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AID Delhi collected woolens / funds for blankets for distribution to the people affected by cold wave in Delhi. Its was heartening to see a good response at a very short notice which enabled us to help those suffering due to severe cold wave gripping Delhi.
The drive was started in second week of January, 2006 and continued upto the third week. Total collections were close to Rs.37,000 with lots of in-kind woolens donations.The employees of companies which participated in the drive : ST Microelectronics, IndusLogic, Atrenta & HCL. Besides, there were some individual donations. Mayank pursued the drive at his end & in HCL. In ST, collection was facilitated by Arvinder, Archi, Ashish Korde, Ankita Arora & Riputapan. In IndusLogic, Alpana took the lead. In Atrenta, Shammi & Debamitro helped in the collections.
Hats off to the volunteers who went during the night for distribution. They include Arvinder, Anju Drolia (& her husband), Gunjan (& his mother), Prabhjot, Sanjeev Batra (& his wife), Ripudaman, Suman, Ratan & Riputapan.
We are also indebted to our donors and well-wishers without whom we couldn't make this happen.
The volunteers went for distribution typically after midnight to ensure that only the really needy people benefit from this drive. Blankets were distributed to those homeless people who were asleep without any blanket/with just a thin sheet/torn blanket. The in-kind donations were sent to Goonj (another NGO we partnered with during Tsunami) for effective distribution.
The areas where the blankets were distributed include :- Nizamuddin, Nizamuddin Railway Station, Kirti Nagar, Patel Road, Naraina, Moti Nagar, Vishnu Garden, Tagore Garden, Mayapuri, Pusa Road, Pahar Ganj, Shanker Road, Saket, Nehru Place, Vasant Kunj, Vasant Vihar, Kalkaji , Sarita Vihar , Jasola, Shahdara, ISBT, Ghaziabad (near Vaishali & more), Noida (Sector 3 & more)
Please note that above list only includes the areas where blankets were distributed. The list of total areas covered is quite comprehensive. We've few blankets left which we will distribute by Wednesday.
I also wish to allay the concerns of people who felt that the cold was receding and so distribution of blankets might not be useful. The fact is that we might feel warm sitting in sweaters and cozy blankets in our homes, but for those who sleep on cold,bare earth without a sweater - the winter is still very harsh. Our volunteers have seen people shivering and unable to sleep because of extreme cold & wind. If we caught cold while distributing for couple of hours, just imagine a person who stays in cold round-the-clock for the entire winter! Report by : Riputapan Singh (AID Delhi)
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