Update for my #walkforIndia

First and foremost I want to thank everyone who supported me during my walk from Zurich to Geneva. Since the walk I have been trying to organise a committee in India to ensure I have a credible and transparent process and approach to target the money raised to reach the most needy people in hospitality who have lost their jobs because of COVID19 and whom are in a poverty situation.

This was not an easy task because some people would not participate because they felt it was a hotel brand led initiative rather than my own independent of Hyatt and this put them at conflict with their own hotel brand or they felt their owners would not like the fact that they were involved in supporting charitable efforts raising awareness towards their own hotel and therefore it became quite political from their perspective.

From the outset I had the desire to be transparent to avoid any misconceptions or people saying I was helping the wrong people.

The good news is I have formed a committee of individuals and I am delighted and grateful of their support and thankful for their care and desire to do good in India.

The committee is based in India and I wanted this to be the case so that we could validate the people applying did in fact work and lose their job in hospitality because of Covid19 and were in a genuine need. It is not possible for me to help everyone although I wish I could and I have had to take the approach that it is better to help some people than nobody. I believe once the fees for transactions are removed and taking into account currency fluctuations at present we will be able to help approx 56 people, which I will explain below, how I came to this number.

I would like to help more people and to be honest I am frustrated by the credit cards fees from stripe and I have tried to talk to many money transfer companies and they will not even get back to me to discuss waiving or reduction of fees generally speaking. I did have one response eventually from one who said to waive any fees I needed create and register a charity, this may have to be my next step as I have planned other initiatives to raise money for hospitality workers in parts of the world where their is no financial support. I will announce these very soon.

The net amount raised 13, 133.36 CHF here is the sheet with the confirmation of the income. The fees that reduce the amount raised are charged by stripe. This amount converted into India Rupees is: 1,046, 150. The aim is to provide 6 months support at 3000 rupees per month per person who is approved by the committee. Therefore based on this conversion and allowing for fees from money transfer I believe we can help directly 56 people and families. Please note there could be fluctuations with the exchange rates.

The process for claiming support is that all applicants should complete this form I would like to thank Hardip Mawah the GM of Hyatt Regency in Mumbai and Pratiti Rajpal who was director of marketing and communications based in Delhi for their support with this form.

The appointed committee will assess the validity of any claim and their decision is final.

The Committee members

As you will see we have three credible people who work in India and are in the hospitality Industry and their roles are crucial in ensuring we help the most needy people who apply for the fund . As mentioned it has been very difficult to get people to commit and I had approached approx another 4 people outside of Hyatt and I was unable to get any confirmation of support.

Part of the agreement in receiving support is that the people receiving funds will be asked to send a 6o second video saying how the funds will help them. The reason for this is that many charities post photos and videos of people in a bad way , I do have such videos from Indian hospitality workers, nevertheless I want to focus on the good of giving, in that giving and generosity can bring joy and help to those less fortunate than ourselves and a little help can bring happiness, improve life quality and this is what I want to share.

If you missed my walk here is the journey with some videos on linkedIn.

I have left the donation page open if you would like to donate still the link is here

I am planning very soon another event to try and raise more money and will explore to see how I can setup a charity for hospitality workers in locations where financial support is not available if you have any insights on how to this and want to help me please do message me.

One last request if you are reading this article and live in India and want some financial help please use the system posted here , do not message me directly as I want to keep all applications treated in a fair way with one process for all.

As mentioned I know there are a lot of people needing help , sadly unless we can raise more funds once the money has gone it has gone. All videos received will be shared once the fund have been sent to the person in India and the proof of payments will be shared on my facebook page which is here

Thank you again for your kind support. Keep safe and well .