Delhiites give back in abundance to the needy

NEW DELHI: With the ‘joy of giving’ week in full flow, thousands of donations are flooding Goonj collection centres present across the city. These centres are just a few of the hundreds of locations in Delhi where the underprivileged and the needy are getting a chance at experiencing joy through donations, gifts and activities being organised during the week.
Daan Utsav, the week-long event which began on October 2, has seen participation from NGOs, schoolchildren and corporates — just like every year — to give back to the needy in some form or the other. On Wednesday, NGO iVolunteer organised one such session at an oldage home in Chhatarpur, engaging the elderly residents in a number of activities to cheer them up.
“Elderly homes can be lonely places so the idea was to bring joy to them. A number of activities were organised so they could celebrate with us,” said Jaiti, relationship manager at iVolunteer.
Similar activities were held at night shelters near Chawri Bazaar. Volunteers from NGOs like Womenite brought together slum children and kids from night shelters to draw, colour and paint with prizes for winners. Arushi Kaushik, a volunteer, said, “If one cannot donate, s/he can interact with children or poor people through such events and feel the joy of making others happy.”
Online events are also becoming popular. MakeMyTrip has launched a campaign where families can buy affordable trips for their helps. Others like Snapdeal and Intex are giving away stationery kits priced at Rs 10. Big Basket has launched a grain collection drive where items like rice, sugar and dal will be collected for poor families.
According to Meenakshi Gupta, co-founder of Goonj, the response to the collection centres has been phenomenal ever since they were set up. “We have in-house collection centres as well as public centres and we have been getting people non-stop to donate items,” she said.