Progressive Techies (PT), a collective of IT employees, is set to expand the reach of its project, Back to School, to support children from poor families for the second consecutive academic year.
The collective, which boasts members from IT parks across the State, had launched the project last year when it managed to distribute school accessories to 14 government schools across the State, including those in tribal hamlets, benefiting over 2,500 students.
“We had launched the collection of school accessories a fortnight ago by putting up boxes in front of 15 buildings at Infopark Kochi, while six offices have permitted collection boxes on their premises. After coming to know about our programme, more schools are approaching us this time. We accept only brand-new school accessories,” said PT State president Anish Panthalani.
The organisation has also given techies the option of donating to children umbrellas, branded Karthumbi, made by women from the tribal hamlets of Attapady under the aegis of NGO Thampu. PT has been promoting Karthumbi to help tribal women for the last few years. More than 100 donations have already been received. Apart from umbrellas, the tribal women are now making schoolbags, which can also be donated to children.
“This way, we will be able to help both tribal women and deprived children simultaneously,” said Mr. Panthalani. When the collection boxes are filled with donated school accessories, they are emptied, and the contents are moved to a PT volunteer’s flat nearby. “The boxes will be kept till June 10 after which our volunteers will sort and distribute them to targeted beneficiaries in a week,” he added.
Techies who find it hard to spare time to buy school accessories have been given the option to transfer money online towards the cause, though that is not much encouraged. The money so received will be used for buying school accessories after the collected accessories are donated and analysing the requirements thereafter. The contributors will be given bills of purchases made using their money.