Its been two weeks since the survey was launched to see how many were interested in contributing to charity from our fund. Out of the 50 students in our class, only 7 people have taken the time to respond. Congrats to you guys for taking the time to at least go through and vote your response. Out of those six people have expressed interest in contributing to the fund.
- Though the importance of amount of money that we would provide will not be of a lesser value, the monetary help that we provide will not be enough; ours is just a contribution.
a. If our effort fails because of reasons external to us, the sense of satisfaction will not be complete, which is very well required for us to continue in our endeavours.
b. On the other hand, if, at any time, we feel that our efforts are not going to bring fruits, that very sense would lessen our drive to help.- This needs to be a long term activity, which needs patience and continuous monitoring for the activity to succeed. (Patience of a group is different from that of an individual.)
- On a different plane, I feel that such ‘groups’ have their voices heard / are being represented one way or the other, in the current society, with many NGOs coming up. Many ‘enlightened’ individuals are doing their bit through these NGOs. Why not represent somebody who still remains unrepresented?
What do you say guys ??
And I really feel that if we want to give through traditional means, I don't think we should start a separate fund as such and we can just form a list of avenues to donate and then donate directly to them. Now a days all the famous NGO's accept donations online. So except if we want to donate as 'JNTUCEA - EEE 02' batch, we need not form a separate fund and with just 6 people supporting, it is not really inclusive of the whole batch to say that.
And the next thoughts of unconventional donation are really impressive
- A committed but struggling startup, which employs (or which could employ) many people. If that startup is trying to find solutions to societal/environmental problems, then its case would be doubly appealing.
- A young mind unable to continue his studies because of poverty.
- A brilliant mind with ideas for providing low cost solutions to existing problems, but lacking funds to put ideas into action.
- Or, in the above case, lacking in enough contacts/information to implement his ideas (please note, in this instance, no monetary help is being provided).
I really like all these ideas and as he has rightly mentioned the problem becomes identifying the right people to donate in these channels. And the solution of finding someone in our network who needs it is also good. I have couple of people in mind who would really use the help provided.
There is one issue if we donate this way. We lack accountability, not that the accountability is clear if we donate via other means, but in this we really know if the money has been utilized well or not. So at least we can put some safeguards while donating regarding how our money will be utilized.
What are your thoughts on it?
If you know people who can be ideal recipients of our fund, please let us know.
Only 6 people have expressed a positive opinion.. If you didn't have time to respond to this due to any reason please leave a comment to this post as the survey is now closed.
It just takes a leap of faith to trust regarding what we can do and then we will amazed with the results.
Hello Friends..
ReplyDeleteHope each one of you are in high spirits and doing great.
First of all, the blog "EEE 02 Batch Hangout" which is connecting all of us through the wonderful idea of charity is worth doing and is quite impressive.
Going through the previous posts from our friends, I learned that we are looking for a reliable organisation. With this I take an opportunity to intorduce all of you to SPHOORTHI organisation which is located in Hyderabad. I have been contributing to this since three years and with my personal experience I say this is one of the best place where we can look for.
Let me introduce the person who has taken a step to start this organisation. He started the organisation with the same idea as we do. Mr. Srivyal, an economics graduate from the University of Ohio found his calling, in serving the society and started Sphoorti in the year 2005 along with few friends. I just want to introduce him to you because the frequency of having the same idea as we do , lead him start this institute and made it very successfull by giving shelter ,education and most importantly filled confidence to 100+
orphanage children which initially started with 3 children.
In the long run, if we are tied up with our personal happenings, we can atleast contribute our money to the organisation as we are sure, there is some one utilising our contribution in the required way. To start with, six members is also good enough and as we go on, rest of our frnds also might join us seeing the
progress.
Though our idea cannot serve all the needy in the world, it will surely help to change the life of few children who really need our help.
Below is the link and addrees where you can have a glance at SPHOORTHI. Our friends staying in Hyderabad can go there and see how the organisation is taken care.
http://www.sphoorti.org/
Address
618, BN Reddy Nagar Colony,
Near Cherlapally Industrial Area,
Hyderabad - 500051,
Andhra Pradesh, India
Srivyal's Email : srivyalv@gmail.com : Where you can post him an email for any additional info.
Frankly speaking, I just want to make an attempt to tell you what the organisation is all about from my experience. Not to force you to start lending your hand to this organisation only. Let us discuss all our views and thoughts and see where would be the best place to keep our contributions to make sure all our dreams come true
This is just my personal view. kindly ignore it, if you find it irrelevant or like an advertising material W.R.T SPHOORTHI in our discussion.
Thank you for your time.
Take care and keep going.
Regards,
Anu
Hello friends,
ReplyDeleteHope you are all having a great time.
It would be my pleasure to contribute to this fund. I am in for this.
A great initiative like this would require great patience as well.
We cant say others are not interested in this as the survey shows that 6 out of 7 liked the concept. Am sure that others would join in due course of time.
Let me share my view.
1. We need experience to do this.
Almost all the companies have people groups who have their share in social activities. They go to nearby rural schools on weekends and teach them. Some collect clothes and stuff like that and distribute.
Participating in these programs for a 2 - 3 months would give us better insight into the functionality of such programs.
Unless we get into the river we cant determine the depth of it. More over we could get good leads to serve others as well. Once we have experience, we can fold up our sleeves and start doing our best to serve them.
2.
There are many NGO's in India who have established their names either big or small. But what about the small ones with no name.
Last time we visited a small orphanage in bangalore suburbs started by some good samaritans. Its a small one storied building, hardly 5 rooms accommodating around 50 kids.It was so pathetic that the older ones sleep on the terrace of the building leaving room for the small.
You would be surprised to hear that they dint want money in the first place. They wanted some books and pencils as most of them are going to school. They get donations from near by missionary school.
We can identify such places in any city and its just a matter of phone call. We did this in bangalore and vijayawada and contribute to them.
We can start with the first point which gives us more satisfaction and simultaneously donate money.
Its just a thought though.
Cheers,
Ramya
Wow.. first of all thanks for the passionate comments. Yes, I agree with Ramya that even a journey of many miles starts with a single step. We have to do what we have to do. I have been caught up with other activities and hence couldn't spend any time on this. I will send an update regarding this soon.
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Ananth.