 |  |  |  Magazine Oct 21, 2009 |
A small donation from you this festive season could illuminate an underprivileged home, in a manner that's eco-friendly
What do you plan to do this Diwali? Light up your home with several lamps. Watch your children burst crackers while you share sweets with family and friends. Maybe perform a puja. Or play cards till the cows come home. That's exactly the way Diwali is meant to be celebrated--with lights, friends and festivity.
Ashish Dhar, 36, will be doing all of this, and more. Even as he was planning his festivities months in advance, the Mumbai-based project manager in a private firm knew that he wanted to go beyond the regular celebrations. He was aware that even as millions of homes around the country put out oil lamps and strung out fairy lights on the night of 17 October, there would be millions for whom it would be yet another night spent in the company of smoky kerosene lamps.
Moved, Dhar decided to include an underprivileged tribal family in Orissa in his celebrations. On 15 September, he used the good offices of GiveIndia--an umbrella NGO that vouches for the credentials of 200-plus charities--to donate Rs 1,500 to Sahara, an Orissa-based NGO, for the installation of a low-cost solar-powered light-emitting diode (LED) lighting system in a tribal home in the backward district of Koraput.
| NGO | Website | Donate at | Donate Amount(in Rs.) |
| Rural Organising for Social Improvement Foundation (ROSI) | www.rosifoundation.org* | www.giveindia.org | 4,266 |
Still in shadow
In the interiors of Tamil Nadu, ROSI Foundation has provided nearly 140 solar lanterns to tribals living in huts and caves. A solar lantern equipped with a radio--the kind the NGO prefers to hand out to promote the locals' communication with the outside world--costs Rs 4,266.
As we curse the government every time there is a powercut, or rev up our environment-unfriendly generators and inverters during power cuts to continue the frantic pace of our urban lives, we rarely spare a minute of thought for those who are used to living in the dark. This Diwali, you could change all that and, in the process, illuminate not just your own home, but someone else's too. Who knows, their blessings may just make your next Diwali brighter than ever and leave your face radiant with satisfaction.
Please click here to read the Guide books by Rosi Foundation
