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.