ngo

Form a groupThis is the first thing to do. CSR initiatives are always rooted in small beginnings. So, look around and gather a group of people who are interested in such initiatives. Approach your HR department and higher management with your findings and suggestions. How do you find people? Well, one easy way is to organize a screening of movies related to social initiatives. There are institutions like VisualSearch, FilmsForFreedom and Vikalp, who have social consciousness related films and they would be delighted to give you the copy for screenings.First, do no harmStudy your business and its impact on people,…

The one thing that you would definitely find every two streets of Bangalore is a small green cozy park. Bangalore boasts of more than 500 parks in the city. Most of us would have memories attached with one of those parks and the play area there where we spent childhood playing on swings, slides, seesaws, etc. But if you happen to pass by Coles Park in Frazer Town now, you will see a different kind of play area, something like the picture below.If you thought these are made to make things more fun for children or is the creation of…

"How was the week-end?" I was faced with the routine start-of-the-week question. "Pretty good! My wife and I went to MG road on Sunday", I replied. "Cool, I hope you had fun shopping", the colleague responded. Surprisingly, it was true; but few would have guessed that we shopped at Namma Jathre - an exhibition cum fair organised by groups (mostly) working on community development, held in Cubbon Park's Bal Bhavan on 30 December. For those unfamiliar with the local language (like me), Namma Jathre translates to English as "Our Festival". Namma Jathre was started under the theme of 'Festival of…

Which one of us has not seen the abandoned hack-horse, the milch-cow left on the streets, the pet dog bought on a whim and ignored or starved once the novelty wears off? Which one of us has not seen a sloth bear being made to dance by the "madari", been concerned about the parakeets that fortune-tellers put in tiny cages, or seen the plight of circus animals? Add to these the animals that are routinely injured or tortured in the name of festivals or religion, and you begin to see a sad picture of survival against the odds. Brahminy Kite…

For many of the urban poor, education is a luxury. Even as many private schools become unaffordable in Bangalore, quality of government schools are not very impressive. Children from the lower economic background, who attend schools (mostly government schools) are unable to learn much due to poor infrastructure and teaching methodologies. Many of them are scared of subjects like English, Science and Mathematics. One initiative which hopes to tackle this problem is the ‘Evening School Centre’ run by the volunteer group, AID (Association for India's Development, Bangalore Chapter). These are centres found in slums and neighbourhoods populated by the lower…