It’s always fantastic when people reach out to Savitri and chose to support our work and we wanted to take this opportunity to thank Niki Richards and her group of ambitious and inspiring students from Regent’s University, London who generously decided to do just that. They are part of The Regents University Luxury Society (RLS), an international network of young professionals and post graduate students united by their shared interest in the luxury industry. The society aims to bring students and professionals together to provide industry knowledge, networking opportunities and career planning. President of RLS, Anne de la Mothe Karoubi shares her thoughts on the importance of giving back whilst working in an industry surrounded by so much wealth: “Savitri was a logical choice for us, since it supports a number of different healthcare and community development projects throughout India and Nigeria. We were so happy to find a charity that is focused on engaging and educating young girls. Also, Savitri is closely linked to many successful luxury restaurants in London; it was a logical step to support an organization that is closely linked to ventures within our community.” The girls decided to host an informal panel discussion that focused on important trends within the industry. Panelists included Ian Hardy of LVMH, Lindsay Davis of Quintessentially, Robin Colgan of Land Rover and Ruth Harrison of Thought Works. Funds raised from ticket sales allowed 100% of RLS’s generous donation to go towards supporting girls from Bihar who are studying to be optometrists at Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital.
Author: Emily Kerr-Muir
Project WHY?
In our recent visit to India, we got the opportunity to visit an inspiration project in Delhi called Project Why. Run by the formidable Anou the project has evolved to fill the enormous educational gap that faces thousands of young children living in the slums of Delhi. For those kids who have the registered papers to attend school, often the reality is they’re not getting the education they need. For many more, they don’t even have the papers to register and education is a distant dream. This is where Project Why comes in. They have set up four different project in the slums around Delhi to provide extra educational support to the street kids, pre and post school. When we visited one afternoon, the ‘classroom’ was packed full of kids eager to learn and to show off their skills. They were so happy to be in a space dedicated to them and their development. Volunteers support the team to deliver a range of subjects including English, maths and IT. Across town, there is a women’s centre, again full of young ladies learning tailoring and wellbeing skills including massage, hairdressing and henna. Even further across town we visited a tranquil little bubble of learning set under the mango trees. For these children, the priority is not just the lessons, but gathering the paperwork together so they are actually registered onto the education system. They are so grateful to be getting the opportunity to learn and with this particular project, there’s the added nourishment of delicious food donated by partner restaurant Mamagoto. We are delighted to say that Project Why is Savitri Trust’s newest project. We are thrilled to be working alongside them to increase their capacity and grow what is already a thriving community of learning and development.