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

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

A Pictorial Report

For a Better Tomorrow

2011

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

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

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 …..

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.

On our way to Sundarbans in the truck

Then Boat Journey – Our volunteers from different IT organizations

Anchoring in a village to distribute

The Queue Begins

The Queue Grows

Back to those days on the other side of Water

Distribution in Progress

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.

Trip to the villages of Purulia

Finally our first destination after travelling all through the night

In Ponra Village near Bagmundi Hills

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

Record keeping with thumb impression

You take this, I take thatOur Volunteer-In-Charge – who led a team of students to sort the clothes

The Bag is also BlueArrangements in Progress – Distribution to start in Ramdih

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

Our student volunteers, who worked tirelessly over last few weeks

A Blanket for all to fight the chilling cold

The SMILES - Our Biggest Rewards

Our Encouragement

We will have to wait for another year

to see this smile

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to stand beside you

We will certainly stand up and walk up the road together

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

A lot of Planning and Working over the Weekends and Nights

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

Wrapping up for the day

On Our Way Back

Thank You for All your Support

We wish to serve 5000 families in 2012