Teens raise funds via crowdfunding to help poor women make masks

Jay Pachchigar | TNN | May 4, 2020, 04:00 IST

The three students have donated around 35,000 masks

Vadodara: With extension of vacation due to lockdown, majority of school and college students are either glued to over-the-top (OTT) platforms or hooked to playing online games. But these three teenagers from Vadodara decided to turn the time on their hands to create employment for 20 women and provide masks to needy people in the district.
The three friends – two school students and a law school student – got together to raise funds through crowdfunding to make and distribute around 35,000 masks. “My father and I were talking about how safety equipment, including face masks, are necessary during the current health crisis and that the poor people may not be able to afford them,” said Mallika Dand, who recently took Class XII examination. Dand shared the idea with her two friends Velisha Patel and Naman Parikh and they immediately got on-board.
“Not everyone can afford to buy a mask daily and there are people like vegetable vendors and labourers who continue going out daily in lockdown. We felt that they should get masks which can be reused after washing,” said Patel, the law student. The trio borrowed money from their parents and pooled in from their pocket money and got 5,000 masks made initially under the name, ‘Project Sahyog’. “Later we decided to take donations for this project. We explained to people what we are trying to do and how it will help the society at-large,” said Parikh. Besides friends and acquaintances, the trio received donations from strangers living as far as in Mumbai and the USA.
“We collected Rs1.2 lakh and got in touch with some women through NGOs and tailors. We asked them to sew masks for us so that they can also earn money in lockdown,” Patel said. As Patel’s mother is a fashion designer, the team could get cloth in bulk even as the markets are closed.
The teens travelled across the city and to some villages like Kotna, Bhimpura and Ankodia on the outskirts to distribute the masks. Recently, they also donated the masks in large numbers to district administration and Vadodara Municipal Corporation.