Have you walked 20 km to attend school? Or visited a neighbouring district only by foot? It might be beyond imagination for people like you and me, living the urban life, for whom hailing a cab comes as naturally as blinking. But for the majority of the population in rural India it’s a hardcore reality.
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In the Nanivali village of Palghar district of Maharashtra, the bus stop by the main road offered no waiting shed for the locals. With waiting time extending for more than an hour on any normal day, people (including school going children) often had to stand in the open and had to face the vagaries of weather,
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Karamba, a remote village in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand, houses just 19 families. To reach the village, one has to cross 3 km of dense forest and a rivulet. During monsoons, the settlement gets completely cut off as the water level of the rivulet, Jhari, rises to life-threatening levels, and the absence of a pucca road adds to the locals’ woes.
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Sandwiched between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, Bundelkhand comprises 13 districts from both the states. With extreme temperatures in summers and winters, the region is prone to severe drought in the summers. With many of the tribal hamlets located on the hilly terrains, proper connectivity to mainstream society is still a distant dream for many in Bundelkhand.
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It only took 50 people to make this 100 ft X 6ft bamboo bridge, just in 3 days.. No engineers or experts from outside and no money paid. Goonj team motivated people of Langtha (Porja chuk), Golaghat district, Assam to reduce their commute of 5 kms to half a kilometer!!! Everyone received carefully made Goonj Family Kit as a reward for their efforts.
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When was the last time you visited a park and sat quietly on a bench, observing your surroundings in peace? Benches in public space are very useful…inviting any passer-by to sit and relax. In villages, people from different backgrounds use benches to spend time together, thus acting as a silent community builder..
Motivated by Goonj,
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Bundelkhand has been a region of drought for many decades but this year it saw a 360-degree turn resulting in heavy rains and floods, devastating houses and kaccha roads. When the only village road of Kyolari village in Lalitpur district got badly damaged by floods our Goonj team mobilized people here. They decided to work together to repair this road using locally available material.
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Sometimes simple ideas work more effectively than complex solutions.. This story located approximately 6000ft above sea level is a perfect example.. Darma is the trans-Himalayan valley of Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. The Tribal community of Darma ‘Rung’ also known as Darmiyani, the residents of this valley are facing the challenge of plastic and non- biodegradable waste destroying the sensitive ecology of the mountains.
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Munsiyari in Uttarakhand is a beautiful town nestled amongst the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. The scenic views are a well kept secret among mountaineers and trekkers who often use it as a base camp. But it is the women of Malla Ghorpatta, a village next to Munsiyari, who are the real jewels, given their amazing solidarity and sense of purpose.
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A village is considered electrified, if 10 percent of all the households have electricity and it is also there in the public places like schools, health centers and panchayat bhawan etc. and if we go with this strange criteria close to 35,000 villages are not electrified (as per records of Govt. of India, 2012) out of over 6.00 lakh villages!!
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The internship’s purpose is to inculcate leadership qualities in high school students, give them a platform to explore the professional sphere and increase school engagement. High school (Grades 9 to 12) is the time when students participate in extracurricular activities to develop and discover career prospects. This experience will act as a driving force towards learning while enjoying and spending time mindfully.
Number of hours- 15 hours Per Week
Students will be tasked with making the people around them aware of Goonj and its various initiatives. They will also encourage them to recycle, up cycle and contribute underutilised goods to Goonj so that they can be reused. The students will additionally be engaged in observing and learning what happens behind the scenes. If there are any specific skill sets you have, please inform us beforehand.
In the end, what you learn from your stay at Goonj is up to you 🙂
An 11-year-old girl from Srimitra Solitaire Apartment in Kasanavahalli, where the collection drive and gullak-making session were held, not only participated in the gullak-making session but also assisted her friends and other participants by sharing the extra materials she had brought. She was extremely helpful and enthusiastic in sharing the idea of making gullak more creative.
She made three gullaks out of various sets of materials she had gathered. The first gullak she made was from the hard box cover of Horlicks, the second from an old tin jar, and the third from the potli she had brought. During the interaction with her, she emphasized that gullak is a reminder that we must give back to the world in order to make it a better place. The session like gullak making clearly made Goonj’s continuous effort and vision to make the world a better place to live into a pragmatic sphere.
Toward the end of the session, the children created the innovative gullak with the intention of saving money and contributing it to a good cause.
On the same lines of the Dalai Lama, who says that our prime purpose in life is to help others, we wish to highlight the story of a selfless volunteer whose persistent help is reaching the needy through Goonj.
Dipanjana ji has been associated with the Kolkata team for the past 3 years. In the early days, she used to send material to the office and for the past year she has been actively involved with Goonj in various ways. Previously, she has participated in offline crowdfunding during the Nepal earthquake and cyclone Amphan, where she had collected a good amount and contributed to Goonj. Her affinity to be of help didn’t stop there, she now voluntarily keeps aside some amount every month to help Goonj in some way possible and has opened her place to be one of Goonj Kolkata’s dropping centers.
She has had a zero-waste outlook in life, from the time she used to shift places and had to make the most of every resource around her, to now when she is making use of every possible piece of material in her capacity to repurpose it into wearable clothes for Goonj. Her flare to carve sculptures out of unused wood has translated into upcycling clothes for the needy.
She recently procured bulk material and worked upon how to get it stitched and mended. A lot of ideations went into making the best use of them. Some ways she adopted to repurpose different pieces of clothes include making tops and petticoats out of oversized pants, transforming swimwear into a set of top and bottom wear, made tops out of cushion covers and covered some unwanted spots and faults using her unique ideas. Her outlook was to make clothing that the communities in need can utilize. Later, finely ironed and folded pairs of cloth in bulk were dropped at Goonj. It’s unlike her, she says, to give away something that is not in proper condition and it not just aligns with the outlook of Goonj but highlights that dignity is deserved by all.
It is always possible to be kind and Dipanjana ji is a living embodiment of it. She came down to the office and interacted with all the processing unit workers, showed them how she looked at different material, taught some tips and tricks to upcycle so that they could also implement it by themselves. The interaction was loved by processing center workers and she left them with many insights, a fresh spirit and in awe of her work.
Her approach echoes, ‘I want to teach someone, learn something, help somehow’. She draws satisfaction from helping the society, as much as she can in her capacity. Goonj is ever happy to be the platform for her kind gestures of selflessness, towards making society a better place. It is not often that we come across volunteers like Dipanjana ji and when we do, it feels imperative to highlight such stories to inspire the generosity in mankind.
A Public collection camp is conducted in the Besant Nagar by the volunteer Mr. Aravind Srinivasan in his home. Once the Goonj team member reached there to co-ordinate with collection drive, he welcomes the person with water and breakfast. The hospitality was very nice. He arranged the tables, chairs, etc which are needed to start the camp. Once, all are set, he shared the information in a WhatsApp group. All the contributors started coming to the drive and dropped the material. He came forward and explained to the contributors about the process in the processing unit and also about the initiatives of Goonj. The contributors who are not aware of the location, he shared the map and also guided them to reach to the drive while going to some walkable distance. This was a great and tremendous support from him. When handed over the souvenir to him, he politely refused stating to give to the contributors. After successful completion of the drive, he requested a person from his neighbour to load the material in the vehicle. Not only he supported in loading the material, her daughter also supported in loading the materials in the vehicle. The volunteer is soft hearted, down to earth person.
The internship’s purpose is to make college students as well as other graduates from various fields strong willed, goal-oriented individuals while also presenting them with a career path. Interning at Goonj is an opportunity to have fun while creating change. We aim at opening a vault of fresh and new ideas and suggestions which can be taken up by the young changemakers.
Number of hours- 150 hours (1 month)
For a wilful, multi-lingual and inquisitive person, the sky is the limit. Here at Goonj you will be tasked with various activities and opportunities which will take you on a whirlwind of self-discovery while having tons of fun. During your internship you get to organize and be a part of various awareness initiatives organized by Goonj. If there are any specific skill sets which you have, please inform us so we can proceed in that direction.
There is no good or bad time to apply but make sure that you are available to dedicate a month fully for the social internship.
In the end, what you learn from your stay at Goonj is up to you 🙂
