Visit to GOONJ office

Well, its been many months, since I had been thinking of going to the Goonj office in Sarita Vihar, Delhi and so today it was
It was a perfect eye opener, the way they have been functioning and are managing the staff of more than 40 people and the values and behavior they have inculcated in them is extra-ordinary. It made me think, about the corporate trainings we go through time to time, to generate the motivation and belongingness feeling. I could feel that belongingness and motivation in the people working over there in the half hour or so, I spent over there. The guy Imran, who had shown us the work area primarily, was working overtime and that too on his own zeal to work rather than the pressure to show something. And I think the responsibility and authority he had was the primary motivations plus may be working with Anshu Gupta or being able to work at the grass root level and see the beneficiaries in front of your eyes and see and make the whole channel working in front of you in unison for this to happen are also the reasons. He is from Kashi. I was trying to understand the reason he chose this as his primary full time vocation but still am not fully satisfied.
But along with them, I intend to understand their modus operandi of choosing the local NGOs and sending the truck load full of material to them, then to another one, then look forward for reviews of their work. Hope am not being cynical, but still its a mammoth task to do. They have grown and are now sending a truck load full of material almost every 4-5 days, that makes it approx 90-100 truck loads in an year. I wish to be associated and be visiting villages and see/meet the beneficiaries in future.

And I must say, in their own manner, Goonj is working in the most professional and organized manner that is possible and in the most dignified manner for all the employees there. They have slowly expanded the work areas while there office is still situated in Sarita Vihar for people to see who are visiting.

Hopefully, I shall be paying more visits to their office and would make these visits more worthwile for them in the coming times.

Earlier in my carrier, I was associated with "World Vision India" (PartnerID- 1020731) and was sending them regular monthly payments. But later, I felt a need to be associated directly and see whats happening or if its happening the right way or not and since have stopped those monthly contributions.
Later I was also associated with a small team working on the education for poor children in Ghaziabad and Noida, and that was the best grass root level work I had witnessed till date. Going in the slums or labour colonies, watching the kids study in the rugged platform or dingy abandoned building floors, but they definitely looked happy. And you know what, those slums or the make shift labour colony, whatever you say, would generally have a small jhuggi, which acted as a cinema hall, where some enterprising guy would show movies through VCR/VCD on a TV, and the people used to spend money on that. But when they were asked to shell out Rs 20/- only for their children education for a month, they had many problems & excuses. So, it was both, non-willingness and attitude problem I guess.

But I sincerely appreciate, what they were doing without any help, almost independently. They had hired teachers at some places, erected shelters for schools and at a couple of places in Noida, they were helping and working in unison with the Govt schools. I had also sent them monthly contributions. But later when I stopped, I guess a year ago, I am not doing anything at all, and thats pinching me. Am forgetting the name of this institution, shall post it when I recall.