Resident on mission to help street kids
dubai — A kind-hearted Indian expat in Dubai is building a home for 95 human trafficking and slavery victims in Chennai.
Lissy Donald, from the south Indian state of Kerala, has been helping these children with education for a decade now and soon they’ll have their own home.
Donald, who runs her own travel firm in the UAE, said seeing children in terrible conditions would always “break her heart”, so she decided to help. She launched the ‘Heavenly Mission’ back in 2006 and has been helping distraught kids since then.
“As a young executive in Chennai, it would break my heart to see little children on the streets with dirty, torn clothes and no shoes, just whilling away time or begging. I would give them money when my purse allowed me to, but I soon realised that this was not an answer to end their misery. The next logical step was to try and educate them, making their young, impressionable minds positive and hopeful,” Donald said.
“Most of the children rescued were from the roadside, or victims of slavery and human trafficking. Today, at the ‘Heavenly Mission ‘these children are given the care, attention and skill development opportunities, which will help shape their future. Moreover, just recently, the trust was able to lay the foundation stone for a home for these children.”
All of the children are in different homes right now, however, they will live together once the house is completed. The funding for the house is being taken care of by Donald’s business in Dubai, called Compass International Tours.
The Heavenly Mission has been able to buy a land for the house and the construction will begin shortly. The house will shelter children who were either trafficked, kept as slaves or were abandoned by their parents.
Donald shared a case study of 16-year-old girl who was abandoned by her parents when she just seven-months-old. Heavenly Mission took her in and helped her education. “I am a proud parent as she has passed her Grade 12 exam and is going to join college for higher studies,” she said.
“I want to help these children develop a skill that will make them proud of themselves and make me proud too. Obviously, it will help them earn a decent livelihood and I feel it’s imperative for me to instill a sense of hope in these children. I want my children to believe in themselves and in me. I want them to believe that I will always be there for them, should they need me.”
The UAE mission
Lissy Donald is not only helping the children in India, but also the school children in the UAE.
Her firm, Compass International Tours, organises educational trips abroad and customises the itineraries according to the curriculum of each school. Donald’s motivation to focus on children’s education stems from her own childhood. She was born and raised on a farm in a remote village in Kozhikode, Kerala.
“Coming from humble beginnings in Kerala, I feel I have just begun my journey — I still have a long way to go. I am a wife, a mother, an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, a relationship counsellor, a leadership coach and a motivational speaker,” she said.
“I witnessed my mother cook for people working in the fields. From that time onwards I was inclined to
Most of the children rescued were from the roadside, or victims of slavery and human trafficking. These children are given the care, attention and skill development opportunities, which will help shape their future.” Lissy Donald, entrepreneur
help those around me, be it my mother in the kitchen and field or my dad in the farms and shop. Neither of my parents had graduated from high school. Yet, my father was very particular about his children’s education and wanted all of us to do well in life.”
Donald was able to finish school and completed her higher education in hospitality, event management and travel and tourism.
Todaty, she is running a successful business in her chosen field. Her firm works with 100 different schools in the UAE, India and the rest of the GCC region and organises educational trips for them.
“Some of our more tried and tested tours are the theatre trip to London, the World War trip to Germany, Poland and Austria. A lot of children also like our art trip to Italy, while economics and commerce students like to visit New York. It is enlightening to sit with the educators and develop these itineraries. Even after so many years, each day is a learning experience,” she said.
“I started the company in 2003 and soon built and diversified its portfolio of services. I was largely dealing with corporate and leisure clientele, business was good but I was not satisfied. Something was missing somewhere.
“I felt guilty of not giving anything back to the society that was helping me lead a transformed life. God had been kind to me and it somewhere inspired me to be kind and more giving, and that is when I ventured into educational travel. The profit margins shrunk but the smiles of happy children mended the hole in my heart.
“I felt powerful, I had the power to educate, and the power to empower. Travelling not only educated them, it made them more responsible and accountable people. For some I have seen these travels as a life-changing event. I feel extremely contented when parents and teachers come back saying what a positive effect the tours had on them.”
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com