Better to light a candle: How one man became foster father to over 100 COVID-orphaned children | Reimagining India

Thousands of families were left devastated in the second wave of COVID-19 that hit India earlier this year. Many children were left orphaned with minimal or no support at their homes. Jai Sharma, a resident of northern India’s Dehradun, Uttarakhand, has taken up the noble cause of helping the children who lost their parents to COVID-19. The founder of a non-profit - Just Open Yourself (JOY) - his team has been an active participant in providing COVID relief and now they plan to adopt 100 orphaned children. These children come from remote, poorly connected hilly areas in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. The aim is to finance the education of these students for the next 2-3 years till they become self-reliant. Sharma's philanthropy is a proverbial drop in the ocean, but it goes to show that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.