“We can send our love, our support, and a chance of life to people that we care a lot about,” said John Key former New Zealand Prime Minister at a charity fund raising event for India.

Vodafone event centre in Manukau saw a grand fund-raising charity event called ‘Breathe for India’ on Saturday 15th of May. Rt. Hon Sir John Key and other dignitaries that included Phil Goff (Mayor of Auckland), Dr. Shane Reti, Simon Bridges, Mellisa Lee, Paul Goldsmith, Mark Mitchel, Simeon Brown, Bhav Dhillon, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Paramjit Parmar graciously supported the event by their mere presence.

Indian Global Business Chamber (IGBC) had taken up this initiative of fundraising charity event where the main target was to deliver oxygen concentrators to covid struck India. The executive team of IGBC that included Ranjay Sikka, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi, Rahul Varma, Ajay Bal, Vikram Nagpal, and Radhe Nand were lauded for their efforts to help India in this crises time.

The event concluded by collecting 250 oxygen concentrators and $65,000 from the auctioning of various holiday trips and other items on the auction list such as cricket bat signed by black caps, 2019 rugby world cup T-shirt signed by Ali Williams, boxing gloves of Joseph Parker, Lydia Ko signed golf cap and ball package to name a few.

One auction item that immediately captured every Indian’s heart at the event was the one present by Sir John Key himself, there was something he wanted to bring along at the auction, he recounts his last trip to India along with Prime Minister Modi, where, from the Hyderabad house in New Delhi he was given a beautiful pen back then. And it could not have been a better idea than to put such a significant thing for auction, signed by Sir John Key as a memoir inside the pen box.

Even though the auction was fast-paced, it nailed its targets at the end, perhaps the collections were even more than the proposed amount of oxygen concentrators. And to add more, Sir John Key did not shy away from showing his love and inclination towards India by bringing in more funds as the Chairman of ANZ bank.

In his speech he summarized that ANZ group decided in their last board meeting that was held about a week and a half ago that they would make a donation to the Covid relief fund for India and donated 1 million Australian dollars, the second thing they did was the setting up of Covid relief fund within the bank where everyone in the bank who generously keep donating and are wanting to donate will manage to raise another 1 million dollars, in total they will give about 3 million dollars to India.

And lastly, in a witty tone, he said that one of the advantages of being the chairman is that you have stock of money sitting at ANZ and after having a little chat with the chief executive of the bank he kick-started the ‘Breathe for India’ charity event by donating $10,000 and adding on to existing monetary contributions from the bank.

“Tonight, we need to save the lives of your family and friends in India”, said Sir John Key “We can send our love, our support, and a chance of life to people that we care a lot about.”

The event was nothing more than a reflection of humanity at its best! No matter where you are, which ethnic group or country you belong from, when it comes to standing united for a noble cause of humanity, every human is seen joining hands.

Covid-19 might be a pandemic that has changed the face of the world but something that it can never change is the power of resilience, unity, and togetherhood. These words are in any case best described for kiwis! -Vritti Parasher