alternative to the sponsored runs, etc. I’m not cut out for serious physical challenge!… but didn’t want to miss out on doing my bit. The more I found out, the more passionate I became to help. I was very pleasantly surprised when I found out about how much Reckitt Benckiser do to support Save the Children. It really made me proud to realise we are one of their biggest global corporate sponsors and that we truly make an impact – over the last five yrs we have fundraised £4.5m! I had often wondered what this money had achieved.

Weeks later when an email popped into my inbox inviting me to join a small group of Reckitt Benckiser employees from around the world to visit the Child Domestic Workers Programme in India, I was overwhelmed. I knew that visiting Kolkata in India to meet young girls saved from horrendous abuse of domestic labour would be life changing.

The weeks leading up to the visit were full of mixed emotions. On one hand I was very excited to see the real achievements of this Reckitt Benckiser-funded programme and have a positive uplifting experience. On the other I was actually hoping to experience the sad poverty side of Kolkata and see just how desperate life could be. It’s all very well seeing injustice, inequality and sadness on TV but I wanted to feel it for myself. Only that way will I feel strongly enough to always help.