For the last three years, college students and young professionals in Madurai have been periodically donating rice and other grocery items to various orphanages and old age homes. But ‘bucket’ was not the buzzword and neither were the ‘selfies’ in vogue in the social media.
The youths simply donated various items to the neglected and abandoned children and senior citizens without bothering whether the world should know. Theirs has been a silent service in feeding the hungry without putting a name to their act of charity.
Only after Manju Latha Kalanidhi from Hyderabad gave a brilliant desi twist to the global charity chain -- the Ice Bucket Challenge -- and called it the Rice Bucket Challenge, that the Padikkattugal team realised this was a challenge they had taken up long ago. And it is a challenge they are meeting successfully and continuing voluntarily.
But it was Manju’s appeal on Facebook that went viral and an enthusiastic India responded by donating a bucket of rice or feeding the poor in their respective localities. She intelligently tweaked a popular idea that was otherwise roping in celebrities the world over to raise awareness and funds for treatment of people fighting the rare fatal Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), a progressive neuro-degenerative disorder affecting the nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Even though the concept of pouring icy cold water on oneself and then posting the picture was perhaps a bit absurd, the response was overwhelming.
Manju appealed to potential donors in India not to waste water in times of water scarcity but rather help the poor by donating rice or cooked food. The idea – Indian version of India’s needs – met with spontaneous resonance.
“It was a practical solution to our immediate issues like hunger and poverty and found an easy acceptance,” says Kishore, the founder of Padikkattugal, a non-profit independent organisation powered by 500 youth volunteers who are registered as members and spread across different cities today. They collectively share the responsibility of working with children in orphanages and slums, guiding and educating them besides providing basic amenities, emotional support, medical facilities to the orphaned and the senior citizens in different shelter Homes across Tamil Nadu.
Kishore who now works in TCS, Chennai, started the movement in Madurai as a student. “I feel those of us who have everything, should help and do something for those who don’t have anything.” His quest for identifying smaller and lesser known centres which remain untouched by donors continues. “People mostly end up donating to the same Home repeatedly. I and my like-minded friends went in search of homes which were not on the map of donors and found out what they required the most,” says Kishore.
The service began with providing the residents nutritious and tasty meal once or twice a week, or providing the raw materials including rice, dal, cooking oil and vegetables. As the number of youth volunteers grew, clothes, medicine and money also started pouring in. They also started distributing cooked food to people by the roadside.
“As long as the needy and hungry get food to eat, we are happy. It doesn’t matter who makes news,” says Kishore. “It is more important that we are able to address our social issues wherever we are,” he adds. But he does concede that after the rice bucket challenge was launched in India on August 24, he mulled over the idea for five days.
Earlier, the Padikkatugal team would only post the requirements of various Homes and ask for ideas and inputs to help.
From August 29, members, volunteers and other donors were requested to donate minimum one kilo rice in new or old bucket to whoever they wanted to or found to be in need and post the photos. “In last three weeks, we have donated over 500 kilos of rice to more than 20 Homes in Madurai, five in Chennai and one in Coimbatore besides feeding biryani to the poor people by the roadside every Sunday in these three cities and also in Kochi and Bangalore,” informs Kishore.
Still, he smiles, our friends responded more by way of donations than posting their pictures! The team is now planning to announce the Lactogen Tin Challenge following a request from the Government Hospital in Madurai. “We have been told about 17 HIV positive kids there who require nutrition and supplements. But there must be so many malnourished infants elsewhere too,” says Kishore.
The Padikkattugal team is all geared up for action. “It is a different kind of commitment and compassion that require no selfies or celebrities,” he adds, also promising to go full blast on Diwali. “We will reach out to as many children and old people with new dresses, sweets and crackers through our members in Tamil Nadu and in neighbouring States,” he says. (If you want to join as a youth volunteer or want to know more about Padikkattugal, call 9677983570 or log on to >www.padikkattugal.org )
