Power of social media helps ‘Parijat’ back 3,500 underprivileged students

A group of night college friends started ‘Parijat’ (registered organisation under Bombay Public Trust Act 1950) to extend their support to underprivileged and tribal kids attending Zilla Parishad schools. This group of friends raised over Rs 3 lakh from 400 donors from across the world by simply using a creative approach and using the power of social media.

“We used social media and creative material to reach to our donors. We realised that there are people who wish to donate. Through social media, we reached out to them,” revealed Parijat’s cofounder Gurudas Bate.

Most of the founding members — Swapnil Pathre, Gurudas Bate, Rohan Dhalwalkar, Vishal Gole and Shrishant Parkar— met at a night college in Parel, while Vinod Gaikar, is an actor.

“It was during our graduation, we decided to start Parijat. The organisation has a team of 30-core members and some of them belong to advertising field which helped them to communicate strong messages to the donors,” Bate added.

“This year alone we provided school kits to 3,500 students who might have dropped out of school if they didn’t have access to books or bags,” he added. This year this non-profit organisation reached out to students across nine districts and 43 schools.

The non-profit supports only primary school kids by providing them with umbrellas, raincoats, shoes and bags or even the entire school kits.

“We identify schools and kids who cannot afford basic items like books and bags. If you compare Municipal schools with Zilla Parishad, you will know how inadequately they are funded,” Bate said.

Along with donors, this non-profit also attracted volunteers through social media. “Most of our donors not only contribute money but they make it a point to come and visit the places we work in.”

This Lalbaug-based NGO has worked with needy students from Shahapur, Thane, Kalyan, Badlapur, Vasind, Pen, Panvel, Revas, Alibagh, Ambernath, Mahad, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Solapur, Nasik, Igatpuri, Ambernath, Pune etc. “We do not have volunteers/representatives in other districts of Maharashtra so cannot help kids there. We follow a strict policy— without evaluation by our representative we don’t offer support. This is to avoid discrepancy,” Bate added.

Parijat is also supporting two schools to develop a art lab in Vasind.

A group of night college friends started ‘Parijat’ to extend their support to underprivileged and tribal kids attending Zilla Parishad schools. This group of friends raised over Rs 3 lakh from 400 donors from across the world