If you see a small girl roaming around half naked with hair not adequately combed and eating out of wastebasket, what would you do? Would your reaction be to pretend that you did not see it? Would you think India is full of poor people? Is it the govt’s problem? Mr Praveen, who until then was just a normal citizen found another way out through Being Social.

He set up an organisation encouraging people to give a little of their time during their free hours to bring about a small change. He had to face lots of challenges to make the initiatives of his organisation come to life.

He says: “First and foremost it was a tough task to find out time to cater to social service. Many times, I had to work day in and day out and sacrifice sleep on most occasions and food on some occasions. The second challenge was to reach out to people, convince them to work with one platform, and win their trust and confidence in the work we are doing. The third challenge was to work initially without any financial support or funded aids. It took a lot of effort for raising funds to meet the basic needs to work towards the society’s welfare.”

‘Being Social’- The Beginning

Mr Praveen and Gaurav Singh decided to meet in person after becoming friends on Facebook. It was supposed to be a typical meeting, but it transformed their lives forever. This meeting was taking place in McDonald’s- Saket, Delhi. Amidst the exchange of greetings and ordinary conversation, their eyes met a little girl, who was eating some food remained out of a dustbin. This scene disturbed them, and they were perplexed, concerned and emotionally moved. That very day onwards, they decided to do their little bit for the society and the less fortunate. They started visiting orphanages, slums and government schools, to reach out to the needy and the destitute. Since then, there has been no looking back.

What is Being Social?

The organisation Being Social -एक नई शुरुआत was started in November 2015 in Delhi. From the last two years, they have been operating in seven cities. Their motto is, ‘Spread smile and serve humanity’ and to inspire individuals to use their Individual Social Responsibility (ISR). They believe in consistency, teamwork, equality & transparency.

Being Social

They do social activities mainly on weekends or any National holidays. They give their valuable time, skills, resources and most importantly love and compassion to the society through various voluntary activities. We have our volunteers spread across seven cities(Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Ludhiana/Chandigarh, Mumbai & Pune) and now they have 2300 volunteers from different educational background and profession.

Mr Praveen says “Five years from now; we want to see ourselves in a transformed country. The impact of our social service should be seen and measured by the smiles on the faces of the children, the youth and the elders.We should be able to create a world where everyone is ready to serve the less privileged, motivate others to do well for the Nation’s progress & society’s betterment.”

Impact

They have worked on many initiatives. Some of the efforts they have successfully worked on are:

Health For All: This awareness programmes are conducted in slums, government schools, and private schools teaching children on public hygiene to ensure health for all. Medical Camp Let’s Talk About Periods Dilse: Carefree Laado – Initiative for adolescent girls and women of slums, to educate them on menstrual hygiene and its management. They distribute sanitary pads and have a plan to empower these women by teaching them how to make sanitary pads, which they can not only use but can earn the livelihood. They are focusing on 3 E’s here- Education, Empowerment and Employment. A menstrual education camp. Kala Pathsaala : Education and Moral values – They teach moral values, skills development, and culture to children in slums, orphanages and give them a primary education in life skills. Clean India: They go door to door to talk about sanitation, its effect on the environment and its benefits to our future generations. They also do street wall paintings and convert dirty public areas into clean gardens. Evergreen India: Plantation drive mainly done in the rainy season- Water for Bird’s – This campaign is conducted all over India urging everyone to keep water for birds in pots, in parks, in gardens, outside their houses or in balconies, and in streets throughout the summer. PM Narendra Modi appreciated this initiative in Mann Ki Baat on 30th April 2017. Old Is Gold: They visit the senior citizens in old age home or take them out for an outing and spend quality time with them. Future Matters: Every child dreams a life of a typical childhood, a school with all facilities, good environment, health and happiness. This initiative is to fulfil these dreams.Through this initiative, they tried their best to take…