JGW 09 in Cochin

Even as one gears up for JGW 2010, we continue to be amazed and overwhelmed by 'giving' stories that we come across about the Joy of Giving Week, 09. Here is one from Cochin that we did'nt know of. The information has been shared by a young engineer,Jisha, in Cochin Square and the picture she has posted says it all.

"As part of Gandhi Jayanti celebrations this year, the Joy of Giving Week, an initiative by an NGO ‘Give India’, will be held from September 27 to October 3. The students of Adarsh Charitable Trust will be given a grand dinner with a celebrity guest at Hotel Mercy and Hotel Abad Plaza on September 27 and 30. The children will be entertained with magic by magician Gopinath Muthucad and singer G Venugopal will be singing some beautiful songs for them. Many more celebrities are likely to attend the dinner. Around 50 students are selected for the ‘dinner with the celebrity’ night.

Anybody who wishes to be a part this function, can join in. You can dine for a cause and a share of the profit will go to Adarsh. One can contribute money, skills or resources during this week. Corporates can contribute their one-day’s salary or provide study materials for the students of Adarsh. A voluntary medical camp will be organized by the students of Ayurveda College at Adarsh during the week. Even you can contribute whatever you can. Every bit counts. Give as much or as little as you wish to."

Every drop counts may sound cliched but that is exactly what the above article emphasises as it exhorts us to 'give as much or as little" as we wish to. Let us remember that this year during Joy of Giving Week 2010.
If you have more such stories, please do share them with us.

Inspiration

We take a break from writing about events related to JGW specifically, to share with you stories from The Times of India, stories about anonymous Indians for whom giving is as natural as breathing.

Indrani Rajkhowa Banerjee reports:

You don’t need much to be an everyday philanthropist. As Ajit Singh Narulla from Delhi’s Rajouri Garden realised. A real estate builder, Narulla and his friends set out on mini trucks every evening with potable water tanks to distribute drinking water in the shanties of west Delhi. Narulla says, “These shanties have no water supply and it can be terrible in Delhi’s punishing heat. We thought that we could help by getting a little proactive.” They take turns and bear the expense themselves. “The remaining water is used to fill huge earthen pots that we’ve installed in strategic points in Rajouri,” he adds.

A Parsi from Kutch, Mrs Chheda unflinchingly delivers five litres of buttermilk everyday for the three summer months at a nearby milk booth to be distributed amongst the thirsty vendors, watchmen and taxi drivers.

Delhi-based businessman Nitin Gupta’s family doesn’t make offerings to priests on shraadh ceremonies. The entire family shares food and spends the day playing antakshri with blind kids from an orphanage in Vikaspuri, Delhi on such occasions. “There is so much hunger around that food never gets wasted here,” says a known lady restaurateur from Delhi, letting out a trade secret. “The leftover food in every restaurant is eaten by the waiters and their families.” Five-star hotels like the Taj Palace Delhi gives away surplus food to Father Agnel Bal Bhavan, a hostel for lepers. The Le Meridien gives excess food to Asian Food Bank and other leftovers to People for Animals. Meridien regularly gives wilted flowers to an NGO for women and children where natural colour is turned into dye. The remaining food from the Times of India Mumbai’s director and executive canteens goes to Pavement Club, a project for street and underprivileged children.

If you’ve wondered about the authenticity of those mute donation boxes in malls, we would say it’s safe to dip into your wallet. Pradyuman of CRY, Delhi, says, “Though the percentage of these collections is less than donations from corporates and individuals, it definitely helps our cause.”

Prasad Dhume, a former engineer, gave up his job to dedicate full time to the cause of those who have their upper knee amputated, by providing them low-cost artificial limb accessories.

What is it that drives these people to do what they have been doing, with no thought for publicity or personal reward? Perhaps Dhume has the answer when he says, "Giving is our culture.", and we need to remember this as we gear up for the Joy of Giving Week, 2010.

Celebrating JGW

When we go through the feedback we have received after the Joy of Giving Week 2009, we are amazed not just at the enthusiasm and willingness to embrace the JGW as everyone's festival, but are also overwhelmed at the detailed planning that has gone into the participation. What is particularly gratifying is the involvement of a large number of youngsters from schools and colleges, for these are the Changemakers of the future. Of the many stories we will be sharing with you from schools and colleges across the country, here is one from LIBA (Loyola Institute of Business Administration), Chennai.
The students of LIBA, had unconditional support of their faculty as they planned a week long celebration starting with an inagural function on the very first day of JGW, the 27th of Sept., 09, the students visited an orphanage to spend time with mentally challenged children, decided to green the environment by planting trees, co-ordinated with Shankar Nethralaya and organised an eye donation drive in college, also collected clothes as a part of the Vastrasamman drive co-ordinated by Goonj, cleaned the area around the college and hostel and began work on creating a beautiful garden in the vicinity of the college, while simultaneously empathising with the rag pickers who make a living collecting garbage.
The students however, did not forget their education and thoughtfully organised a lecture on Social Entrepreneurship by Mr.Mahadevan of Oriental Cuisines. Mr.Mahadevan is a social entrepreneur who employs a large number of the disadvantaged and was instrumental in organising the Battle of the Buffet in Chennai, during JGW 09. The students got some valuable lessons on social responsibility from him.
The impact of the events in JGW at LIBA is best expressed in the words of a student who says, " the people who have felt the Joy of Giving, will celebrate the Joy of Giving Week everyday of their lives. "
These are inspiring words that we could remember as we get ready for JGW 10.

Gifting a New Life

Amongst the many events organised by anonymous and caring citizens of India during the Joy of Giving Week '09, are those that were aimed at creating awareness about issues of health. This included awareness programs abour Cochlear Implants, blood donation, disseminating information about Swine Flu, awareness about organ donation etc.
The staff of ZCCK, Bangalore had a talk about organ donation in their office and to demonstrate their sincerity, that it was not just talk, they had donor cards that employees signed after informing their families. Information was also given about registering for organ transplants in case needed. The three staff members of the company who organised this hope to have a larger pool of volunteers next time in order to create more awareness.
Bangalore also saw a blood donation drive, where volunteers donated blood to be used for the needy patients in NIMHANS. There was a little disappointment amongst the organisers that not many of the nyounger generation came forward to donate, but they hope to attract more next year by using Twitter to publicise their cause.
The Institute of Health Sciences in Bhubaneshwar, organised a Seminar on Cochlear Implants, a procedure that gives life a new meaning to some of those with Hearing Impairment.
Again on the 2nd of October, the Boral Multiproject Centre, organised a health check-up camp in Kolkatta, where in a matter of around 5 hours, around 130 patients were benefitted.

Make a difference

Those who find themselves unable to run in the Mumbai or the Delhi Marathons held each year, can always decide to walk for a cause. This is exactly what some employees of Maruti Suzuki decided to do during the JGW 09. The number of people who participated may be small in number, and funds raised were nil because fund raising was not their aim, volunteering for the future was. The employees organised a 'Walk for a Cause' to create awareness in society about lack of quality education for the underprivileged. They did this by requesting volunteers and concerned residents of Suncity, Sector 54 to walk holding hands on 2nd oct 09 during the JGW. The idea was to get residents to commit their time to teaching the socially disadvantaged.

And what did they learn from the event ? As they put it:

1. Awareness to the mass requires consistent and patient efforts from the people
2. Lot of efforts are required from every educated person to educate the lesser fortunate children
3. _Everything starts from within and hence one must try to help these very capable children to make our India reach pinnacle
The number of those impacted in this event were small, but as we have said earlier, each individual and every idea contributes towards spreading the collective idea, the Joy of Giving and helps make the Joy of Giving Week a success. So those who would like to participate this year, but fear they may not be able to engage or impact many, need not worry for your participation can make a difference.

In Their Words

Those who have been following our posts would probably wonder how we manage to keep you all updated about the various events, big and small, that were a part of JGW 09. The fact is that the JGW team has been working hard after the festival was over, to collect and collate feedback from all those who registered their events at the JGW website (it will be up soon for you to register this year), as also with those who participated but did not register. It has been a marathon task and the efforts of those involved in the whole excercise needs to be applauded. We are copying below, a sample update that one participant sent.

Update Form

Name of the Event: Appreciation giving day
Date of the Event: 29 Sept, 30 Sept and 1 October
City/Town Where the Event took Place: mumbai
Depending on the type of event held:
Volunteering (No. of volunteers engaged/participated): ~ 350 employees in Sandoz House
Awareness (Approx. No. of people reached): >700

Donation/fundraising (Amount of funds raised):_~ Rs 45,000

A Description of how the event was:
This event was a big success with employees vying with one another to give and receive appreciation. A Rs 5 bar of chocolate was sold for Rs 10 along with a blank card. Employees could choose where their contribution went from a basket of NGOs. Employees wrote their own personal messages and handed over a bar of chocolate with a message card to anyone they chose. There was a spirit of competition with surprises announced for the top 3 givers and the top 3 receivers as well as to an Appreciation Champion who motivated employees on the floor to buy the maximum number of cards. Feedback from employees has been tremendous

Learnings from the Event held:
1. Generated a tremendous feeling of goodwill among employees and third party service staff
2. Created a buzz within the office
3. Employees felt it served a dual purpose and would like it to be repeated
Please Attach Pictures of the Event:
Unfortunately, not all participats had pictures to share but the joy of giving is felt in the words. Be a part of the joy this year. Participate in JGW '10, between Sept. 26th and Oct. 2nd. As you can see from this update, it is so easy to spread joy.

A Right to Enjoy

A majority of us seem to believe that the economically disadvantaged need to be helped with food, clothes, money, medicines, education and so on. These according to us are the basics of every human and need to be met before other wants like recreation can be met. But we forget that the disadvantaged are like us and would like to experience the state of happiness we undergo when we indulge in a preferred activity but we, with good intentions, unknowingly deny them that state of pleasure and enjoyment because we believe that for them it is a luxury and when basics are missing, why should luxury be given is our reasoning.. Why should it be so? Why cannot those who do not have enough for 3 meals a day, for those who do not know where their next meal will come from and if at all it will come, also not experience joy in doing something as simple as walking on the beach, taking a bus ride, dancing to live music or watching a movie?

This was the thought that crossed the minds of some youth in Patiala and they decided that as a part of JGW 09, they would treat some economically disadvantaged children to a movie. That is just what they did and some 25 children went to watch Salman Khan’s movie ‘Wanted’ at Tagore theatre in Patiala. To those who organized the treat, the reward was the happy faces of the children as they watched a movie with popcorn and other eats thrown in. It must not have been easy for these youngsters, convincing parents to part with heir children, especially in the case of girls but their perseverance paid off and 25 happy children watched with delight as Salman Khan pranced about on screen. “They also have a right to enjoy”, was the inspiration for this treat and we must do all we can to ensure this, is the message for us.

Developing Capabilities

We, who have been working behind the screens for JGW, feel overwhelmed at the manner in which the concept of the Joy of Giving Week has caught the imagination of all. We have no words to express our gratitude as companies, colleges, schools, individuals, NGOs all came forward to participate and participate wholeheartedly and meaningfully. One such thoughtful participation, is by the Sheraton Park in Chennai, which chalked out a programme for the week, from 29th Sept. to 3rd Oct. 09. Their programme, the schedule which is copied below, as you can see, focused on developing the capability of and empowering the individual, in such a manner that he or she would be better equipped to handle their lives, including their work. Nurses and domestic workers were put through a training programme to develop soft skills. The training concentrated on personal hygiene, safety standards, telephone etiquette, basic communication, grooming and so on. For those working in NGOs, the training was in Basics of Finance including Taxation.

Such training would have gone a long way in developing the confidence of the participants and enabling them to believe more in themselves. This was a really thoughtful gesture and a wonderful celebration of the Joy of Giving Week.

Daydream to Dream Day

This is the title of a wonderful event held in Bhubaneshwar during the JGW 09. This was a special event for children and as the name suggests, it was an event where the organizers worked towards making the daydreams of the children come true.

Children from Sikharchandi slums of Bhubaneshwar, were taken for a joy rinde in a car, met with the famous Oriya actor hari Hari Mohapatra, went for a movie, lunch at a restaurant, ice creams at an ice cream parlour, gifts, chocolates and all that children love, especially those children who can only dream about some of the experiences they were presented with.

The number of volunteers who engaged in this event were 11, but the children who found their dreams come true were many.

Such a Dream Day, was also a part of the JGW celebrations at the Rotary Doll’s Museum in Rajkot, where entrance fee was waived for children during the duration of the week. Due to this, more than 8000 children could visit the museum, many of them from needy families. As the Project Co-ordinator of the museum Deepak Agarwal writes,

“It was satisfying to see children from lower strata enjoying the place , their astonishing eyes, priceless smiles, we thank JOG people for spreading the idea of Giving.”

But we believe that we at the JGW team need to thank those who have taken initiatives like these to spread the Joy of Giving.