Our First Project @Orphanage Seeded the Concept CareToCare

The idea of “CareToCare” is an outcome of over a decade of experience in personally working on the ground initiatives for orphanages, schools in suburban areas, homeless & refugees in the US, career counseling, etc.
One of our initial projects at Orphanage in Pune, India gave us a clear idea that “(only) donating money” limits the actual idea of charity. “Skill” & “time” too are very valuable assets one can have and more important is that they share or donate these assets.

Name of the Orphanage: Saraswati Anath Shikshan Ashram
Place: Dapodi, Pune
No of Orphans: 30 to 40 kids
Age: varying from 4-year-old kids to 18-year-old girls.

The picture depicts the activities done in the year 2009-2010 by Us.

It all started with a group of friends connected through different fun events and in turn, realized that these networking skills can be utilized for doing something good for others, to return something to the community we all live in. As we all got connected through an event for kids, what could have been better than starting to support an orphanage?

Initially, for a couple of months, we discussed our thought process then visited the place to review & plan accordingly and came up with a short-term plan with a list of activities.

1- Thought Process: Utilizing Skills of being socially active and having a larger network at the office.
*   Initially started visiting the place every(other) weekend to understand the problem with some or   other food items, small gifts to students, and interacting with them thru some games & quizzes
2-  Review & Planning: Visited an Orphanage to assess, and review problem areas, and how can we be helpful
3-  1 year Plan with High-Level Activity Avenues:

* Self-dependent/Attitude/Character Building: Teaching skills, Teaching history, GK, Science, Computer labs
*  HealthCare: Routine Medical Checkup, Hygiene sessions along with cardboards with Hygiene Tips
*  Entertainment: Birthday Celebrations with Games, Cakes, Chocolates, Fun Quizzes
* Infra Structure: Water filter, Bathroom Construction
* Connecting  with Kids: Providing the feeling of safety and giving them space to be connected with us
* Employment: The foundation was to provide them employment and 2 people were employed.

1- Activities are done
2- Cloths and Toys donation drive
3- Birthday Celebrations at SASA
4- Make a Wish
5- Computer Installation
6- Routine Medical Camp
7- Sanitation Hygiene
8- Bulk Food donation
9- Tuition classes to help kids
10- Employment

The very first step is to visit the ashram and to understand the problems to be resolved. So, we shout out for volunteers and planned our first visit to SASA on a Sunday morning. The first visit to the ashram was fill with warmth and love of the kids residing there. We all feel the instant connection and a desire to make ashram a better place for all those kids who live there and then we started the series of events. Visiting them every Sunday was a routine of our lives and something would have been incomplete if we would have missed even one visit to them.

Along with our Sunday visits to SASA, we planned to do something more for the kids and the ashram and below are the activities in random order that we did at SASA.

  1. Cloths and Toys donation drive – As Infosys volunteers, we sorted out all the clothes and toys collected from the employees and fill them into labeled boxes. And then on D-Day, loaded all the boxes into cars and autos and reached the venue with the team of volunteers to distribute everything. I cannot forget the smile on those little faces after holding that new set of clothes and the small soft toy in the little girl’s hands. This makes our determination stronger and the events never stopped.
  2. Birthday Celebrations at SASA – We want to thank all the families who chose to celebrate their special events with our little kids at SASA. Birthday celebrations at SASA included a delicious meal for all the kids and the return gifts from the families lighten up those little faces.
  3. Make a Wish – So we decided to make the Xmas special for our kids at SASA and hence we asked all of them to write their wishes on a piece of paper and had it over to us. We set up a booth in our organization and asked the employees to pick and fulfill the wish of these kids if they want. We sincerely thank all those who have come forward and been the Santa to those kids and fulfill their wishes. The wishes were so small as new shoes, a new toy, new notebook. These small gestures from our colleagues were highly valued and appreciated by all.
  4. Computer Installation – Thanks to Basit Khan for arranging and installing computers for the kids to learn about technology
  5. Medical Camp: We arranged quarterly medical checkups followed by treatment of major illness
  6. Sanitation Hygiene – We raised funds and donated them to SASA to build a proper sanitation system in the ashram to keep the hygiene and hence keep the kids healthy
  7. Bulk Food donation – We work with the ashram owners and donate them food supplies for one month.
  8. Tuition classes to help kids – Kids at SASA have been provided classes from our volunteers in different subjects (English, Maths, Science, Computers) to help them clarify their doubts and questions.
  9. Employment: Over time we got connected individually with kids and in turn able to work with them for their Skill development to help them for employment. Finally, we arranged their options for jobs as a salesman at shopping malls & cafeterias.