When I first visited Kolkata in September 2006, my heart was captured by the street children.

Despite the hopelessness & poverty that surrounded them there was so much warmth exuding from these innocent and friendly children by their huge, heart warming expressions of welcome invariably wreathed in smiles. Deprived as they may have been of the material pleasures that we may have taken for granted, they were blessed instead with an abundance of thought, feeling and expression. Understanding the magnitude and scale of the problem, we may feel paralysed but the reality of poverty, which takes away dignity, freedom, safety and love from countless children around the world can be changed, unleashing the beauty, strength and potential of these children. Upon my return I had a strong feeling that I needed to do something, but an initial feeling of ″what can I do?″ - a sentiment shared by so many others. So many of us want to help those less fortunate than ourselves, especially little children, who are so vulnerable and easy prey for exploitation & abuse, yet we are unsure as to how. Poverty is transmitted from one generation to the next. It causes lifelong trauma to children's minds & bodies. Early childhood is the opportune time to break the poverty cycle which is why we must begin with the protection and realisation of the human rights of children. Investing in children is morally the right thing to do. Most humans have the capacity for great caring & empathy for the conditions of others. All it will need is that we do not turn our faces away, that we do not walk the other way.

All we need is to look at the truth for while there are millions of street and slum children, there are also millions of us.

The beauty of this charity is it creates the opportunity for many others all over the world to translate that desire ″to do something″ into the action of actually doing something. The underlying ethos of VITAL is the belief that we, as individuals greatly enrich our lives by giving back to the community less fortunate than ours, a community we live in and draw from so abundantly. So come on, let's help these little children all around the world, starting with the children from Kolkata - the ″City of Joy".

Yvonne, Vital's Founder


<< Back to About Us