Aakar Charity Pratishthan - Feb'11

Its been a while since I was thinking about doing something different, special. Not alone. My strength is my 20 friends. What could I do with them?

Everyone from normal middle class family. Hand to mouth jobs. I always believed there is lot of potential in my friends. Only thing is someone has to ignite the urge of doing something special.

That is when I realized about doing something for the society. Giving. The thought of giving back to the society was the ignition. The friendly bonding got a boost and became more stronger by now.

We gave birth to AAKAR CHARITY PRATISHTHAN.

Pratishthan is not about helping poor. It is about GIVING.

People know us. They know every sunday we come together, chat and drink. Every year we go to Bharadi Devi Jatra. After the jatra what we do there, Drink. I wanted to change this image. We should not come together only for drinks.

We were not sure how to start. It was necessary to start our innings and then flourish as we move along.

The year 2010, we distributed notebooks (good quality), in my village in Nandos Katta. Only one donator in that year. The success of that program changed the whole scenario in next year.

The year 2011, 22 people donated. This time before deciding on what to distribute, we discussed with the school teachers of various villages. From that it was decided to distribute school bags, school uniforms, geometry boxes, essay books and exam pads. The expenditure was huge for this but our beloved donators came to our rescue. The program was a success again. We covered students from Arule Gaon, Osar Gaon, Nandos Katta and Golvan.

Our efforts were recognized in local leading newspapers. We don't want fame but this recognition will boost our moral to do something different, special.

I am confident that one day we will find the essence of giving.

Aanganewadichi Jatra 19 Feb 2011

So another year to visit Bharadi Devi Jatra. Fourth year for me. Three cars and nearly 20 people again.

This year was something special. Besides jatra, we had lot of charity programs lined up. This was Aakar Charity Pratishthan's first year of Giving. Our first program was on 17th Feb in Arule gaon. The whole event was well organized by Karpe guruji. Local elderly people attended our program and gave us blessings. We were all overwhelmed. One thing was sure and that we are moving in the right direction.

The same day afternoon we did program in Osar Gaon. All pratishthan members were working till late evening with full energy. Thanks to Avi who worked really hard in blood group camp.

Next day we went to Nandos gram panchayat school. Our hearts were shaken when students sang special prayers for us. They expressed their thanks to us. Students wanted to hear my experiences of working abroad. Many of them wants to go abroad. Very ambitious students we have in our villages. They need our support!!

In the evening we conducted charity event in our house. The students from neighborhood attended our program.

19th Feb, the day of Jatra. We started early in the morning. Everyone got Devi darshan by 6:00 am. People turned up in huge numbers. They managed it well this year. It looks like this jatra is going to be a mess if not managed well in near future.

The last and final program in Golvan. Small number of students attended the event.