July 16, 2023
Anuttara Baroi, Class 7
When I first read about the donation drive undertaken by our school, I was wondering how I could help. Then my little sister Aaheli, who is in class 4, and I thought of selling pre-loved books and also planned to host a sketching class to raise funds. While it sounded easy, I was swiftly proven wrong when we ran into a problem—we did not know how to host a meeting! After hours of pottering around, we finally conducted a well-attended sketching class. We sold our books and managed to raise ₹10,000. We felt really happy to have done our bit for a worthy cause.
Diva Mistry & Sanaaya Lalani, Class 7
When we heard about how the bus didis and drivers needed money as they had lost their jobs temporarily due to COVID-19, we wanted to help them. We decided to hold an art workshop to collect money for them. Children from the ages of five to 11 attended the workshop. It was a huge success! Our goal was to raise ₹5,000, but we managed to collect over ₹38,000 in three days as the donors were a lot more generous than we had anticipated! We were glad to be a part of this wonderful initiative.
Apurva Nigam, Class 7
When I heard about the initiative to help the bus didis, marshals and drivers of my school, I was sad that I had not thought of it myself. My parents were going to contribute money, however, I wanted to do something by myself for my bus staff. That’s when I came up with the idea of a bake sale that would fulfil my dream of baking and also contribute to a good cause. I made and sold 200 cupcakes and lemonade and earned `15,000. The experience was amazing, yet tiring. A few people contributed money without taking cupcakes as they were impressed with the initiative.
Jayden Pretto, Class 7
The bus didis, marshals and drivers have always taken good care of me, my siblings and my classmates. When word of raising money got around, I thought I couldn’t do much about it; little did I know that I was wrong. When I saw my friends raising money for our bus staff, I got an opportunity to pitch in too. So, I put my best skill to use—baking! I started online baking sessions, teaching my classmates how to bake three different kinds of cookies. I was nervous at the start but with the companionship of my mom, it got easier. I managed to raise ₹27,000. My fellow readers out there—don’t limit yourself and don’t doubt your abilities; you can and will change this world.
Lavanya Gupta, Class 10
When my little sister Anahita and I read about the campaign to help our bus didis, we felt that we too must step forward and contribute. We had to think of an initiative that could be carried out during the lockdown. As we both love reading, we thought why not sell our beloved books at a discounted price. Nobody can say no to a good book; that too during summer vacations! We shortlisted 65 books, clicked their pictures and priced them between ₹200 and ₹400. We circulated this among our friends, neighbours and family in Mumbai. Within a day, we sold 55 books and collected ₹16,400 for the cause. It was so fulfilling to do our bit for the wonderful didis. They had looked after all of us so lovingly and patiently. It’s their time of need and I thank god that we were able to reach out to them.
Arjun Singh
Class 1, Mount Carmel Anand Niketan, New Delhi
One day, we were discussing the right way to wash our hands and it was a Eureka moment for me as I had this wonderful idea of selling homemade soaps to raise money for underprivileged COVID patients. With my parents’ help, I started making natural soaps. Social networking sites proved to be a wonderful source of attracting everybody’s attention and I was showered with blessings, love, wishes and orders. I have named my soap ‘Clean Hands by Arjun’ as it signifies its purpose—clean, germ-free hands. Each soap costs ₹100; till date, I have made around 120 soaps. All the money raised has been used to provide food to underprivileged COVID patients. My parents have also distributed these soaps to people living on the roadsides. I am so happy that I could help someone. Some time ago I read this poem, ‘Little drops of water, Little grains of sand, Make the mighty ocean, And the pleasant land…’ This is my current motto as we all need to do our bit, which will, in turn, move mountains. We will come out of these challenging times together, hand in hand.
Shubham Daga
Class 7, Sishya School, Chennai
The fundraising idea for COVID came to us when we were discussing a story idea for our magazine, ‘The Young Authors’, on how we could increase interactions with our readers. We decided to start a few workshops to raise funds. One of our team members has stylish writing skills and decided to start a calligraphy workshop. But we needed one more workshop, so we decided to teach, ‘How to Write Articles’. This was how we started and in time, we had so many inquiries that we held two more workshops on calligraphy. This was how we raised an amount of ₹5,500 from four workshops. We will be donating this amount to a hospital to help COVID patients.
REFLECTION: Funding Made Easy
Crowdfunding is the process of financing a project or business by raising small amounts of money from a large number of people, usually through the internet. Do some research and list the names of 5 popular crowdfunding websites.
