Karma | GOQii - Part 3

August 2, 2016 By Ruta Satam Leave a Comment

GOQii supports children affected during terror attacks through Ratnanidhi

Mumbai has seen some gruesome terrorist attacks in the past few years. As a result many families have lost their loved ones to these inhuman activities. Most children of these families have lost their financial support and were left with an unstable future. Given this background, the first thing that takes a back seat is always the child’s education.

Let me cite an example of one terror affected family……

“At a tender age of seven, Anjali lost her father during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. A garage worker by profession was shot in his head at Chatrapati Shivaji Terminal Railway Station. Fortunately his mother survived the attack but, was critically injured. Anjali’s younger sister Nikita was just two year old during that period. Her mother Savitri’s world came crashing down with the sudden loss of her husband leaving behind to single handed take on the responsibility of two young daughters and ailing mother in law.

Savitiri with a limited family saving couldn’t see a way to support her daughters education. Here is where an organisation called RatnaNidhi Charitable Trust (RNCT) stepped in as a saviour. She was provided scholarship for her two daughters through RNCT’s Education Sponsorship Program.

With the support of this program, Anjali has now reached to Class 9 and ranks second in her class. While her sister Nikita is happily studying in Class 4. Watching her two daughter study, Savitri was also motivated to continue her education. She has now completed her 10^th from a night school and works with the India Railway to support her family”.

RatnaNidhi Education sponsorship has been working in the field of education. This Program was commenced understanding the need to support children and families of terror attacks. Through this project, Ratnanidhi strives to break the barriers towards acquisition of education for the deprived and underprivileged section.

The Organization works hard to provide a fair chance to every child of this project, especially to the most deprived. There are more 60 children who are still in the process of completing their education and require guidance.

GOQii is currently supporting the cause through its Karma Platform and is looking for support from one and all. Walk, Run as much as you can and earn your karma points and donate them towards this wonderful initiative of educating those lesser privileged kids affected by the gruesome terror attacks.

To know more about the project visit http://www.ratnanidhi.org/Category/educational-sponsorships-for-terror-victims.

May 9, 2016 By Ruta Satam Leave a Comment

Help us create more Jyotis…

Bundelkhand is one among the most backward drought affected area in the state of Uttar Pradesh due to which seasonal migration is common from here. This in turn has led to children dropping out of school in this region.

In the patriarchal Bundelkhand society, it is preferred that girls are least educated as compared to boys. The region also has other challenges like child labour, migration, caste and gender based discrimination as far as girl child education is concerned. Infrastructural hindrance like non availability of female teacher and non-availability of functional girls’ toilets has also been forcing majority of the girls to drop out early from school.

If we want to remove discrimination from the society, first of all we have to educate the people, that enable them to understand their rights and various opportunities prevailing in the economic environment and different health related aspects.

For the past three years Oxfam and its partner organization has been working in Hamirpur district of Bundelkhand region. Efforts are focused towards establishing an improved quality of education in schools.

‘Child Collective’ is an initiative that has been started here in this region where the children of child collective are tracking all those children who have dropped out, counselling their parents with the help of School Management Committees & teachers and bringing them back into school. In the class room, they are helping out of school children to attain age and grade appropriate learning level.

Children of child collectiveare taking up issues to teachers and parents wherein teachers acts as facilitators and involve children in activity based learning.On the other hand parents prepare school development plan which supports teachers by facilitating child learning with locally available teaching and learning material. This process helps the teachers to track the implementation of Right to Education act, raise issues at Panchayat, district and state level and conduct social audit for greater transparency.

Ten strong child collectives have been developed with girls’ leading the collective. A perfect example of this project is child collective of Primary School Bada Lewaled by 11 year old Dalit girl Jyoti. She has been able to increase enrollment and improve the condition of her school through her leadership. With the collaborative effort of Parents, children and teachers, two schools have become fully ‘Right to Education’ compliant.

NGO based in Hamirpur has collectivised civil society organizations of seven Bundelkhand districts under collective forum of ‘Bundelkhand Shiksha Ka Adhikar’forum to strengthen Right to Education grievance redressal system. Oxfam and its partner has also contributed to the development of School management committee and teachers training module, school development program(SDP) format and RTE state rules in UP.

Jyoti is the beacon of education in her village. But, lakhs of children in India are yet to enter a school. Help us create more Jyotis’ to brighten the future of India

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March 11, 2016 By Ruta Satam Leave a Comment

3.9 million Karma points donated and still counting………

Here is some good news from GOQii and its Karma initiative. 5479 GOQii players have contributed a total of 39,25,968 or 3.9 million karma points to Oxfam India to support victims affected by the Tamilnadu floods of 2015. The cause is still on and we are still counting the points being contributed. An incredible impact has been created by Oxfam along with its partner organization towards helping the flood victims.

The heaviest rainfall in over a century caused widespread flooding across TN, driving thousands of people out of their homes, shutting down factories and paralysing majority of the system in the Southern State.

Highlights of the Impact created

** Extended a helping hand to about 8000 affected households

** DistributedHygiene kitsto 1327 households in Kanchipuram and Cuddalore

** Non-food items (NFI) kits distributed to 3412 Householdswith Emergency Shelter. The Shelter NFI kits contain tarpaulin sheet, groundsheet, fleece blanket, bed sheets, and mosquito net and kitchen utensils to the most affected communities. 1900 household were donated mud stove as many homes lost their mud stoves during the floods.

** Dry food ration kits were distributed to 1050 households with first round of dry ration distribution in Tamil Nadu. Dry food package included: rice, lentils/dal, sugar, tea leaves, tangerine, spices and biscuits.

** Soap and Chlorine tablet were distributed to around 2200 households were given immediate access to safe drinking water during the emergency response phase.Oxfam distributed soaps, toothpaste and 60 chlorine tablets (NADCC) per household to 750 households in Cuddalore district and 300 households in Kanchipuram district and 1200 households across three slums namely AnnaiSatya Nagar, Rajiv Gandhi Nagar and Shiva Shakti Nagar in Chennai.

** Hygiene promotion activities were carried out by the Oxfam Team along with a group of trained volunteers in Cuddalore and Kanchipuram. The main focus of the hygiene promotion activities was on safe hand washing demonstration and safe sanitation practice. The target audience were women and children. Volunteers distributed hygiene kits to 7 villages.

** Debris and Village cleaning along with Public Health Promotion demonstrations has been completed in 11 villages in Cuddalore district and 2 villages in Kanchipuram district.Oxfam successfully completed debris cleaning in one of the worst affected slums in Chennai city- Koyambude (St. Thomas Nagar new colony).

** There were 14 Latrine constructed in Kanchipuram, 25 toilets in Cuddalore and toilet block in AnnaiSatya Nagar is underway.

The cause is still on as Oxfam is aiming to reach 8,000 households or approximately 48,000 persons (direct beneficiaries) in Cuddalore district and Chennai city. Oxfam is continuously monitoring the situation on the ground and will expand the response to other districts as per need. GOQii players who have yet not contributed towards this cause, here is your chance to support and make a difference.

February 29, 2016 By Ruta Satam 1 Comment

From Soul to Sole

Just as clothes are important to cover oneself, Shoes is also important to cover your feet from the hard ground. Lack of a shoe in your feet can cause a lot of wear and tear in the foot tendons, ligaments as well as bones. Additionally, hookworms, a leading cause of disease in developing countries, enter the body through the foot, usually when a person steps in infected dirt. The use of shoes is the best way to prevent infection by hookworms.

Sadly, today a lot of people and children alike from the background walk barefoot, not by choice, but because they cannot afford a pair of shoes or slippers. And then there is this affluent class or fairly privileged class of people who have several pairs of shoes and seldom know what to do with the extra pair that has got old and lying in the corner.

Understanding this disparity and the importance of footwear for one and all, two young lads from Mumbai Shreyans Bhandari and Ramesh Dhami started Green Sole, a social venture that collects discarded shoes, refurbishes them and makes comfortable footwear for the underprivileged.

The idea is to provide these shoes to the neediest through corporate, NGOs and schools. The seeds of this idea was sowed when Shreyans and Ramesh started running for fitness and ran hundreds of kilo meters every year participating in various Marathons. And through their runs they also lost three to four pairs of sport shoes each year.

They found that the soles were in good condition but, the shoe sides tore within months. The duo wondered if they could find some use for the intact soles of these quality sport shoes. Research led them to the idea of recycling and refurbishing them into trendy slippers. That brainwave eventually spawned an eco-friendly enterprise that reuses shoe soles and is appropriately named “Greensole”.

So far Greesole has distributed over 3000 footwear in Kondana village, Maharashtra and to homeless in Mumbai. There are several corporate entities who are joining this initiative of collecting old shoes and donating them to Greensole.

GOQii haspart of their Karma initiative has partnered with Greensole to provide its users a platform where they can donate their footwear or contribute their karma points towards those individuals who are deprived of a footwear. The idea is walk more to get healthy.

GOQii and Greensole will also be hosting on-ground workshops for GOQii users and provide all those interested an opportunity to lend their hands to make shoes for the under-privileged.