Residents donate trash paper which are sold to vendors to collect money for the needy.
"Where there is a will, there is a way" goes the precept and a group of residents of Prateek Wisteria, a residential society in Sector 77, Noida, are a good example to take cue from.
To help the needy, they have come up with a unique drive in which they collect waste newspapers from residents and donate the money made by selling them to those who need it the most.
Termed as "Trash To Gold" the drive has been running for the last three months. The newspapers collected from the residents are sold to private vendors.
Avnish Kumar, a resident and a volunteer for the drive, says, “It is aimed at helping the underprivileged without putting any financial burden on the donors. The money helps those in need, especially for purchasing study materials.”
The group consists of residents such as Nitesh Ranjan, Amit Gupta, Neeraj Virmani, Mahesh Mishra, Shailendra Goyel, Sukhbir Singh, Avnish Kumar, Meenakshi Khandelwal, Pankaj Bindlish and Mohit Bhatia. The group has distributed the job among all volunteers who encourage residents to contribute for this cause via social media and messaging service. "We have a WhatsApp group on which donors pass on the message to volunteers that they want to donate waste papers," says Nitesh Ranjan, another volunteer. The drive is gaining momentum and now around 50 residents are contributing waste papers.
The group has also roped in private vendors who come every week to collect the donations. On an average, the drive collects about Rs 1,500 per week.
Subsequently, the group takes measures to identify the needy to ensure that the money goes only to those who need it the most. Amit Gupta, the brain behind the drive, says, “It’s not necessary that we give the collected amount to an institution or an NGO working for the underprivileged. The group meets people to examine who is truly needy."
He adds, “This little contribution goes a long way in bringing a smile to the needy.”
Gupta told City Spidey that the group has given Rs 6,000 to a cancer patient at a hospital in Amritsar and has also distributed study materials to the kids of an orphanage in Sector 62, Noida.
Other residents of the society are beginning to appreciate the initiative. PG Ganesh, a resident who has contributed to the drive, says that his fellow residents are doing a commendable job.
“I will be really proud of myself if my little contribution can help a child from economically weaker section to carry forward his dream of studying. It is certainly a noble cause and more residents should come forward,” he adds.
