Being the change

Meera Gandhi, who is the founder and CEO of The Giving Back Foundation, is truly an inspiration. When asked about what inspired her to give back right from the age of 16, she replies. “It has been very clear to me intuitively that when one is of service to another, life feels lighter, brighter and definitely happier. Even when I was a child I enjoyed doing small things to help my parents and in school, I was always the one to put up my hand and say ‘Yes, I would like to help’.”

She adds, “When I went each Saturday to Asha Dan during my teenage years, I felt a great sense of joy to be with the children. It then became a Saturday morning routine for me.”

Extremely passionate about giving back, Meera says, “While we were living in Hong Kong in 2009, a friend of ours from Harvard Business School called Jan Moran visited us. I was discussing with her my love of getting involved and helping people — as well as my other love for beautiful fashion and fragrance. The outcome was the formation of the Giving Back Foundation, which was registered in 2010 with the idea to create a world-class fragrance, housed in a stunning crystal bottle with ingredients like lavender, patchouli, orange musk and jasmine, all combined to uplift the user. The proceeds from this fragrance go to The Giving Back Foundation to enable us to help others through our several ongoing projects.”

Based in New York, with offices in India, Dubai and London, she travels quite a lot. On the importance of education she feels, “Education is a tool that gives us some mastery over our mind. It gives us tools to analyse, to calculate, to take informed decisions and to act in a civil manner. These are tools that help all humans achieve goals materially and spiritually. Through our foundation and our platforms, we try to help as many as possible to achieve their education goals.”

She has received a large number of awards for her selfless work. In 2016, she introduced ‘The Giving Candle’. In 2010, she produced and directed a musical CD entitled ‘Giving Back’, featuring a host of international artists. She has made a documentary film and authored a book, both called ‘Giving Back’. She also came up with ‘The Giving Fragrance’ recently in Mumbai. The idea behind this project is to raise further funds for the current projects of The Giving Back Foundation all over the world.

On her future plans, she says, “Perhaps another book might come up. Going forward, I would like to perhaps do another TV show as the Meera Gandhi Show on B4U TV network in North America and the UAE did really well.” Each episode of her show was based on essential life-changing topics used to de-stress and live a more positive and joyous life.

She says, “The motto of our foundation is — ‘We are to the universe only as much as we give back to it’.”