The inception of Koshish Waikato Charitable Trust took place recently with the aim to bring communities together and help them reach to their fullest potential and become equal partners with other New Zealanders.
The trust supports and represents interests, concerns and ambitions of different ethnic communities such as from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Fiji.
In continuation of their efforts yet another milestone was achieved by bringing hope and smile on the face of a young student Manwendra Sharma, who, now due to the support he received from the KWCT and Bhartiya Samaj Charitable Trust, is a student of Manukau Institute of Technology.
He received support not only from the Indian, Pakistani or Fijian communities, the help provided by New Zealand Police and Waikato Hospital staff during the early days of accidents can never be forgotten by Manu, as he is popularly known.
Manwendra suffered a backbone injury in an accident while travelling as a passenger in a van during Easter 2009 break. The accident left this young New Zealand Maritime School of Auckland student from India, paralysed in the lower body - a distressing experience killing the hopes this young man had from life for a vivid future.
The KWCT team mustered all possible support to invigorate hope and help Manwendra see the brighter side of life - that he is alive and can still have a future. To keep this young person motivated not only his immediate family was contacted in India and assisted to arrive in New Zealand, he was made to feel at home through love, care, concern and traditional home food.
These efforts touched the hearts of Manwendra and his family and reflected yet another example of generosity of Kiwis.
To bring Manwendra back into the mainstream and further increase his hope to live and make a future was substantiated through a fund raising dinner organized on August 29, 2009, by the KWCT to help him enroll in a new course in Information & Communication at the MIT. A night of success that not only contributed close to $6000 towards his enrolment fee but provided entertainment and sumptuous Indian food, an experience people still ponder.
The programme was full of life and hope and its would not have been possible without the support of the citizens of Hamilton who not only contributed by buying tickets . . . they were all out with participating in the auction and the Bollywood dancing and buying charity drinks to raise the funds.
Artists gave their wholehearted contribution by putting up their best performances. Prajakta's dance, inspite of her ankle injury and regular visits to physio, Malathi's Veena vadan , Sirjana's Bollywood dance numbers which she gave by cancelling her trip to Aussie and not to forget the auctioneers who came out of the blue and raised close to $900 by selling prized antique possessions of Manjit (popularly known as Magic Singh).
The event's success was further enhanced by Royale Indian Restaurant's delicious three course meal served in traditional banquet style settings. Raja, the owner and his able assistant Sanjeev exceeded the expectations of an ordinary caterer to that of a dedicated team of volunteers by doing so much extra for the cause.
KWCT volunteers were on their toes to serve the Reisling to match the entrees of soft succulent Chicken Tikkas and later as mains of Lamb Rogan Josh came to the table a superb Pinot Noir accompanied it.
Manu's most memorable moment: when he saw Diana Cory, Zoie Blair, Sue Moroney, Neville and Rosemary Robertson, Bill and Denise Irwin, Tony and Rachael Collier and most members of Turner's dancing to the tunes of Bollywood numbers with Sirjna.