Youths pitch in, brighten lives of less privileged

Slug: UN Volunteer Day
Aparajita Ray & Sruthy Susan Ullas | TNN
Bengaluru: From working with malnourished children to conducting medical camps in slums, many youths in the city are busy on weekends too. Most chip in for NGOs and find opportunities to serve the society. All for free.
On UN International Volunteer Day on Friday, meet three such youngsters.Mandated by the UN General Assembly, the day is meant to celebrate volunteers’ efforts to share their values, promote work and inspire others. Small drops make a mighty ocean, they remind us.
Priyanka Kalamane
All of 22, Priyanka Kalamane makes sure eight underprivileged children go to school every year. “Seeing children working in tea shops and hotels disturbed me. I started in my final year of engineering course but I thought, ‘If not now, when?’ So I joined Child Rights and You to enroll children in schools and also help out-of-school children get back to school,” she says. She’s now a data quality analyst in an MNC but volunteers over weekends. She also helps file reports of out-of-school children with CRY to the government. “I’m happy that I’m using my energy for something that bothers me so much,” she said.
Anjali Shivanand
At 20, she joined an NGO as an intern to understand how the law works on the ground. Today, she works at the Centre for Child and Law, National Law School of India University. Anjali Shivanand, 23, said, “Just because some issues are disturbing, we cannot run away from it; we need to resolve them.” She gives parties and adventure trips with friends a miss. “Dedicating some time for social good is making my life more meaningful. Now, I want to use the legal framework to help society,” she added.
Manoj Naharwal
“To do some social service this year was my new year resolution. Once I started, I realized there’s so much joy in it. I don’t know Tamil, Telugu or Kannada. Yet, every Saturday I have a great time with children in four anganwadis. It’s quite an adventure,” said this architect. He ensures government benefits like midday meals and free books reach children and conducts medical camps four times a year. “Sometimes, we find children who don’t go to school as their parents entrust them with household chores. We have to convince elders to send children to school. It’s a pleasure to see children happy in schools,” he added.