Giving back to the society

BANGALORE: Meet Ram Sundher who had received best volunteer award from Apeejay Surrendra Group for there year 2011. Sundher believes that it was his duty to allocate some time for volunteer work every day.For Sundher, who completed electrical engineering, working as an engineer thus confining himself to a private firm was not a priority. Sundher wanted to be associated with people and selected marketing as a profession to enable him meet various people in society. “Meeting people and involving various social activities was my priority,’’ recalls Sundher.Sundher began volunteering to do social work in 1980s when Ulsoor Lake became a destination for dejected SSLC and PUC students to commit suicide. “I used to go to Ulsoor Lake on a bicycle at 5 am to prevent any girl or boy committing suicide at Ulsoor Lake. After seeing a few bodies of girls and boys floating at the Lake, I thought of prevention is better   and started guarding the Ulsoor Lake three days before announcing the SSLC and PUC results and continue it for few more days,’’ says Sundher. He came across a few disgusted and disappointed students who failed to pass SSLC and PUC exams. Many of them did not want their identity known to public. “I visited parents of these students and did counselling for them,’’ recalls Sundher.Later Sundher was associated with Helping Hand, a volunteer organisation aimed to provide guidance at various hospitals in Bangalore. “Our volunteers work at around 10 hospitals in Bangalore to help patients,’’ he says.He has also associated with AID (Ability In Disability) to help people with disability become self reliant. “Most of the children with disability get vocational training but they will forget about it as soon as they leave the training institute due to lack of follow up by the people concerned. There are 150 disabled people are working at three units started by the AID. Each one of them is earning a minimum of  Rs 5,000 per month,’’ he says.How come he received best volunteer award for 2011? “One of my friends happened to see the advertisement of Apeejay Surrendra Group inviting applications for the award. He advised me to apply. Initially, I was one among the two finalists from South India but I became the winner among eight finalists from four parts of the country. I became emotional on September 25 while receiving the award from    Union Law Minister Salman Kurshid in New Delhi,’’ he recalls.