2RaysHope Guides NGOs In India On Ways To Build A Brighter Future For Children

The poverty in the slums of India was not lost on Ash Tooray a Senior Youth Justice Practitioner, life coach, motivational speaker and an advocate for non and visible differences. That’s why she wanted to create a platform to help support Indian NGOs so that they can be most effective when it comes to addressing various social issues that dominate the Indian community. From addressing mental health, palliative care, working with acid attack survivors and those with addiction issues and more, 2RaysHope does exactly that. Bring hope. 

Our Organization:  2RaysHope 

Country: UK

Email: [email protected]

Follow us on: Instagram, Facebook 

Launched In: 2019

Mission Statement: “To reach out and support as many children, young people, families and lives as we can. We aim to ensure help is given to those in need. We believe that the gift of giving, no matter how big or small, can leave a print of hope for a lifetime. This is not someone else’s responsibility, issue or problem. It is our responsibility to give a little of whatever we have to make a difference.”

Target Market: Anyone who feels that they want to make a change but do not know where to start whether it is donating your time, spreading our mission via social media, monetary donations or anything else you can spare to make the world a better place. We work to support those in need. Donations can be sent to: paypal.me/2rayshope. A fund raiser will also be starting in November via Just Giving

What We Offer:

We support people India who are suffering from deprivation, acid attack survivors, young males who are over coming addiction, children and youth with palliative care. In the UK we spread awareness on taboo subjects within the South Asian community via social media and educate the youth and vulnerable about how best to support their mental health needs. We are growing and need more volunteers, donations and support to spread our mission.

Ash Tooray shares her journey.

My love for India started as a child when my parents took us for family holidays to attend weddings and discover our roots. It was all about shopping and having fun at the time. But being a Sikh and believing in Seva, and now working in the youth justice field and leading on child sexual exploitation, something was different and I knew I had to do something in India to make a difference.

My voluntary journey began in 2017 after I found myself feeling different about the poverty and the struggle that I saw in the children begging at train stations and on the streets of Mumbai. I started to talk to these children and the hunger not just for food, but belonging, normality and education became apparent. I knew that I had to do something to try and help support these children.

The connection was too strong to ignore, with the people I met, the poverty I saw and most of all, the many beggars on the streets of India. I knew there were so many stories behind the eyes I looked into.

The passion to finally take action and volunteer in India became an obsession and the journey began!

In the last three years, I’ve volunteered in India for 6 to 8 weeks at a time delivering the following:

• Coaching children who have experienced trauma, substance misuse, emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
• Providing support to criminal cases of children, attending hospitals, police stations and slum areas.
• Delivering workshops in schools, high risk prisons and NGOs.
• Providing consultation/coaching to founders of the organizations and training staff.
• Worked on campaigns while back in the UK to provide books, education, material e.g a projector for NGOs that work to educate children from slum areas.

On the 01/06/19 2RaysHope was officially launched. The name is a combination of my surname and the vision to raise hope which my father so beautifully created. The logo is something that was a vision very close to my heart and we are proud that artist Inkquistive aka Amandeep Singh kindly donated his time to putting this vision into reality and is a supporter of the work we do. Thus far, we have worked with NGO’s in Mumbai, Lucknow, Delhi and Punjab. Thank to awareness our work has now grown and we are delivering workshops on empowerment in the UK and soon the USA.

Having a rare skin condition and noticing that in India this was such a taboo subject I started rising this issue in our South Asian community and this has led to campaigns and work with body positive influences. I have taken part in the “The Real Catwalk” founded by Russian celebrity model Khrystyana Kazakova and a cosmetic campaign with Nindy Kaur CEO of Nindy Kaur Cosmetics, and a Bollywood singer who has supported visible differences and disabilities.

2RaysHope is honoured to have the support of Nindy Kaur and Manj Music two Bollywood music icons. Most recently I have taken part in a documentary highlighting mental health, visible differences and how we need to talk about such issues more in our community. Mental health is something — especially since COVID-19 — that has affected us immensely. Nindy Kaur Cosmetics has given a platform for supporting visible differences and promoting scars. I have also taken part in a photo shoot with Behind The Scars to show that we are all beautiful and that we need to move away from beauty stands that are set by the media in Hollywood and Bollywood.

During COVID-19 a lot of people were asking for support with mental health and how to deal with the pandemic. 2RaysHope offered 1-2-1 support and live Instagram sessions with influencers in the Bollywood/ Punjabi industry and people who are trying to make change talking about mental health, sexuality and sexual abuse in the South Asian community. The response has been great and has allowed people to have a space to talk about their story and show that no one is alone during difficult times.

2RaysHope is trying to be the change and voice for those who need us. We are growing in the recent years and ask that you become a part of our growth by spreading our mission by getting involved by telling us your story, donating your time, monetary donations, sharing, liking, following our pages or in anyway you can. We all have the power to make change and 2RaysHope is actually that — “To Raise Hope” — we believe in the pay it forward way and need everyone to do their part so that terminally ill, acid attack survivors, people with mental health and visible difference can be supported help us to help others.

All Photos Courtesy of Ash Tooray