And that is what is so unique about Pratibimb, currently underway at the Sunderbai Hall at Marine Lines. Ask any of the NGO representatives manning their stalls and similar stories pour out.

In its fifth year, Pratibimb is an annual event hosted by the Rangoonwala Foundation. Since the past three decades, the Rangoonwala Foundation has been providing financial assistance to NGOs working with different marginalised groups like women, riot victims, street children and people with multiple disabilities. Currently, it supports 19 NGOs across the country and also supports community centers in slums in Jogeshwari.

Asif Rangoonwala, chairman of the foundation, says: “Pratibimb is a platform for NGOs to showcase their products and also encourages buyers to interact with the artisans who have faced challenging circumstances and have emerged winners.”

But it’s not only the products at the exhibition that attracts people year after year. There are also demonstrations of yoga, sessions to learn Braille, block printing, hand embroidery, etc. Sameera Daruwala, who visits the exhibition every year, says she got mehendi patterns drawn on her palm from a volunteer of the Rangoonwala Community Centre. “The exhibition is not just about buying products and helping the NGOs financially. It also provides a platform for people to interact with those who have moved ahead in life in spite of adverse circumstances.”

“I like the exhibition. It gives me an opportunity to meet different people,” types Pradeep Sinha, on a Microsoft Word document on a Braille computer designed especially for the visually impaired. “Computers for the blind were thought to be impossible. But now look at him. When there is a medium of communication in place, it breaks all barriers,” says Devyani T, who works with the Helen Keller Institute for the Deaf and Deaf-blind. The institute has displayed products made by its students too.

Nisreen Ebrahim, managing trustee of RFIT, says: “As our trust is based in the commercial capital, our main objective is to provide visibility for the work and the issues the NGOs deal with. Over a period of five years since Pratibimb's inception, I have realised that there is increased sensitivity among buyers to buy into a cause.”