Towards A Brighter Night

Human brain is such that so many thoughts revolve around on a daily basis. And these depend upon the ‘milieu’. Thoughts develop with exposure to the world be it reading, watching movies and documentaries, attending lectures, hearing stories, going out to see the real world and many more. At PRAYOG, we are helping to shape and construct the thoughts of children. It was during one of the interactions, we learnt that so many children lose the time to darkness and have to depend only on daytime for studies. Even those who could manage through kerosene lamps are prone to health hazards.

And so, a couple of months ago we designed an initiative Light An Ignited Mind, whereby we would provide solar study lamps to 200 of our children. These lamps being more efficient and are multi purpose.

No words can spell out the feelings that we underwent, ours is an initiative that has been run from pocket and arranging for 200 solar lamps became a challenge. It was no easy task but it was the commitment for the initiative that helped us ahead. The story of initial solar study lamp is something that is going to be with us forever. In a morning walk at Patna zoo, when discussed this with Prof. Rajeshwar Mishra, an ex-Prof of AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, his words were encouraging and said that this is possible. Just 3 hours later, he calls: “I want to donate 50 solar lamps on the occasion of my grand daughter’s first birthday”. This was a moment of pride, at that moment it was a relief as someone very close to the initiative volunteered and the sheer numbers. But when you actually think upon this, he has contributed not only towards lighting the nights of 50 children but also towards the future and happiness of his grand daughter, he wants her to be connected to people and not to be carried away in this materialistic world. This is such a noble thought. His grand daughter is an American citizen.

And there was no looking back, Through the help of friends and many unknown people who are now friends, and the support of Milaap and The Better India, we managed to reach our target of 200 solar study lamps. We had budgeted for a low cost lamp but went ahead and purchased a branded Tata Diva solar study lamp (courtesy the additional support of Prof. Mishra).

So, we distributed 50 solar lamps on October 19th to children between 3-8 years of age and 115 solar lamps on October 23. This time it was given to 71 children who are being groomed through write ups and 44 of children between 3-8 years who shall be a part of Global Literacy Project. The remaining 35 would be given soon.

For PRAYOG, this is our vision and we want to explore the behaviour of children and their tendency to help others. It is only after ensuring this, we can think of building a meaningful society.