THE REAL card still lives. Though electronic ones have kind of begun to be the most convenient form of `letting people know you care’ and they can’t carry anthrax, the plain paper card still lives.

And with it, survive a number of organisations, not the strictly commercial ones, but more significantly, the welfare ones. The latest is the announcement from SOS Children’s Villages of India, an independent welfare organisation providing direct and indirect care to more than two lakh children, of their card launch.

They are tempering the prices to make them really affordable and saleable, ranging from Rs.4 to Rs.11. About 195 designs are on offer, the bulk of them (157 designs) for the New Year season. Among the images hand picked for the season include the vivid imagery from the National Museum in Delhi, depicting the 18^th century Mughal era. Works of famous artists like Phalguni Das Gupta and Gopal Ghosh have been chosen.

SOS Children’s Villages of India National Director, Pradeep Singh Phogat, says "while we continue to have support from corporates and governments across the globe, we are launching greeting cards, not just to augment our funding, but also to help significantly in creating awareness about our efforts." This makes it clear that every individual who sends an SOS card and every one who receives it, are contributing to the organisation’s efforts to give underprivileged children a brighter future.

It makes sense if you look at it this way : During the last 37 years, SOS has set up at least 32 villages in which children are being nurtured under the care of SOS families comprising SOS `mothers, brothers and sisters’. Some children displaced and orphaned by the Gujarat earthquake have also been embraced by this organisation. If this does not convince you, then check SOS CVI on their website : www.soscvindia.org

Also, SOS has tied up with ITC Greeting Cards, a venture of the ITC group. Did you know that ITC entered the greeting card market in August 2000 with the Expression brand of cards? Well, today, this brand is available across the country covering over hundreds of retail outlets.

Every time you encounter an SOS card, you will be, as Mr. Chand Das, CEO of ITC Greeting Card says, "Participating in a cause that has now spanned almost five decades and is universally successful".

By Ramya Kannan

Photo : K. Gajendran