United Nations Association for Development And Peace (UNADAP) has appointed thirteen-year-old M. Nethra daughter of C. Mohan, an owner of salon in Madurai as a ‘Goodwill Ambassador to the Poor’.
Announcing this, UNADAP said Nethra will be given the opportunity to speak at the United Nations (UN) conferences in New York and in Geneva addressing Civil Society forums and conferences.
“We are really overwhelmed on hearing this news,” said Mohan. He owns a salon in the temple town Madurai in Tamil Nadu.
Mohan and his family shot to fame after his act of kindness was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ radio programme.
Mohan donated essentials to about 600 families from his savings of Rs 5 lakh. He did this despite the fact that his salon was closed for two months as part of Covid-19 lockdown and he had no income during the period.
It was Nethra who was very much moved by the people’s distress during the lockdown and urged him to help them.
During the Mann ki Baat programme, Modi said Mohan, who owns a salon in Madurai, had spent his entire savings to help people in distress during the Covid-19 lockdown.
“Shri Mohan ji runs a salon in Madurai. Through sheer hard work, he had saved Rs 5 lakh for his daughter’s education. But he spent the entire amount in the service of the needy and the underprivileged in these difficult times,” Modi had said on Sunday.
“We are simple people from a small family. This kind of honour we did not expect,” says Mohan.
“This position would give her an opportunity and responsibility to speak to world leaders, academics, politicians and civilians, encouraging them to reach out to the poorest of the poor,” UNADAP said.
The Dixon Scholarship has awarded Nethra a scholarship amount of Rs 1,00,000.
The money which Mohan spent had been saved for his daughter Nethra’s education. She is now in eighth standard. Quite like a philosopher, Mohan says, money could be saved later but help for the people in distress had to be rendered immediately.
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