The fourth edition of the ‘festival of giving’ is back! Launched in 2009, the Joy of Giving Week is celebrated every October to celebrate ‘giving’. A giving event could be as simple as a family taking out the domestic help’s children for an ice-cream party or as big as Goonj’s massive clothes collection drive. It is a festival where Indians from all walks of life give back to their society.
“The goal is to engage citizens of the country and instil values of caring, civic and social responsibility. Bengaluru with its metropolitan culture has a responsibility to give back more and this is what the Joy of Giving Week 2012 will aim to achieve”, says Rajan Narayan, volunteer, Joy of Giving Week. “This year we conducted an NGO workshop to assess the needs of various NGOs in the city and are looking forward to aligning their needs with various sponsors”, he adds.
Events are organised by individuals, social groups, schools, colleges, NGOs, corporates or media houses. The events will be held across 70 cities and towns in India. Last year Bangalore saw more than 30 events, this year there are even more!
At ‘Food for change’, donors who donate at least Rs 5000 to a cause of their choice, are invited to a special evening where the best hotels and restaurants in the city will showcase their culinary talent and skills at ‘Food for Change’ to raise funds for over 50 NGOs in Bangalore.
“Funds raised could help educate a child, provide shelter to the elderly, subsidise medical costs for a poor patient, rehabilitate a mentally ill homeless woman and reach out to several more such underprivileged people”, says Meena Dave, the event organiser from Bangalore Cares. Oct 6th, 2012, 6.30pm to 10pm, SAP Labs. Ph: 2222 2571
“The children attending the Museum School at Bangalore will witness their first annual day celebrations and with support from the team at Joy of Giving Week, they are gearing up for a week long celebration of learning, entertainment and exchange programs”, says Ramesh Balasundaram, Director, CEFI (Child Empowerment Foundation India), whose Bal Utsav initiative started the school.
The school is an effort to try and fill the gap in the quality of education between a privileged child and a poor child. The museum school operates out of city museums, like the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum. The school supports 100 non-school going children from the slums of Bangalore and operates five days a week for four hours a day.
Let’s Live Together, a volunteer helpline in bangalore, formed to help homeless and helpless dogs is organising an adoption camp for solving the street dog issue sensibly as a part of joy of giving week on Oct 7th in Malleswaram. 30 healthy Indian puppies, rescued from the streets, will be available for adoption. Ph: 9986413916
iVolunteer, a social enterprise that promotes volunteering is hosting a Social media workshop. The workshop will help NGOs learn how to use Facebook. Ph: 9964703594
Several individuals and apartments have used the Joy of Giving Week as an occasion to bring their own community together. Sterling Terraces Apartments, Banashankari is one of them. Residents here are organising an event ‘i-care’ on Oct 8th. They are donating clothes, toys etc. to the representatives from Nava Chetana and Manonandana, which are schools that support differently-abled children. They are also organising newspaper collection drive as a fundraiser to support Nava Chetana.
On October 4th, residents will donate one or more saris to Goonj, with the event, Ek Ghar Ek Saree. The apartment is also organising a treasure hunt for children on Oct 6th, a fun event, that will also enhance awareness about the environment, gardening, waste management and will end with tree planting of a tree.
Prarthana Unkalkar Kaul, Regional Head, iVolunteer, is collecting notebooks and writing material for underprivileged children, who lack writing practice for want of extra notebooks. She has collected 7500 notebooks already!
For more initiatives or ideas on what you can do, check out joyofgivingweek.ning.com.
For more details: info@joyofgivingweek.org⊕