Blessed Are the Bombay Blind

Many years ago I had a truly memorable experience
when I visited St. Anthony's Home for Orphans
in Pune, India prior to taking part in a Charity concert
to benefit those orphans. Along with three friends who
gladly agreed to perform as 'The Lighthouse Band'

we threw together an evening of 'Gospel Rock' music and
enjoyed ourselves in a way that we never expected, simply
because of the pre-show lunch and visit with the kids at the
Orphanage. To be surrounded by a room full of Orphans
for whom you hope to raise funds, and then to succeed with
a sold-out performance is a most satisfying, humbling and
eye-opening experience. We didn't have many sponsors or
knowledge of fundraising, but we certainly had an inkling
of its impact from that day onward.

Responsible advertising for a Non-Profit Organization
sometimes blossoms into a movement that not only
recoups the expenses of the ad campaign but raises the
subsequent creativity level more than a few notches.
Nowadays the Non-Profit ad arena has certainly been
put front and center thanks to some brilliant design,
maneuvering, and genuinely concerned individuals in
the Advertising and Entertainment industries.
Think Ravi and Anoushka Shankar for PETA,

or Eric Clapton for Children with Leukemia and

you'll see the impact of celebrities on fundraising for
the needy. But it's not always the celebs who make the
difference. Below is a video of a campaign by a Mumbai-
based agency that created a monumental surge in the
effort to help the Blind children of India's oldest
school for the Blind, called Kamala Mehta Dadar
School for the Blind. I will not offer any details about
this video because doing that often detracts not only from
its beauty but also its impact. Enjoy.



Credit where credit is due, to :
Advertising Agency: ideas@work, Mumbai, India
Creative Directors: Zarvan Patel, Prashant Godbole
Art Director: Shriram Mandale
Copywriters: Kartik Smetacek, Roy Abraham,
Tejas Uzgare

Aired: December 2008
See larger version here

Australian Photographer Richard O'Farrell displays some
exquisite portraits of the Blind schoolkids of Dadar here.