Dhyeya Projects

In Punjab, Ludhiana, one of my (Jiya’s) cousins’ friends suddenly stopped coming to school. When she inquired as to why this was, she confessed that her mother couldn’t afford the school fees, so we paid her school fees (there is no public school in India) and sponsored her notebooks and textbooks

February to March was a very uncertain time in India. While the pandemic had not yet reached us, predictions of its onset were on every news channel. Knowing it was only a matter of time, we decided on conducting a clothing drive, in an attempt to supply orphanages and shelters with clean clothes for what we knew would be a difficult time ahead.  We created multiple posters, and sent them around to everyone we knew, requesting them to donate any spare clothes in good condition they may have. The response was absolutely overwhelming. People were eager to help, and we quickly got to work, packaging the clothes and sending them to the aforementioned orphanages and shelters.  Due to the success of the first clothing drive, we shortly conducted the second one, and the response was just as heartwarming. Both times, we had to hire trucks to transport the clothes to their destination. Below are images of both clothing drives.

Recently, Dhyeya Organisation  organised a Food Drive with Village Story India, whereby we distributed food to every child In Infant Jesus Children Home, a sanctuary for young children affected by the HIV virus. Often abandoned by their families and boycotted by society, this home is a sanctuary for those affected by the deadly disease. This was performed on the day of Diwali, an auspicious Hindu festival celebrated by the entirety of India, as a way for the little children to join in the celebration nationwide. We supplied food for approximately 40 children combined. Additionally, we also visited a nearby preschool, and distributed food to the infants present there as well. 

  Diwali is an extremely important festival in India, with a lot of historical significance. It is celebrated nationwide, and an example of customs associated with it are the lighting of fireworks, exchanging of gifts and lighting of lamps everywhere.  However, there are certain places in India where such happiness is not afforded. We came across a school for children with leprosy, that took in children that had been abandoned by their families and stigmatised for their physical condition. They were unfortunately, unable to conduct any diwali celebrations due to a lack of funds. Once again, we conducted a round of fundraising and used the money to surprise the children on diwali with multiple gifts including sweets, notebooks and stationary, thus completing the diwali custom of gift exchange

Blood Donation is something that is extremely important, but not talked about enough. Millions of lives are saved yearly due to blood transfusions, and all it takes for the donors to save a life is endure a pinch of pain lasting for no longer than a few seconds. In Bangalore International School, a Blood Donation Drive was conducted, whereby parents, school staff and teachers could come by and donate blood in the school's infirmary. To ensure that the blood was safely and hygienically handled, and that the blood itself was eligible to be donated, we took the help of Manipal Hospitals, who briefed us on the precautions that needed to be taken. Upon entering, donors were required to fill in a form detailing their medical history. Once the form was approved as eligible to donate blood, they were escorted into a sanitised corner to donate the blood. At the end, Manipal Hospital collected the blood.  

Both me and Adhya are avid readers, and we both cherish the impact literature has had on our lives. What may seem like mere words for a person on the outside, shaped us and made us who we are today. More than once, we’ve forgotten the world and immerse yourself into the carefully crafted universe of Jane Austen, f.scott Fitzgerald and Leo Tolstoy. It was hence, an extreme honour for us to share this world with those couldn’t afford to get lost in it themselves. Years of reading had resulted in unnatural mounds of books, and we came up with the idea to donate all of our books to a government school. Not only our own, we recruited books from friends, family and acquaintances; and we were overjoyed by the amount we got to donate. It may seem silly. I hope the books can have the same impact on them, as they did on us. In more ways than one, it feels like sharing a piece of the childhood we were privileged to have.  

Unfortunately, one of the sons of our house help was unable to go to college because he was unable to give his board exams due to the fact that he could not afford the registration fee. We paid for his registration fee and relatively inexpensive college fee. 

After we donated two machines to anganwaadi in an attempt for them to establish their cloth bag and blouse making business, we helped them tackle their next hurdle; lack of fabric. We went around requesting local tailors for bits of unused fabric that they could use. This request generated large bags of fabric that were then swiftly converted into beautiful bags and blouses by the ladies at anganwaadi  

  After seeing the success the employees at Anganwaadi were having with their business, we decided to conduct another round of fundraising to buy them 2 more state-of-the-art sewing machines for them to build their business. The following are the pictures from this project:

The Anganwadi sowing machine project was one of the first big projects of Dhyeya. After contacting virtually everyone we knew, an aunt informed us of the need for sowing machines amongst women, who were in particular, attempting to become self-sufficient and generate income on their own. We got in touch with one of these women, and the following is the translated transcript of our conversation with her. Interview with Savitha (an employee at the Jakkur anganwadi)   Interviewer: What is the meaning of anganwadi? Savitha: The children from poor families are sent here to study. They are also provided meals during the day. It is very convenient as the children are taken care of when the parents are at work.   Interviewer: What exactly do you do at the anganwadi? Savitha: We bring the children here for their studies. Once teacher is done with the classes, we give them food and take them back.   Interviewer: What are you in need of? Savitha: We will need sewing machines. ...

We at Dhyeya put out posters and messages for people to give their toys and playthings to us. We then collected all of them and donated them to an orphanage for young children

Some snaps from our recent garage sale!