AN INSPIRATIONAL Wembley woman has wonsponsorship, enabling her to focus entirely on a charity she founded supporting underprivileged children in India.
NatashaMansigani, 23, who lives off Preston Road, is delighted to have been given a place on the Vodafone Foundation's World of Difference UK programme for 2012.
She has recently started a paid eight week placement with The Big Hug Foundation, based at her home, which she set up last year.
MissMansigani quit her job in the volunteer development department at Barnardo's to establish the charity, and has been since trying to run it while working in temporary jobs. Her place on the scheme will allow her to devote herself full time to the foundation, which works to provide education and shelter for youngs people in need in India.
MissMansigani started the charity after volunteering with orphans at Cornerstone Children’s Home in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, south India.
Havinga background in the non-profit sector, she worked closely with volunteers to provide homes for 26 orphans who lived in an unhygienic, cramped factory with no proper facilities.
She is now working with the children's home to carry out the work of the charity she established.
Shesaid: “I am really looking forward to working full time on the Big Hug Foundation. I am extremely passionate about the children we support in India and am grateful to The Vodafone Foundation for giving me this exciting opportunity.
"Weneed to raise a lot of money this year to continue our vital work with orphan children so there’s plenty of work to be done.”
MissMansigani said she is also grateful to her family and friends who helped her set up the charity, and described gaining a place on the Vodafone scheme as like "winning the lottery".
Shesaid: "For the next two months I can dedicate all my time to working on the charity and raising vitals funds for the children we support.
"Thecharity was officially registered in October 2011. Since then we have taken on an additional seven children and have plans to care and support many more in the future. The children we currently support are all destitute; some are orphans and others are runaways escaping a lifetime of neglect and or abuse. Big Hug aims to relieve these children of hardship and break the cycle of poverty by providing them with clean, safe shelter, a real education and above all, a family – what every child deserves."
To donate to the Big Hug Foundation text BHFX12 £5 to 70070
For details on the charity visit www.bighugfoundation.org
To see Miss Mansigani's blog visit http://worldofdifference.vodafone.co.uk/blogs/natasha-mansigani/
