MUMBAI: At six, Meera Mehta began volunteering. Two years later, she and a group of children tried something simple to raise money for a cause they cared about — they sold chocolates. The effort brought in Rs 1 lakh, which was used to rehabilitate animals. By the time Mehta was 21, that childhood initiative had grown into a decade-long fundraising journey, with more than Rs 1.5 crore raised for projects related to healthcare and education.
From selling chocolates to raising Rs 1.5 crore
A third-year MBBS student at MGM College in Navi Mumbai, Mehta received the Diana Award in 2020 for her fundraising and volunteering work. The award recognised young people aged between nine and 25 for social action and humanitarian work. Her volunteering was closely linked to South Gujarat. Mehta was a volunteer with Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care, where her work included supporting projects in healthcare, education and community development.Her fundraising over the previous 10 years had supported the Dharampur hospital in Valsad district, Shrimad Rajchandra Vidyapeeth — a science college for tribal youth — tree-plantation drives and skill-development programmes for women in villages in South Gujarat. The scale of the fundraising was striking considering how it had started. Mehta told TOI that when she was eight, she and others sold chocolates and raised Rs 1 lakh to help rehabilitate animals. She subsequently began raising funds regularly through the Mumbai Marathon and other efforts.
Then Covid-19 changed the scale of her work
Her work took on a different urgency in 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic left vulnerable communities struggling for food, transport and basic protective equipment. During the pandemic, Mehta raised more than Rs 33 lakh, TOI reported. The money was used for several forms of assistance, including sponsoring two buses for migrant workers travelling to Bihar, providing meals to daily wagers and distributing PPE kits and masks to frontline workers. By July 2020, she was still raising money and had set herself a target of reaching Rs 50 lakh through her pandemic fundraising campaign. The fundraising came while Mehta was continuing her medical studies in Navi Mumbai. “While I continue to raise funds, I am also studying hard to become a doctor and serve tribal children better,” Mehta told TOI.
A decade of fundraising, one campaign at a time
Her efforts had also brought recognition before the Diana Award. In 2019, Mehta was selected as an ‘Inspirational Change Agent’ at the Mumbai Marathon alongside boxer Mary Kom for her fundraising work. But the numbers were only part of her story. What began when she was six with volunteering had led to a chocolate-selling fundraiser at eight. That first campaign raised Rs 1 lakh. Over the next decade, the fundraising grew to more than Rs 1.5 crore, supporting healthcare, education, animal rehabilitation and community projects. And when the pandemic created a new set of needs in 2020, Mehta continued fundraising — this time raising more than Rs 33 lakh to help migrant workers, daily wagers and frontline workers.
