Goa, India – There are no bounds to large heartedness, except a lack of imagination, and Armando Gonsalves of Heritage Jazz is a man brimming with ideas, juggling several at the same time. Armando describes his role as a facilitator, a catalyst bringing together large corporates or governments to donate money, products, ideas to drive forward charities. The idea sprang up, prompted by the Heritage Jazz concerts where gate proceeds went to various NGOs like the National Association for the Blind.
On a smaller scale, ceiling fans have been provided to an orphanage in Siolim, and drinking water to another charity Recently, his role as facilitator gained ground with the donation of Tommy Hilfiger designer wear to children at Sethu.
Tommy Hilfiger is the largest selling apparel garment in the US and has been in India for a few years. The 60 pieces of assorted garments which included jeans, tops, T-shirts, bermudas were received with glee by the children and their parents. This first step opens the doors to larger strides. Armando explains, "Our role in this case has been that of facilitating the charity, as we intend to do whenever we can. We are in touch with various companies to take this further. Our website www.heritagejazz.com has a section known as "Jazz for a Cause’ and we intend to facilitate causes of various kinds."
The next project is the beautification of Campal as a heritage zone. Armando says, "We are working with a group of architects and visualisers to come up with a workable plan for Campal After that is ready, we will use our reach through the website, to get people to participate through funds, ideas, time and energy When people get together as a community, the sky is the limit."
He adds, "We intend to have different companies participate in what we do. It can be anything."
It does not matter how big or small the drive is. "As facilitator, Armando’s aim is to get people together to share in what is being done, we don’t mind putting our minds to getting even the smallest thing done provided it helps the community."
To check out what Jazz has done for the community in India, please visit: heritagejazz.com/jazzforacause.html.
Credits:
Article courtesy of Gomantak Times, Goa.
Author: armandogonsalves
