Collaborative Blog by Volunteers Barsha (Bhubaneswar) & Sauvik (Bangalore)
He was teaching young and unprivileged boys in the neighborhood to do carpentry and sculpture-making for two to three months. Then he gave them money on top of their salary for buying cycles, clothes, instruments, and rations for the upcoming months and let his fellow students move out and made their living. The old ones left and new batches joined to learn from him again. Barsha was observing his process. One night, Barsha asked him “Jeje (Grandpa), why are you letting your students go after they learned your skills, you could have let them help you in your work for years??” Grandpa smiled and told that he couldn’t provide them all with employment. He was doing it to teach them skills needed for carpentry and make them carpenters. So that they can start their carpentry businesses in town by which their families would live with dignity the way Grandpa was living. This was his way of giving back to society which he continued till his seventies. That day, Barsha understood “Charity is a duty”, it is not restricted to money or belongings for a short term but also, a continuous effort to eradicate the plausible reasons which create the economic barrier in our society. Every person has the right to live with dignity irrespective of his or her abilities, disabilities, financial status, caste, creed, color, religion, gender, education, marital status, or anything which discriminates against individuals and treats them unfairly.
Barsha (in 2019) and Sauvik (in 2020) both joined Fly Higher as volunteers and continue to work along with thousands of other volunteers from 26 cities in India for a mission “Skills for all and all for skills”. We at Fly Higher come up with several 21st-century life skills projects for children and young adults from economically disadvantaged backgrounds housed at various schools and orphanages with carefully customized themes and activities balanced with fun and development. Our programs like FHI Kalakaar and FHI Mentorship are providing long-term impact in helping them achieve their goals by fighting the challenges also during the Covid-19 outbreak. Fly Higher also keeps on supplying monthly rations as well as books by running the Book Joy campaign. Every NGO needs funding for its smooth functioning. CSR funds, which are relatively bigger in value and consistent, gradually dried up during the Covid crisis. Although individuals are donating to NGOs, they are not consistent. Here, an NGO’s authenticity, trust-building, brand values, and social media presence play important roles. Sauvik has witnessed how society reacts positively to the cause while being a part of social campaigning through his school’s Rotary club. Giving to a cause to which you relate is the best way of performing charity. This way anyone can contribute if a person is willing but doesn’t find time to spend due to other obligations.
To address existential problems and receive consistent individual donations for day-to-day operations at Fly Higher, We, volunteers can do vlogging of our events and share them with the world on YouTube which can give authenticity to our cause. Fly higher can open a book joy corner in all active cities where anyone can donate books and click pictures with them and share them on several social media sites. It will improve the visibility of our book joy campaign. We can design a selling corner on our website where we can auction or sell the products from our recycling events or the paintings or clay models from our art and craft events, made by children. We can volunteer to design t-shirts carrying social messages printed on them regarding our mission and sell them to reach more public and the acquired fund we can use to buy drawing box kits for underprivileged children. By organizing the “school chale hum” campaign, we can raise funds to create a life skill kit for school children containing a bag, a pair of sports shoes, a drawing book, an inspiring storybook or an autobiography, a color box, a sketch pen set, a pencil box, and a pamphlet with 5 ways to do meditation and some templates of sudoku and puzzles. Through this campaign, anyone can donate for a single child to hundreds according to their ability. We can do multiple campaigns, crowdfunding, and raise funds for our cause. People who contribute to our cause we can shout out to them on our IG with a special thanks note, which can encourage them to contribute more often. Many people doubt what to donate or how to donate and feel embarrassed to donate if they think their amount is not significant. We can open several Google forms like if someone wants to give ration then how many families he or she will give with specific amounts with an easy payment system. It will ease them to contribute more often and feel happy. We can partner with Corporate Sector to organize workshops on communication skills like dancing, singing, storytelling, creative writing, etc. Or we can organize chess tournaments for underprivileged children. We can call for sponsorships for our monthly events and we can give shouts to sponsors in our e-newsletter. It can bring CSR funds and help their brand building. We can improve our social media presence by keeping one social media representative from every city who will post the city’s activities on social media and engage regularly. It will boost our presence and campaign. These may be some possible ways to maintain funds flowing according to Barsha and Sauvik.
Let’s contribute and act together to a promising and sustainable future!! A change we want to see. The love we want to spread and let one person live, love, laugh, and die with dignity. Happy Donating! Charity isn’t about pity; it is about love. – Mother Teresa
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