Merry Christmas, Divya: A Holiday Tale

An Indian family just received an early Christmas present and the photo-documented story will melt the Scroogiest of Scrooges. Dick Smith, a noted philanthropist based in Australia, was on a train ride in India when the train stopped under a bridge for 20 minutes. He spotted a young girl wearing nothing but a pink bracelet with her family who appeared to be living under the bridge. The entrepreneur snapped a photo of the family, noted their location on Google Maps, and took a photo of a nearby billboard.

And so the journey began.

Smith then made contact with a pair of photojournalists he’s worked with before as they traveled from a recent work trip in the Galapagos Islands back to Sydney. He gave them a task: find the girl and her family in India and set them up. After a quick discussion, Jess and Chris Bray agreed and by December 15 they had landed in Vadodara, India. The Brays reached out to contacts in the area and had miraculously located the family within 2 days.

Jess and Chris met with Divya, the young girl, her two young brothers, and her parents, Krishna and Naresh to see if they would accept Smith’s aid. The father, Naresh, is a plasterer but wasn’t making enough money to acquire housing for his family.

They accepted.

Smith provided the family with rent for three months, a shopping trip for clothes and school supplies for the kids, and a vow to continue to aid the family in the future.

The Brays returned to Sydney with a photo-diary of the journey and a brilliant story that makes the Christmas season a little lighter, brighter, and hopeful.

Which is the whole idea.

Cheers to everyone involved and happy holidays!