On the street I saw a naked child, hungry and shivering with fever. I became angry, and said to God, ``Why do you allow this? Why don't you do something?'' He said quite suddenly, ``I certainly did something. I made you.''A group of friends, all of them college students, took a decision about three years back to make qualitative use of the time they had after college hours. Vibgyor, an organisation, aiming at providing an opportunity for cultural and social expression amongst children and youth, was thus formed.They organise dance, antakshari, drawing and essay competitions for school students, with theatre and art workshops for street children also being a part of their itinerary.``We, as school students, were not exposed to as many inter-school competitions as the college students are,'' says Aditya Apte, one of the 20-member Vibgyor team, ``so we thought that if we can try and organise cultural events for school students and in the process generate funds to support needy children, it would serve an indispensable cause.'' The lack of recreational creative inputs for the children in the city extenuated their determination to make a confident beginning. The parents of the members involve themselves in the project actively by giving them new ideas and by boosting their morale.One can observe the fervour and exuberance when they talk about all their schemes and objectives. There are plans to generate funds to sponsor education of impoverished children, to aid orphanages and blind schools. The work that they have done to this effect till now includes financial aid to Sparrows, an organisation working for rehabilitation of street and working children. They are also planning a tree plantation drive to increase awareness amongst school students about environmental issues.Furthermore, the team also spends time with the children at Sparrows, the girls at the blind school in Kothrud and Shreevatsya, an orphanage on the Sassoon hospital campus. Says Sudeshana Ghare from Sparrows, ``What's nice about the attitude of these youngsters is that they aren't passively but actively involved in what they are doing.''The organisation's office is on Bhandarkar Road and they are in the process of getting the organisation registered as a charitable trust. They feel this will give them more credibility. As for the problems they face in their work process, Ajay Javdekar, another team member stated, ``Primarily problems arise when we approach prospective sponsors. Getting registered as a trust will promote fund raising.'' They hope to receive a better response from the sponsors and the public at large as a result.Interestingly, the Vibgyor team is working on designing a web page on the features of their organisation so as to reach out to a larger number of people. Rahul Mali, a team member, seconds his counterpart asserting, ``We are putting in a lot of effort, but we definitely need the support of people which will act as catalyst in achieving this.''Most of the members are postgraduate students and they do manage to take time out for the organisation. The question that arises is what becomes of Vibgyor if these students get employed outside Pune considering they are very few in number? The only solution, they say, is to induct new members.When asked about how they induct new members in the team, the answer given is very idealistic, considering they are all very young themselves. According to them, a person interested in joining the organisation is expected to talk to the existing members and convince them about his or her dedication. Once you do that successfully, you join the Vibgyor team and join in the cause of bettering our tomorrow.
