At a very young age when I was in 12th, my father passed away due to a sudden illness. At that moment, I saw my dreams shattering and the responsibilities of my whole family came on my shoulders.

“To lose your father is to lose one whose guidance and help you always seek.”

To meet the basic requirements of my family, I sought help of some people I knew and left my village in Bhojpur (Bihar) to work at a small hotel in Gurugram (Haryana). Working as a waiter, I knew that the willingness to stand out from the small village of mine still stayed with me while I often cried in night due to the behaviour of my Manager at hotel.

Finally, I decided to work for myself and started selling vegetables and earned just enough to live a basic life with family.

Then I saw my world crashing for the second time when pandemic took away all that we had. We were now not able to meet our daily needs and that made us to eave Gurugram and return back to village.

After the required quarantine for fourteen days, I started selling vegetables near my village in a town called “Arah”. These were difficult days after the lockdown and I could not earn enough.

One day, I received a call from someone that didn’t let me sleep the whole night. That person on call asked me if I wanted to do a technical skill online course, I was also told that they would teach me how to access things online.

That night I had many feelings gushing in my heart and it felt like God wanted me to take this opportunity and fight my fears.

“The finish line is just the beginning of a whole new race”

I gathered courage and called on the number next morning. I told them my problems, my responsibilities and that I had to sell vegetables to meet the needs of my family. To which they replied that I will be able to work for my daily needs while pursuing the skill development course.

That call has changed my life forever! Now after completing the skill development classes which gave a new beginning, I am now placed as a “Customer Care Service Executive” at Okaya Power Pvt. Ltd in Bojhpur (my native land). A vegetable vendor in me has witnessed immense respect in the Village with this change.

That call from ICICI Foundation and their tireless efforts not only changed my life but of 20 others who were attending those sessions in my batch. Every single person in that batch who was struggling to meet their basic needs after migrating back to their village due to the pandemic, is working with the new skills developed in them and earning a livelihood.

I Rishu Kumar, take this opportunity to show my gratitude and thank the ICICI Foundation for this new birth.