Vaibhav Singh

Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam once said that “Confidence and Hard-work is the best medicine to kill the disease called failure. It will make you a successful person.” Vaibhav and his mother proved just the same.

Vaibhav was a sponsored child in the Delhi subproject-ALD (CH ID 218667). He was enrolled in the CFCA/ Unbound sponsorship program on 21^st June 2000 and retired from this sponsorship program on 29^th May 2015. Vaibhav’s father passed away in 2008 after which the whole responsibility of taking care of the family fell on his mother. The family was also a big family which comprised of 4 boys. Vaibhav’s mother had no livelihood to take care of the family, that’s when she received training on Food Processing and she became an active part of it. Along with that the family had a small farm but being a lady no one allowed her to do farming, but despite all the challenge she decided to grow Mustard plant in this field, once grown she harvested these mustard crops, extracted oil and distributed this oil to the Food Processing Unit which was then used to make pickles. The mother didn’t stop at this she also learnt the art of candle making and sold these candles to shops to earn a living. Her only determination was to see her children getting educated and being successful in life. She is very thankful for the sponsorship as well as moral support that she received through CFCA/ Unbound.

Vaibhav himself was very intelligent and smart, He won several Olympiads in his school days. He always secured good marks in school and got nice grades in his college. He also received many certificates and prizes in his college events. He always had a positive outlook on everything. With the help of CFCA/Unbound sponsorship support and his mother’s hard work, Vaibhav completed his B-Tech (Engineering in Mechanical) in the year 2016. After which he prepared for GATE entrance exam (Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering) for two years, but he could not make it. But he still didn’t lose hope and he prepared for railway entrance and gave level 1 entrance exam in 2018. After clearing that, he gave entrance for the next level. He succeeded and got selected in India railways in 2020. However he couldn’t join immediately because of COVID-19 lockdown and had to take up his position in June 2021, he is currently posted as an Assistant Loco Pilot in Indian Railways, his job is not very time-based, he can be called for duty at any time and gets 16 hours of rest after every shift. Currently he lives alone in Tundla (near Agra city, Uttar Pradesh), where he is posted for his job, since there is no one to assist him with household chores, he does all the work by himself.

He also sends money regularly to his mother so that she doesn’t have to struggle in order to meet household expenses. He is no longer a sponsored child, but he is still a member of the Youth Forum, as a secretary. He actively participates in it and makes every possible contribution to the Youth Forum activities. During his higher education, he took loans from this youth forum to pay for his fees. So the family is truly indebted to the organization for all the support they have received all through these years. CFCA/Unbound sponsorship changed this family’s life and that is the reason that even after the completion of CFCA/ Unbound’s journey, the family is still an active part of it. The mother still contributes towards the betterment of Food Processing Unit in whichever way she can and Son helps and guides other youth members through the Youth Forum Activities.

This family definitely proved that: It is better to teach people how to do something for themselves than to just do it for them, because when you teach them how to make their own lives better you bring about a change in their outlook, which will then change the outlook of the people and the society at large.