By- Godhooli Sharma
LUCKNOW: The annual festival of giving, Daan Utsav, kicked off in the city in style. A number of volunteers took part in various social activities and events on the first day to celebrate the ‘joy of giving’ week, both online and offline.
Unity College, along with Prithvi Innovations, began a ‘Garbage Daan Movement’ wherein teachers accepted the challenge from the college authorities to collect dry waste till the last day of Daan Utsav on October 8.
“Garbage bags have been distributed among teachers in which they will collect dry waste from their homes and then forward it to their neighbours the next day. In this way, a cycle will continue for the entire week. We are letting people get in the habit to understand this process and not dump waste openly,” said headmistress of the college Kainaat Mansoor.
“On the last day, we will weigh each garbage bag. The teacher with maximum dry waste will be given the title ‘Green Champ’. Similarly, our teachers have begun visiting hair salons near their homes as part of another initiative: Hair Daan. Teachers are persuading salon teams to donate hair (more than 12 inches long) for wigs meant for cancer patients,” she added.
On Saturday, LIVE Foundation conducted an online ‘sewa mela’ on gender equality with activities related to daily household chores: from cooking to managing the house.
Anushree Chaturvedi from the foundation said, “We organised an interactive session on various stereotypes connected with skills and roles of men and women in several jobs. After the session, participants agreed to think the other way round and try to bring a positive change in society.”
“This is an opportunity for each one of us to embrace the joy of giving. Let us all see this as a festival of humanity,” said Jyotsana Habibullah, a Daan Utsav volunteer.
