INDIAdonates Collaborates with Noida-based corporate, Roto Pumps for Infrastructure Development of Greater Noida Government School

Friday, 12th May 2023, marked an important event in Junior High School, Dhoom Manikpur, with the commencement of Infrastructure Development activities in the school. The school students had been putting up with washrooms that were worn and broken, non-hygienic, unclean, and unsanitary. INDIAdonates, supported by Roto Pumps, have taken up a project to reconstruct the washrooms, clean and upgrade them and provide running water. A brand new handwashing station with running water will also be built for the students. Noida-based NGO Sadrag will be implementing the infrastructure development project.
 

An Inauguration Event was held on Friday to mark this important work's initiation and teach the importance of sanitation and hygiene among the students. The Event was attended by Mr. Kuldeep Tiwari, Deputy Manager, Corporate Affairs, and Mr. Anuj Kumar, Executive HR from Roto Pumps, Ms. Anuradha Singh, Trustee, INDIAdonates, as well as Retd. Major General Praveen Kumar, Advisory Board Member at Sadrag. The guests, along with Ms. Shushma Rani, Principal of JHS, Dhoom Manikpur, marked the initiation of the excellent work with a symbolic tree plantation ceremony.

Addressing the students, Ms. Anuradha Singh, Trustee of INDIAdonates, talked about sanitation and hygiene's central role in ensuring children's health, well-being, and good education. The children pledged to practice good hygiene and keep their school and surroundings clean and green.

Freemasons of Telangana Distribute Tools to 30 Street Vendors, Petty, Small Traders and Women Doing Business From Home to Re-start Their Livelihood Which They Lost Due to Pandemic

Mr. Rajeev Ramkrishna Khandelwal, Grand Moster of Grand Lodge of India along with 30 petty traders, beneficiaries who received tools from Freemsons of Telagana

Freemasons of Telangana distributed on Saturday evening in a brief function held at Goshamahal Baradari Masonic Building, tools to 30 street vendors, petty, small traders and women doing business from home to re-start their livelihood which they lost due to Pandemic

It was done for the 6th time in a row. And so far 180 people have benefited. It was done under the initiative ‘Gift-A-Livelihood’, which Freemasons of Telangana embarked on in August last year. Since then six times the distribution of the tools was taken up at different intervals.

The funds required for the initiative are contributed by members and philanthropic individuals. The major portion of today’s distribution was sponsored by Dallas Area Telangana Association and Lodges(clubs).

An initiative of Freemasons of Telangana to support petty traders, street vendors, small businessmen, women restart their business.

Gift-A-Livelihood, an initiative of Freemasons of Telangana, where it distributed tools to 30 petty traders to restart their business lost due to pandemic

Mr Rajeev Khandelwal, Most Worshipful the Grand Master of Grand Lodge of India the head of Freemasonry in India; Mr Anish Kumar Sharma, Grand Master Elect and Right Worshipful the Regional Grand Master, Regional Grand Lodge of Northern India; Mr Madan Mohan Lal, Mr G. Maddulette, Mr D. Ramchandram, the three Assistant Regional Grand Masters graced the function.

The spouses of these guests Mrs Bandana, Mrs Madan Mohan Lal, Mrs Jaya Madduleti, Mrs Kalpana gave away tools to the beneficiaries. The 30 beneficiaries include those who want to set up a Tea-Stall; Bangles Store, stationery Shop, Isthri Shop (pressing clothes), Tailorshop, Tiffin Center etc. They have come from different parts of Telangana.

The notable thing in this round of initiative is that there is a teacher, Mr Srisailam, a private teacher from Warangal who lost his job and now is working as a Shepherd. He wants to set up a Tiffin Centre for which he sought utensils. There are a couple of more teachers, who lost their job and learnt tailoring as an alternative livelihood and want to set stitching centres.

Gifting livelihood makes more sense than feeding. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. With this noble thought, the Gift-A-Livelihood started last year. ‘Gift a Livelihood’ to someone who needs it the most. It helps someone earn a better and more sustainable living. Today we ‘gifted a livelihood’ to a person and persons who we believe are hardworking and motivated but lack the right skills and tools for the job. I am sure they will make use of it. Many beneficiaries in the past who we visited are doing well and making dignified livelihoods. They have been earning a comfortable living and are happy with the kind of work they have been getting.

Govt Launches Crowdfunding Website for Rare Disease Patients

Though the country has quite a few online portals for crowdfunding the treatment of patients with disabilities or diseases, for example - Ketto, Milaap and GiveIndia among others. It is for first time that the government of India has also launched a digital portal for crowdfunding patients with medical emergencies as the Department of Health and Family Welfare has launched a Digital Portal for Crowdfunding & Voluntary Donations for the treatment of patients of Rare Diseases in accordance with the mandate of the National Policy for Rare Diseases 2021. 

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Dr Bharti Pravin Pawar informed about this first of a kind initiative by government, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today. The digital portal is designed, developed and hosted by Centre for Health Informatics (CHI) of the National Health Portal (NHP).

"In view of the high cost of treatment, resource constraints and competing health priorities, it is difficult for the Government to fully finance rare disease treatments. To fill this gap this digital platform for individual, corporate and other donors has been created by the Government for facilitating voluntary donations for the treatment of patients with rare disease",  said the website homepage.

The Digital Portal may be accessed through https://rarediseases.nhp.gov.in/

To make a donation one has to register if making a donation for the first time. However, having registered once, a person may login with his/her set of credentials and can donate. 

There are about 7000 known rare diseases, affecting around 8% of the world’s population. 75% of rare disease patients happen to be children, mentions the crowdfunding portal.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals has initiated the implementation of Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Pharmaceuticals. The Scheme provides for financial incentives to manufacturers selected under the scheme for domestic manufacturing of various product categories, which also include Orphan drugs. The guidelines for the Scheme are available on the website of the Department of Pharmaceuticals under the tab ‘Schemes’.

Vidyashilp Student-run Tavasya Foundation Donates Masks To Govt School Students Appearing for 10th Board Exams

Masks Handover - Tavasya Foundation

In a gesture of compassion, the Vidyashilp Academy student-run Tavasya Foundation has donated 24,100 masks to Bengaluru Government School students who are writing their 10th board exams. The masks have been handed over to Mr. T.N. Kamalakara, Block Education Officer, N4 Region. This is a small gesture of solidarity intended to help students take their exams in a safe manner.

The Vidyashilp Academy students who led this initiative include Avika Kapur, Reidheii Shetty, Pranathi Kundur, Riya Suhas, Bhumika Prasad, Aanyi Anil, Rizwana Jaliwala, and Aditri Prasad. The Foundation has also recently organized the ‘Mayuksha’ project in which they collaborated with a government affiliated facility and vaccinated 100+ under-privileged citizens in the city.

Commenting on the gesture of the students and the Vidyashilp community trust, Mr. T.N. Kamalakara, Block Education Officer N4 Region, said: “Touching acts of kindness by organisations and individuals have helped many amid these challenging times. In the context of the pandemic, we should take precautions to prevent spread of the corona virus and hence the idea of the students to donate masks to students in such a context is very commendable. At this hour of need, it is imperative that more people come forward to help in cohesion and do our best for the community.”

Ms. Radhika Pai, Head, Vidyashilp Community Trust said: “Although the daily number of COVID-19 cases has dropped significantly, the danger of the virus is still there as there are speculations of the third wave arriving soon. It is important to help students in the critical times that we live in. While sanitizing is important, wearing masks is also vital to prevent spread of the virus. The idea of donating masks by the students is very appropriate.These are exceptionally challenging times, but we feel confident that as a community, we can get through this together. We deeply appreciate the efforts of our students who are upholding their social responsibilities.”

“We wanted to do our bit and give back to society. We thought of donating masks to government school students who would be in need of them at this hour. At Vidyashilp Academy, we are given such platforms to understand the importance of social welfare initiatives. We hope that many more students would come forward to serve society to the best of their capacity,” said the students of Vidyashilp Academy who initiated this project.