Citizenship Programme's collection drive for tue flood hit across India

The Goonj Foundation founded by Mr. Anshu Gupta has started an initiative, Rahat to help those suffering after the floods in Assam, UP and Uttarakhand, this year. Last week, The Citizenship Programme connected with Goonj and initiated a campaign at School to support this cause. The Citizenship captains and vice captains went from class to class explaining to the children about the tragedies caused by the havoc of the floods. They appealed for contributions of dry food, clothes, shoes, umbrellas, stationery, books and utensils. The children were urged to contribute whatever they could, easily, with the request that everything must be in a very good condition and neatly packed and labeled. Over the next few days, students brought in the items for donation, which were then further sorted, segregated, neatly packed, and labelled by student volunteers. [gallery link="file"] On 1st August 2016, 4 students Priyanka Arora, Manan Chhabra, Mayank Khatri and Simran Narula, along with Vice Principal Dr. Anu Singh and Citizenship Coordinator, Ms. Sangeeta Aswani collected and delivered 103 cartons of contribution to the Goonj Foundation in Sarita Vihar. At the Goonj office, the group was shown around the various activities being done there. They saw how items received are first carefully segregated and then reassembled to make them more useful. For example, a wedding kit is created with items suitable for both the bride and groom, a family kit with clothing and shoes for the whole family and an Anganwadi kit which consists of toys, clothes and shoes for children attending a at a day care shelter. The group got to know about the various initiatives being taken by Goonj like Rahat ( this time doing flood relief and others like Vastra Samman, where basic clothing is provided to people affected by natural disaster and the homeless who are forced to sleeping out on the on the pavements in the cold. Another programme is the Cloth For Work initiative where clothes are offered as a reward to those who help in the development of their own villages. In fact we were told that the NJPC- Not Just a Piece of Cloth is a campaign that addresses the need for society to accept menstruation as something natural and not consider it a taboo. In this campaign Goonj has developed my pad a homemade pad made with pieces of cloth, for women and adolescents and these are sent to numerous villages across the country. There are women who are employed to make quilts from saris and to check every pair of shoes received for damages and to then ensure that they are made usable. Another section of the operation deals similarly with school uniforms, stationery and musical instruments. Visiting this NGO was indeed an invaluable eye-opener for each of us. Simran Narula, Citizenship Vice Captain.