Author Deepak Chopra and former president of Mexico Vincente Fox were honoured for their support of Akshaya Patra by the US Foundation CEO Emily Rosenbaum, and Chapter Chair Vandana Tilak, at an event hosted in California recently. During the event, which was attended by about 500 people, the two guests put forward their global vision of compassion.

During his speech Vincente Fox applauded Akshaya Patra’s goals, and laid emphasis on the organisation’s professionalism and efficiency, factors that he saw personally when he visited Akshaya Patra in India as part of his 2014 business trip. “Nobody is born to be poor in this world, every single human being has extraordinary capacities, we can all not only dream about doing great things but also be part of building a better world,” said Fox.

Vincente Fox became involved with Akshaya Patra through his association with the Chopra Foundation, where he was introduced to Gururaj ‘Desh’ Deshpande (Chairman of Akshaya Patra US).

Deepak Chopra who has a place on the US wing’s Advisory Board supports the programme partly due to his friendship with Desh Deshpande, and also because the organisation upholds tenets like ‘compassion, creativity and innovation’.

“The act of giving is related to self-awareness, and understanding that we are part of an eco-system. The best way to find self-awareness is through expression of compassion, joy and equanimity which is also correlated to our wellbeing and is inclusive of community wellbeing,” said Chopra.

The Chopra Foundation has committed $50,000 towards helping Akshaya Patra meet its goal of feeding 5 million children every day by 2020. Currently the organisation feeds over 1.4 million children a day. Speaking of Akshaya Patra’s business model Rosenbaum quoted Deshpande describing it as “the execution of a for profit with the compassion of a non-profit.”

Source: India West