CHENNAI: As the country reeled under the pandemic-induced lockdown in early 2020, a philanthropic bug bit the 26-year-old Ashok Kumar. Despite donating food to the needy with a part of his salary every month since 2018, when he got a job in the corporate sector, Kumar felt he needed to do something more. The answer came to him in the form of ‘Vaazhvi’, an NGO he started with two of his college mates, Gokul Ram and D Balaram, in July 2020.
The NGO was initially started to provide food to the needy, but as the team began expanding, they ventured into other avenues as well. As of now, the NGO has over 180 volunteers across India, most of them in their 20s. Vaazhvi has provided food to over 23,000 people across India, especially in Tamil Nadu, since 2020. It also has two other branches to help animals, including pets, and also a child education and welfare programme. “When the team began expanding, we increased the magnitude of food distribution and distributed food in over 11 districts in TN and gradually to states like Maharashtra, Uttarakhand and Karnataka,” Kumar says.
Educating children on ‘life skills’
When the second wave of the pandemic mellowed down, some of the volunteers of the NGO decided to branch out and started Children Empowerment Welfare Programme (CEWP) in July 2021, on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Vaazhvi, in which they give community-based education to the children.
Head of CEWP Rathi Adarshi says, “There are institutions and government schools that teach the curriculum for free. We wanted to equip children with a comprehensive educational curriculum that enables them to face the real challenges of life.” She also says that they decided to start this as the children from rural and economically backward communities mostly don’t have the same level of access to resources and lack basic life skills.
The NGO has a hybrid operational model where the classes are held in both online and offline mode. To provide resources for the kids to be able to access online classes, the NGO sourced a laptop and speaker for every student through crowdfunding. The offline classes are conducted at Ramamoorthy Education and Rehabilitation Trust in Ramapuram.The team also has a psychologist who validates the curriculum prepared by the volunteers.
Helping the strays
The NGO has another branch called ‘Pamper the Pets’, through which it provides food to stray dogs in Chennai and Puducherry. They also provide 24/7 guidance to pet owners and animal lovers through this.
Dr Aravinth Ram, one of the primary volunteers of Pamper the Pets, says, “The most common doubts pertain to vaccination, deworming and the correct time to separate the mother and child, if one is considering adoption. Some people call us about how to help injured dogs on the road.” “We collect funds, source meat from local meat shops, ask the cooks in the area to cook food for the dogs and feed them,” Dr Ram explains the microeconomic model of this programme.
The team plans on expanding throughout India in five years. They are also working on a centralised helpline to spread awareness on different schemes offered by different States and render help, if necessary.
(Pamper the Pets can be reached at 73586 75268)