WELCOME TO THE MAD CLUB! CLICK HERE TO EXPLORE WAYS THROUGH WHICH YOU COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

International Blanket Day 2004 Update

Team International Blanket Day 2004 (TIBD2004)
(based on Bloggers who've volunteered via email as on 09/11/2004):

Applications for coordinators are open until further notice. Please email blanketday@yahoo.com for applying. Everyone's invited! :)


***

Agenda for TIBD Coordinators:

First of all, welcome aboard on Ship TIBD! Here's hoping you have a heady flight.

After some brainstorming, the 7-Step PoA has been laid out as follows:

Step 1: Select your team members (at least 4 per coordinator). They could be from among your colleagues, friends or family, or just about anyone in your city irrespective of age, gender or any other factor.

Step 2: Each member of your team is to identify a unique "Attack Zone". It could be the local Railway station, vegetable market, mosque, temple, just about any place. The single criterion for an area being chosen as an "Attack Zone" is that there must be a fair number of poor homeless people there.

Step 3: Your team now has as many "Attack Zones" as members. Please brainstorm among yourselves and decide on the final number of "Attack Zones" that your team will focus on. Then decide which "Attack Zones" have made the final cut.

Step 4: Hunt for sponsors! Ask around. Colony residents, classmates, car pool members, the Admin department of your company. Tell them about TIBD. Team members can of course sponsor, though it is not imperative.

Step 5: Collect money or second hand clothes / blankets (which are in good wash-n-use condition) or anything else which can be donated to the poor, from the sponsors! Whatever they're willing to donate of their own accord, happily.

Step 6: Purchase blankets with the money collected! Small blankets for poor children, larger ones for widows / old / handicapped people. (Note that the Target Groups for TIBD 2004 are orphans and poor children, widows, old people and handicapped people).

Step 7: Distribute the blankets and clothes to the identified Target Groups at the identified "Attack Zones" personally.

And feel the warmth that comes your way!

Team members may divide responsibilities among themselves if they wish. Our recommendation is that everyone be involved in everything.

***

The Mumbai Chapter Challenge

Team TIBD, Mumbai Chapter, presents its interim report card for the period 09/10/2004 to 09/11/2004:


YAY !! The Mumbai Chapter has HIT A CENTURY !!!

In celebration, the Mumbai Chapter throws an open challenge to all other TIBD Chapters to overtake its record on or before "International Blanket Day" - 9th Dec 2004.

All members of the Chapter which overtakes, or comes closest to, the Mumbai Chapter will be treated to a dinner at any place of their choice whenever they visit Mumbai next.

Has any Chapter the guts to respond?


- For and on behalf of Team TIBD, Mumbai Chapter


***

Some awesome heart-warming feedback from D. Yogeshwaran (Yogi) of IISc Bangalore. He writes in:

In IISc, a group of students have been collecting clothes, blankets etc. & distributing them around this time of the year for the past 3-4 years. I've joined the group this year. Basically, we place huge carton boxes at many places within the campus and put a notice requesting the institute community to donate their best. Then we assimilate and throw away the ones in really bad condition. We also a buy a few blankets. We distribute it in Govt hospitals, maternity homes etc. One interesting way the blankets are distributed is, the group goes out in a vehicle at 2.00am in the morning & distributes it to the pavement-dwellers in near-by areas.

The Report of Activity for the Year 2003 is as follows:

As you are aware, a large number of winter clothes and other material have been collected in the Institute over the past couple of weeks. The response from the Institute community has been tremendous and unprecedented. A total of over 1500 items (more than twice that werecollected last year) were collected. A number of volunteers (about 30) from students, faculty and staff participated in the activity. It is matter of immense satisfaction to inform you all that over 1500 items have been received. Most of them are in very good condition and some of them were new. The list consists of new blankets (81), old blanket and bed sheets (43), pants (322), shirts (325), T-shirts (194), other material such as jerkins (20), sweaters (20), dhotis (16 ), sarees (65 including 12 new), womens wear (236) and children wear (193), and shawls (5). These were sorted and distributed to the homeless and the needy in various places in Bangalore. The items were distributed to:

  1. Homeless people (these people have only some plastic sheets / old newspapers, sometimes nothing to cover them) sleeping on pavements in the Yeswantpur area, Majestic railway station and K R Market area 1.00-5.00 AM Saturday, November 8th 2003.
  2. Needy and poor patients in various government hospitals (Hospital superintendent/staff have been very helpful in identifying the deserving cases)
    Bowring Hospital, Shivaji Nagar, 2-5.30 pm, Saturday, 8-11-2003
    Kidwai cancer Hospital (Dharmashala) 6.30-8 pm, Saturday, 8-11-2003
    Victoria Hospital, K R Market 9.30-11.00 am, Saturday 15-11-2003
    Vani Vilas Hospital K R Market 11.00-1.00 pm, Saturday 15-11-2003
    Maternity Home (Yeswantpur railway station) 5-6 pm, Wednesday 19-11-2003

This is a simple and robust model which can be replicated in most academic insitiutes (schools and colleges), in organizations which are bullish on Social Service (the Admin department will usually buy in if you pitch it as a Brand Building exercise for the company!!) , as well as in your own housing colonies. Do try it out!

Happy TIBDing! :-)

# posted by Suhail : 3:25 AM


<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?