
CHENNAI: A 2x2-foot cardboard box wrapped in blue chart paper is neatly positioned in the Ramaniyam Gauravv Apartments’ lobby, drawing the attention of passersby to look in. On closer inspection, the box reads ‘Donation’ on one side and ‘TheMonthlyBox’ on the other. Three 14-year-old boys frequent the area to spread awareness about the box’s presence, its purpose and their new initiative.
These teenagers are from the Babaji Vidhyashram and have formed a non-profit organisation called TheMonthlyBox to “give back to society,” as founder and operations manager of the group, Sashwath Kedhari puts it.
Their first step in this direction was taken in July 2024, outside the campus after school hours. Thirty students gathered and were equipped with gloves, masks, and black trash bags to clean up plastic and other dry waste along the Model School Road, Sholinganallur. “We are a community and want to make sure that our service makes a difference,” points out Shyam Raghavan, founder, marketing and outreach.
In their first session, they collected ten bags of waste and dumped in the garbage bins at the street’s end. “We wanted to formalise this practice into outreach programmes to the community and make it more periodic,” explains Sashwath.
Monthly missions
Beyond the monthly clean-up drives, the trio desired to do “something different, which has a brand, where we will reach to people and take the process to a larger scale,” he adds. The team believes that the number of turnouts in donation drives would be more than the number of volunteers for a cleanup. Hence, TheMonthlyBox was born in December last year.
About the name, Shyam adds, “I think it was pretty intuitive. Instead of focusing on one thing to do, we thought what do children need? They need books, clothes, stationery, and so much more. So we formed this method wherein we have different categories of donations each month.”
With a focus on collecting different products every month, they started by collecting books. In 30 days, more than 100 hundred books were donated by the residents of the apartment. Of which, only 107 were selected. Books in poor condition, textbooks and religious books were filtered from the lot. Sashwath comments, “We should give children their own choice of belief and I believe in that. Moreover, we are not a religious non-profit and do not want to express our religious beliefs. So we just took out those books.”
The books were donated to All The Children orphanage in OMR. “We visited the place and noticed that they have built a library for the hundred kids who stay there. It was decided then to donate the books there,” mentions Shyam. Going forward, the group wishes to get affiliated with a larger organisation such as UNICEF.
For a bigger impact
“We want to become more formal in structuring and maintenance with this initiative. We would also like to spread this throughout Chennai and have a bigger impact on children. Our goal is to donate around 5,000 things this year,” notes Sashwath.
To achieve this, the team expanded their donation boxes to four more apartments this month and is collecting clothes. Depending on the sizes of the clothes, they will donate them to an orphanage or an old-age home.
Parents are a major support system for these kids who want to achieve big. “My family buys me the cardboard, chart paper and other stationery required to make the donation box. I am grateful for them,” mentions Sai Siddarth NR, founder and design head at TheMonthlyBox. Parents are also spreading the word through the apartment’s WhatsApp group.
Beyond family support, the teens are forming connections to help them in the longer run. Founder and ideator of the organisation, Dikshitha Kedhari, is the secretary of Annette’s Club, a recognised group with the Rotary Club. She says, “Since we (Rotary Club) do many community service projects, we are connected to many old-age homes, orphanages, and shelter homes that could use the support that TheMonthlyBox is aiming to provide.”
In the sea of adults, the organisation also aims to reach children. “We have a section on our website for volunteers to get involved. Entering their apartment and personal details, a box in their community can be set up. In return they get a volunteering certificate,” explains Shyam.
TheMonthlyBox’s path serves as an example of how small and simple ideas can lead to significant results. These monthly drives are a shared commitment to a brighter future.
To volunteer, reach out to TheMonthlyBox at themonthlybox.com or Instagram @the.monthly.box