We Changed Lives Of A Waste-picker, Farmer Widows & Urban Teachers — All In A Month’s Work
Hello there! It’s been work as usual at The Better India — sharing stories and driving impact — all through January 2016. Here are some of the highlights of the month gone by! Hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed making it all happen :)
Campaign To Help 35 Widows
We launched a campaign, titled, “Save Farmer Families”, that aimed to raise funds for 35 widows of farmers who had committed suicide in the Yavatmal district of Maharashtra. The campaign was in association with Shivaprabha Trust and our fundraising partner was Milaap.org.
The idea was not to do charity, but to help them setup sustainable businesses.
Within just 5 days, our reader community contributed 4.2 Lakhs INR (against our target of 3.5 Lakhs INR)!
Today, as you read this, 35 widows are being trained in sewing skills, they are being given sewing machines and their tailoring businesses are being set up.
A Waste-picker from Bangalore gets acclaim in Paris
We wrote this story about Mansoor, who is a waste-collector in Bangalore. Mansoor was invited to Paris for the Climate Summit to represent Indian informal sector and make a speech. In many cases, the listeners knew him from the article that was published on The Better India. He then started making a statement of confidence — ‘To know more about me, just google Mansoor The Better India’! And this article is more-or-less now his identity and a testimony of his great work and ambition.
#BelieveInTheBetterIndia Goes ‘Viral’
This Republic Day, we asked people if they have faith in the brighter side — if they believe in the better India. And heart-warming responses came in from all over!
People from various backgrounds — college students, rural school students, animal welfare organizations, members of the LGBT community, working professionals, young children, RJs from radio stations in Dubai (yeah!) — practically everyone shared why they believe in The Better India! Read them all here.
And the responses were so powerful that BuzzFeed and the Indian Express both wrote about it!
Teachers Share Why They Love Us
“I am an Educator and I put up select articles from TBI on the Teachers’ Pin-up Board. Today, I overheard few teachers saying that they would rather read BetterIndia to feel positive than read the regular newspapers. For instance, I stumbled upon the article on Virendra Singh, who is helping rural girls study and be independent.This is the kind of news we would like to know — our kinda news :)” — shares Jayanthi S, a teacher
TBI won the ‘Rising Star Of Tomorrow’s India 2016" Award At Singapore
The Better India was awarded the ‘Rising Star of India 2016’ award in Singapore. In an event organized by Tomorrow’s India, TBI took to the stage to talk about its impact, its innovative business model and its fast growing reach & influence in the social development space.
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