bmSAY foundation: Husband-wife duo’s initiative to empower under privileged

Srinagar, Jan 23: An initiative by a husband-wife duo is empowering underprivileged youth to gain employability through skill building.
Started by Babar and Shefali Mian, bmSAY foundation empowers the underprivileged youth by imparting academic and skill building knowledge.
Born in Kashmir and based in Mumbai, Babar has been in the corporate world for more than 16 years and has been heading a slew of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects.
“In Mumbai, people are very poor. People live in slums in a bad condition. They don’t have food and there are 7-8 people living in a small space. Our initiative started with that emotion that we have to give back to the community,” said Babar.
The motive of a foundation is to empower youth by building their skill set and to foster entrepreneurship in them. Currently, they are operating in Kashmir and Mumbai and have collaborations with few colleges as well.
“Every Kashmiri living miles away from his homeland wanted to give back to the place. There are people who have no clue about their future. My wife and I had a long discussion that imagine the happiness that would give us in our entire lives if we will give right direction to 5 kids only,” he said,
The foundation works by identifying the students and youth from low-income sections who intend to go for further studies or coaching of competitive examination and filters them on the basis of their capabilities, merit and eligibility.
Currently they are imparting skill development courses like carpentry, stitching and cooking which particularly goes well in Mumbai and paves way towards their earning a livelihood.
He said that over the years, a number of youths have been benefited by their cause.
“We speak to the candidate and their whole family so that we can be serious with the projects and the candidate doesn’t step back after getting trained. The people who have set up their careers, come and donate to the social cause. We need to make sure that the money is going to the right people,” he said.
While talking about the future plans, the foundation is focusing on vocational training programs. “We are in the process of speaking to the corporations. We are looking for graduates who are good in terms of mobility and we will be training them over a period of 3-6 months for employment in various companies outside Kashmir,” he said.