This AFS India Day Celebrations, we’re reaching out to all the Volunteers, Schools & well-wishers to become an agent of change by participating in the activity mentioned below. The campaign will be open whole of November 2019 and final submissions of reports and other details will be done during the first week of December 2019.
Campaign 01: Include & Appreciate
Target: Cleaners, Maids, Peon, Help, etc.
While we are busy living our lives, there are those who help us bring ease and comfort in our lives such as the cleaners around us, maids who work for us 24 hours, peons who make our day easier and other help around the house, etc. They work hard to ascertain that our lives are there even though they can’t afford basic requirements of living. Through this campaign, our aim is to show our appreciation, love and care to the people who are there for us in the background to make our life easier, simpler and beautiful. Here are the top things you can do for them:
- Donate Groceries/Eatables: Hunger is a major challenge in India. There are families who only eat twice a day because they can’t afford a third meal. Go out, buy groceries, make food for them.
- Collection Drive: By conducting collection drives for food, clothes, old stuff, appliances, furniture, books, blankets and other necessities one can help the needy people. These collection drives can be conducted in schools, offices or locality and reaches to the neediest people. It is one of the easiest way to help. Contact the organizations who work for needy people to find out what they need and then organize collection drive by setting up containers at schools, or local premises in which people can drop off donations, ask offices to donate to the drive. Reach out to your local restaurants, ask them to give you the leftover food which you can be easily used to feed the needy. Donating clothes especially in winter season when the weather is too cold is of great help to the poor and needy people. Unneeded stuff can be donated to brighten someone else’s day.
- Listen and Understand: Understand the needs and requirements of the poor and needy people. Help them overcome the adversities of life. One can help the needy people by understanding their wants, desires and thoughts without diminishing their dignity and helping them achieve those wants in a respectable manner. Also, one should treat the needy people with respect and understanding. This would make a huge difference in their lives. Give them the same respect and courtesy you would accord your friends and family members. Respond them with a kind word and a smile.
- Create First Aid Kits: While we know the importance of healthy living and taking care of ourselves, it’d be great and appreciative if one can create a first aid kits for the people in the need.
- Doctor Visit: Take out time to hear the challenges they are facing. If needed, take them for a doctor visit. Buy them medicines and pay for the expenses.
- Organize an Event: There is so much untapped potential here. You could organize a benefit concert, a rally, a 5k run, a food festival with local contributors, a carnival, etc. These large-scale events, although they require significant planning and organization, will draw large crowds. If you’re lucky, the event might even be covered by local or national news stations. Use these platform to have a collection drive at a larger scale.
While there can be many other ideas, we’d like to take the initiative to show your love to the people who are always there for us – making our lives easier and beautiful. Create your plan and share it with us.
We’d love to hear more of your ideas on both of the campaigns. Please reach out to Harshita at harshita.bhatt@afs.org to share your ideas for the AFS India Day Celebrations. The celebrations will be open during the whole month of November 2019.
We look forward to hearing from you!