Journalism of Courage
Many NGOs in the city will come together to organise awareness programmes and fundraisers during Joy of Giving Week
A city’s vitality is proven when it heartily hosts a week-long ‘celebration of giving’. This motto is the inspiration behind the Joy of Giving Week (JGW). Started in 2009,the philanthropy event has strung together over 40 cities into a combined movement of giving. Pune joined the bandwagon last year and literally blazed a trail with a record number of over 70 events. In the 2011 edition,to be on from October 2 to 8,many of the same NGOs as last year are repeating signature events and introducing new ones. “There are 37 events registered on the JGW website as of now and there are possibly more which haven’t been registered,” says Hema Lumba,part of the JGW team.
One more active participant this year is the online shopping portal,SheepStop. Started in 2009,SheepStop has participated in the events right from its inception year. They are associated with the NGO Deep Griha,located on Tadiwala road,and will help them raise funds and collect clothes for underprivileged children. “Most people who donate do so without putting much thought into it,” says SheepStop founder,Bhagyashree Dixit. “Deep Griha often gets heaps of torn,faded and stained clothes. That’s not of much value to them,” she adds. To reverse this trend,SheepStop will collect donations of clothes that are in relatively good condition,repack them and then present them to the children. Every donor will receive a SheepStop voucher worth Rs 50. For every two tees bought on the site,one brand new tee will be donated to Deep Griha. “For these children,receiving a well-packaged,new designer tee is almost unheard of. These are brilliant kids,but of poor means. They deserve these gifts as much as anybody else,” says Dixit.
