When the pandemic disengaged urban and rural children from physical classroom to formal education, this campaign was about using drawing as a way of expression to children stuck at their homes. Successfully implemented across 15 states. The post Kalakriti Campaign appeared first on Goonj ..read more

At Goonj, we celebrate Tarang, a campaign to spread some joy among children across urban and rural India. In cities, we invite you to your nearest Goonj office for a book exchange where you can swap any two of your regional language or children’s books and get a novel. In villages across India, our teams go to schools and work with the communities to initiate fun learning activities in rural schools. The post Tarang appeared first on Goonj ..read more

Children complete a series of tasks to complete this challenge. The children who complete the challenge visit the Goonj processing centres to understand how their material is being re-utilized and are presented with a winner’s badge. Tasks include collecting newspapers from home, neighbors and friends, creating a goody bag for 3 rural children, making ‘Goonj Ki Gullak’ (meaning Goonj’s piggy bank) from waste material, etc. The post Summer Challenge appeared first on Goonj ..read more

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The post Fellowship Convocation 2022 appeared first on Goonj ..read more

In an attempt to address the problems associated with forced migration and to create livelihood opportunities, Goonj along with its partner organization, developed a sustainable and profitable model of Community Farming to help the local communities of Beed (Maharashtra) under Goonj’s ‘Vaapsi’ (Livelihood) initiative to support around 160 individuals with seeds and farming materials apart from backing them in procuring 15 acres of land on lease and in contributing towards the first year’s rent. With the participants undertaking the planting of soybean, cauliflower and cabbage on large areas, t ..read more

The villagers of Kachuberia,on Sagar Island in the Sundarbans delta of West Bengal, have to face frequent cyclones as a part of their lives, living as they do so close to nature. The recent Yaas cyclone in  Kachuberia completely destroyed their small village community hall, washing away everything with it. When Team Goonj started to mobilize the community we found that this hall was very important for holding community events, while during disasters it was used to store relief material. Our teams motivated the local community to evolve their own solution under Goonj’s ‘Dignity for Work’ I ..read more

Mahavir’s small makeshift hairdresser shop got swept away in the Kosi floods. Tired of living in relief camps for weeks, with no source of sustenance he didn’t know how to rebuild his life. After the Kosi floods, Goonj identified people who either had low investment occupations like Mahavir or were interested in starting one. Goonj contributed basic occupational kits to them. In return, people would need to do some shramdaan (voluntary labor) for their own community. More than 30 different kinds of local skills were identified and kits made accordingly. Vaapsi was thus born. When Mahavir got a ..read more

Goonj partners with one Teacher and parents to change the face of their school in Karnataka What can one person do? We often ask ourselves. Here’s a story of a teacher, Kitti M.C from Obalapura, Vijayanagar, Karnataka who is devoting his last years teaching young students from 1st to 5th standard, motivating them towards education. He has also been working on the issue of absenteeism and increasing dropout rates of young children. When Goonj’s School to school initiative team partnered with him, together we mobilized and motivated 65 people including many parents of the students of Murar Gove ..read more

When we met a young group of women in Rayate in Kalyan block, Thane district, Maharashtra, we could immediately sense that they were rearing to start something of their own. All they needed was a little nudge. We connected with our local partner Yuva Sanskar Bahuuddeshiya Samajik Sanstha, to mobilise these 34 women, organise 5 sewing machines for them to start learning tailoring.“Earlier, if we wanted to take sewing instructions, we had to travel go a long way”, says Sujata Deepak Kathore, a trainee, “and as a result, we were unable to participate in those training programs. #Tailoring is a wa ..read more