Annual Dress and Warm Clothes Distribution Drive In The Remote Villages of West Bengal

1. 2011 A Pictorial Report Annual Dress and Warm Clothes Distribution Drive In The Remote Villages of West Bengal For a Better Tomorrow An Initiative By Tapassya (www.tapassya.org) – an NGO, ideated and nurtured by IT Professionals of Kolkata, along with active support from all of you

2. Culmination of efforts from a dedicated team of Tapassya over a period of two months Along with the support from organizations like Capgemini, Cognizant, Ericsson, IBM, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd, TCS, Tech Mahindra and support from……. …….. All Of You

3. Trip to the villages of Sundarbans Date : 5-6 November, 2011 Villages : Around Satjelia, one of the worst affected areas by Aila (Parasmani Purba Para, Satjelia Bidhan Colony, Chargheri, Subhas Colony) Distributed : 360 new blankets,260 new sarees along with old clothes Families served : 380

4. After collecting the old clothes, Tapassya spent around Rs 2.5 lacs in purchasing new blankets, sarees and transporation to remote villages. Nearly a thousand poor families served. The Steps in between • Collection of old garments from different organizations • Carrying out survey in remote villages of Sundarbans and Purulia • Sorting of garments into different categories – age, sex, size • Manufacturing of cloth bags to distribute materials • Putting the old clothes for all members of a family into a bag as per survey report • Labeling each bag with name of village, family member and sequence number • Putting individual bags into big sacks and labeling them for individual villages • Purchase of 1010 blankets and 860 sarees.38 blankets donated by a well-wisher. • Loading of Truck and starting off for the destinations …..

5. On our way to Sundarbans in the truck Then Boat Journey – Our volunteers from different IT organizations

6. Anchoring in a village to distribute

7. The Queue Begins

8. The Queue Grows

9. Back to those days on the other side of Water

10. Distribution in Progress

11. Trip to the villages of Purulia Date : 12-13 November, 2011 Villages : Ponra (Bagmundi), Ramdih, Chargali, Golamara and Para Distributed : 688 new blankets and 600 new sarees along with old clothes Families served : 516 (Ponra-104, Ramdih & Chargali – 217, Para-128, Golamara – 67) Yet to distribute : Another 300 families in Ajodhya hills by partner NGO, Kalyan. Ajodhya hills and surrounding areas are homes of very poor people, but politically disturbed. Kalyan has volunteers in those areas, who will complete the distribution on behalf of Tapassya.

12. Finally our first destination after travelling all through the night

13. In Ponra Village near Bagmundi Hills

14. A blanket, a saree and a bag of old clothes per family

15. Record keeping with thumb impression

16. Our Volunteer-In-Charge – who led a team of students to sort the clothes You take this, I take that Arrangements in Progress – Distribution to start in Ramdih The Bag is also Blue

17. Let the giver bow down and give. Let the taker stand up and take…Sw. Vivekananda

19. Our student volunteers, who worked tirelessly over last few weeks

21. A Blanket for all to fight the chilling cold

22. The SMILES - Our Biggest Rewards

23. Our Encouragement

24. We will have to wait for another year to see this smile

25. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to stand beside you

26. We will certainly stand up and walk up the road together

28. The JOY of Giving. To experience it, be a part of our next drive

29. A lot of Planning and Working over the Weekends and Nights

30. At Nanritam’s campus in Para block, distribution going on even in the dark

32. Wrapping up for the day

33. On Our Way Back

34. Thank You for All your Support We wish to serve 5000 families in 2012