Akshayapatra – feeding India’s children
Akshayapatra (www.akshayapatra.org) is now a reasonably large organization. True to Gandhian values they believe that they should aim high, work high and talk less. One recent achievement is that they are now feeding upwards of a MILLION (11,86,206 if you are an accountant!) children everyday in some school in India.
India, of course, has many more hungry children (who can’t go to school because they are hungry)…so here is a request to all of you ….visit that website and open your purses to them. And talk about them to all your friends , their friends, their friend’s friend’s friends, their…… their friends etc….and let us make Indian children literate. It is just the power of compounding. It reminds me of a nice old story. There was once a poor woman. Being poor there was no charity that she could do. When any beggar came to her she would just point her index finger towards a temple – which did poor feeding. When she died her finger turned golden….so even if you do not give, at least point. This organization has many admirers from Mr. Narayanmoorthy, Nandan Nilenkani, Barrack Obama (you can see his letter on the website)…..and has many such achievements. The biggest if you ask me is to even think you can create an organisation that can feed 1 million children (or like they say One Million and still counting…).
Another friend runs a chotta school for tribal kids. When I asked them are they learning. He said, “Frankly, I do not care. There is a kid who walks 3 hours a day to attend school. If I think he is coming for the learning, may be I will be disappointed. But if he is coming for the food, I am happy that he thinks school is a place where he will be fed.” that is all. My friend is a great soul. And this statement is simple.
Gandhiji said once “God dare not appear before the hungry man, except in the form of bread”. So if kids come because of akshayapatra food, and they learn something, I think we should be happy.
Let Annapoorna lead them to Saraswati. After all both are forms of MOTHER, are they not?
Come on guys…give your hearts out. Incidentally you can surely get tax breaks….give for whatever reason, but give.
Manav
I have a been a regular contributor to akshaypatra for 4 years now. I was introduced to the organization through ISKON temple. The best thing about it was I knew the money was being well utilized.
My confidence was little shaken when ISKON was found to be involved in land grabbing and tax evasion. But confidence in akshaypatra still stands for me.
subra
When you feed 12,00,000 people a day – say it costs Rs. 5 a meal, it means you are generating food of value of Rs. 60,00,000 every working day. This is just too great. If they grab land from the government, I AM HAPPY. If they evade tax I AM HAPPY. Not that I am saying that the end justifies the means, but when u run an organisation of this size, you can create enemies. Media looks for NEGATIVE news. So whether it is against Sachin Tendulkar or any successful organization, media picks up something which is sensational. If you visit the schools which A’patra is supporting, and see a few kids smiling because they are well fed, forget what you read in the press. Do your own investigation – if you are unhappy then be worried. Their sheer size is daunting – and frankly it is a great cause. Like I said in the article to even think you can run such a big organisation is a major achievement. After all good intentions have to be executed.
Manish
This is nice … People are ready to pay if they know its going in trusted hands and It will be utilised . I recently raised Rs 3600 for some 3 families I talked about in one of my articles .. Feels great to see that people are ready to help .
Let me see the site 🙂
Manish
subra
Actually Manish Money is earned to pay taxes, current consumption, meeting own goals, and giving for charity. Sadly personal finance sites do not talk enough about charity. So people go and get fooled while doing charity. Charity can begin simply be setting up a website which enumerates good charities, then getting Crisil kind of an organisation to rate/ rank them, see how much they are spending on admin costs…etc. So that it can be organised well. What i like about A’patra is they have spread across Orissa, UP, Rajasthan, Karnataka, AP, Gujarat (Modi is a big fan),…and if u see the website you realise that they are well organised. The feed hindus, christians, Muslims…..no caste, creed, gender bar. I think they are doing a great job. Now if u put it on your site, and say 2000 people see about it, I am willing to bet just between 2-3 blogs we can raise 10,00,00,000 over the next 2-3 years. Not bad!
NARESH SHARMA
A nicely worded article. And it simply moved me. For sure I will be pointing this out in my friend circle. Aty least we, have ones, owe this to the world. Let’s joing to achieve the bigger goal – Let no one go to the bed with even dreams of hunger. AMEN….
Jangchup
Hello Subra,
It is good to happen to drop on your blog. I saw interesting articles in your blog. Helpful to understand many things.
I am head of a religious organization. We look forward to acquire a charitable status but it is confusing for me to which one is more appropriate; Trust or Society. Present structure of our organisation is; we are exclusively Buddhist organisation and we train many youngsters in Buddhist teachings mainly philosophy and various cultural aspects of Buddhism. We need to continue present activities and functioning after getting charitable status. Are we permitted to do that under getting charitable status. What could be most appropriate way to register for charitable status. It is important for us to continue our activities after getting charitable status. Can you please advise on this matter.