As per a 2019 Times of India report,
India is home to nearly 2 crore orphans, and approximately 9500 registered
orphanages to house them. India is also home to 728 officially registered, and
many more unregistered, old-age homes. A concerning percentage of these
orphanages and care homes are underfunded, which means that many of them cannot
even afford to feed three square meals to the people in their care. With this
worrisome phenomenon in mind, the Ek Mutthi Anaaj (A Fistful of Grain)
initiative was formulated by the volunteers of the Sevavardhini Foundation.
As a part of this initiative, volunteers
go to housing societies and collect donations of food grains, which are then
distributed to orphanages and old-age homes across the city. They collect
wheat, rice, and lentils from the housing societies that participate in this
initiative. Their request is simple: donate just a fistful of grain so that no
one has to sleep hungry ever again.
May 2023 was the 23rd month
of the Ek Mutthi Anaaj initiative. In this month alone, 22,540 families from 54
housing societies contributed to donate a total of 3,293 kg of foodgrains. Over
470 generous volunteers – of which 76 were women – worked to popularize the
initiative among their societies. The collected grains were handed over to two
old-age homes in Pune – Shankar Maharaj Mandal Old Age Home (430 kg) and
Karuneshwar Old Age Home (2864 kg).
If you or someone you know is interested
in bringing this initiative to your housing society, please do reach out to us
via WhatsApp on the following phone numbers:
Manoj Upadhyay – 9850597704
Rahul Agarkar – 9822521181
If you wish to make a monetary
contribution, please use the Donate link above.
Your generous contributions to this
noble cause will be highly appreciated.