BENGALURU: While one often wonders if humanity is dying out in a city like Bengaluru where the rat race is daunting, kind acts by a handful restore faith. The Wall of Kindness, an initiative by the Rotary Club, has seen people pouring in clothes, shoes and utensils among a host of other things.
Built by the Rotary Club of Basaweshwar Nagar last month, it was inspired by a similar initiative by Rotary Kushalnagar. “We started a month ago and the response has been good with people donating clothes, books, umbrellas, shoes, utensils in large numbers,” says
Raghava Reddy, president of Rotary Basaveshwaranagar Trust. In another part of town near Majestic Bus Stand, which is teeming with people at any given hour, items for the needy are picked up and dropped off at the Upparapete Police Out Post at no charge. The initiative by Ravi D Channanavar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (West), in November 2018, has seen B’lureans dropping off items generously.
While food wastage is a growing problem in the city, a community fridge in BTM Layout is trying to tackle this. Dr Issa Fathima Jasmine, managing trustee, The Public Foundation, started her first ‘community fridge’ in August 2017 in Chennai and went on to instal three others in Chennai soon after.
After looking at this, Harish Kumar, a resident of BTM Layout reached out to Dr Jasmine to collaborate and open ‘The Public Fridge’ in BTM Layout, in November 2017. “A lot of donors and recipients keep coming. I have interacted with a mother who resides in the Ambedkar slum nearby and she tells me that the fridge has been feeding her four sons for the past year,” says Kumar.
Taking a cue, the Brookefield Layout Association launched a community fridge in Brookefield in January 2018. “The fridge has been feeding many people on a daily basis. When we launched the initiative, I thought it wouldn’t run for too long, but now I can say that the response has been overwhelming,” says Richard D, trustee of the Brookefield Layout Association.
The IT capital even has an e-commerce platform Share At Door Step (SADS) to share items that are gathering dust at home. Donors can select an NGO to which they would like to donate to (on the SADS website) and schedule a pickup for the items. While they do charge a fee for the donation of these items, from time to time, donors are rewarded with gifts.
Looks like Bengalureans are taking the adage ‘when you have more than you need, build a longer table, not a fence’ seriously.