Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Reconnecting Dots - donating Water Purifier at Swanthana Care

A refreshing experience with Reconnecting Dots. A simple concept and effective. Raise fund for a social cause and execute it. Nothing much new. But it is the manner of doing the job that speaks volume.

The event was donating two 25 liter water purifiers for Swanthana Care. Reconnecting Dots, not only ensured installation, but the quality of purifiers (to avoid cheaper quality purifying rods). And when the hired workers for installation got to know nature of the job, they took it to their heart as well and generously contributed towards donations!

On the event day, there were school kids from different classes come to visit the mentally and physically challenged children. The kids performed dances and then volunteers from Reconnecting Dots joined hands with school students in visiting and distributing chocolates (which had to be hand fed in most cases). One couldn't but help recall the movie - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

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We then got to see the various classrooms (all colorfully decorated, with plenty of sketches plastered all over) as well as specialized seating/sleeping arrangements. Lunch was getting ready for the kids. We then formally took part in unveiling of the water purifiers. Some volunteers had brought children books, which they donated to the institute.

After which, we gathered in a room. Pranesh, director of Enable India (which works to train differently-abled and get them placed), took us through his journey of leaving job and joining Enable India. His most pertinent lesson was to stop perceiving the kids as disabled and hence to be pitied upon - instead focus on what they could learn and achieve. An example being the use of spectacles over coming eye defections. He then distributed coffee mugs to us all - another initiative by Reconnecting Dots to reduce use of paper cups in office.

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Some of us left after that, while the remaining volunteers took to feeding the kids their lunch. So, a very good experience of crowd funding and crowd sourcing working well for a cause - Reconnecting Dots, Enable India, volunteers, fund raising, the institute as well as workers installing the water purifiers contributed to fund.

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