Thousands of school-going children in Mumbai from very poor homes have a challenging time wrt their education and food. Many of the families do not have ration cards, stay in rented homes in slums and find meeting ends every month almost impossible. The family salary is between INR 8000-10000.
Going to school itself is a luxury for them. The lack of finance at home means their food is always compromised. Getting 3 nutritious meals a day plus ensuring the fees to school is paid puts a lot of stress and pressure on the parents. Parents are daily wagers, vegetable vendors, maids etc.
There are thousands of such families in Juhu, Vile Parle (West) and the Malvani slum in Malad (West) who need urgent help.
Grade 11 students of Jamnabai Narsee School, Vile Parle decided to step in and improve the quality of lives for these underprivileged students by giving them ration kits through a crowdfunding campaign. The plan was to give a ration kit for an entire year. The kit had rice, wheat, pulses, cooking oil, ghee ( a luxury for them) and is more than enough for a family of 6 people for a entire month.
The cost of the kit was approximately INR 2000 and this would dramatically impact the lives of these children and their families as it would ensure FOOD on the table and ensure less financial pressure as the INR 2000 saved is a huge amount for them.
258 students from Grade 11 were trained by the team from Bengaluru based crowdfunding platform Fueladream.com through two in-person training sessions. Each student had their own campaign with a goal of INR 24000. The campaign raised a massive amount of INR 57.69L.
Check what the students did at the link – JNS GRADE 11 CROWDFUNDING LINK.
This will impact 240 underprivileged students and their families by ensuring they get rations for an entire 12 months. The crowdfunding campaign was done in partnership with the Mumbai based MUN Charitable Trust and the Rotary Club of Mumbai Bravehearts who together are sourcing, procuring and distributing the ration kits.
This ration kit is a game-changer and makes a big difference to them. It allows them to continue to send their kids to school (as they are otherwise forced to drop out and work and earn) and the kids find it easier to focus on education when food is taken care of.
The distribution of the ration kit has already started from Dec 22 in the JUHU area and will commence in Malad by end Jan 2023. See images of how the kit is packed and some images of families getting the kit.
Ration kit distribution in-progress at Sunlight foundation in Juhu. The execution and NGO partners are the MUN foundation and the team from the Rotary Club of Bravehearts.
On Jan 5th 2023 a function was held at the school. Students and their mothers who are beneficiaries came to the JNS school along with the team from the dynamic Rotary Club of Bravehearts, the MUN foundation and Sunlight ( about 100 families in Juhu send their students to this foundation for after school classes and are the primary beneficiaries).
Grade 11 students were able to interact with them, understand their plight and situation and ration kits were handed over to them on stage. Students were able to understand how their efforts were truly making a BIG difference to the lives of these children and their families. Many of the mothers were emotional on stage as they kept saying that this kit is a massive life-safer for them. Some of the families have a father who was out of work or unable to work and this kit is literally a lifeline for them.
