Firstly, a big thank you to the Grassroutes team for finding an NGO like Nishtha so suited to our interests. We had expressed our desire to work on either prostitution or child education. That they found a work area combining both speaks volumes about the dedication of you guys at GR. Admittedly, going to Kolkata wasnt on my radar of expected places to go, but now I am so very excited (roshagullas…am a foodie yes!!) and not having been to either Bang or Kol..I am really looking forward to this journey.

This post is about an initiative  “Seva Sahyog” by some locals in Pune. It basically started with an observation by a localite that many underpriviliged kids dont attend school because they dont have a school bag and books. The school and teacher is there all right, provided free of cost by the govt, but to complete his education he needs books too. So he found out the cost of a complete school kit and he found it to be Rs 300. Next he came up with a novel idea of reaching out to corporates with the catch line “sponsor a child’s journey to school”, basically sponsoring his kit bag with Rs 200.  By then the group had increased to a hundred with people publicising in their offices about this initiative. They also got the companies manufacturing the school bag and books to subsidise the cost ,reducing it to Rs 200.  They also had to keep a deadline..of meeting the target of  3000 kits before the schools reopened in June. The deadline they did meet and the objective they did achieve. This was 2008. 2009- they have raised the objective to 10,000 kits of which they have found sponsors for half of the target. The movement has generated lots of interest in the media with it being covered at least once a week in the local papers.

An idea can change someone else’s life….