BMMguru Weekly Issue 20

#BMMGuruWeekly
Daan Utsav 2018 and
their efforts of giving
back to the community
Daan Utsav is a festival of
philanthropy that aims at
becoming a part of the Indian
ethos, engaging people in the
act of giving, through money,
time, resources or skills.
Formerly known as The Joy of
Giving Week, it is celebrated
every year specifically covering
the Gandhi Jayanti week
spanning the corporate sector, a
number of NGO's and
government sectors, schools,
colleges and the general public.
To support the initiative, not
only corporates, but celebrities
have also undertaken efforts
towards spreading awareness,
volunteering and fundraising
the particular events during the
Joy of Giving Week.
The Design for Giving School
Contest in the initiative that
inspires children between the
age group 10-13 from over 10,000
private and government schools
all over India to create and
design solutions to India's
problems and implement them
during the Week.
According to the sources from
Wikipedia, the contest is
presented by Riverside School
in Ahmedabad, NID, Stanford
Design School and IDEO, in
partnership with hundreds of
educational NGOs and schools
across India.
In the respective week, Goonj,
an NGO, runs a Vastradaan
initiative (clothes collection
drive) that provides clothes and
other amenities to the far-flung
villages, after processing the
collected clothes.
Another initiative in the Utsav
is 7Days7Gifts, which attracts a
simple idea where people are
encouraged to do random acts
of kindness to people they don?t
know for every day of the week
gifting the other each day
something that is meaningful.
The Hi5 Club is an event in the
Utsav that is organised by
Bhumi and volunteers.org to
engage college students and
young people in volunteering
for a cause of their choice for
five hours during the Daan
Utsav, giving them an
opportunity to serve the nation.
Another event in the initiative
is called The Battle of the Buffet
wherein the 5-star Hotels in
Chennai and Hyderabad
provide their most lavish meals
free of cost to the NGOs of the
city, helping them reach their
targets.
This DaanUtsav is seen
spreading the message of
sharing with help of recycling.
With the help of organisations
like iVolunteer, Connect For,
Saturday Art Class, AISEC and
many more, an Art Paathshala
is being conducted in 1,187
schools across 450+ locations in
Mumbai. A 2-hour Saturday Art
Class long session will be
conducted by 25,000 volunteers
to teach children to make
Paper-Bags with the help of
newspapers which will then be
donated to shopkeepers to
promote recycling and in return
will help the children adopt the
practice of reuse, reduce and
recycle.
iVolunteer, one of the
organisations is coming up
with a community art project to
beautify the walls and streets of
Mumbai that will take place
during the first week of October.
They will also spread
awareness of art, and paint out
inspiring and motivational
messages on the walls.
With the main aim of "GIVING
BACK" to their community by
contributing to support the
plastic ban, Daan Utsav is
encouraging the practice of
recycling in the country.
- Zoyena Ansari
Cover story
06