Youth for change

KOCHI:  Things turn for the better when the youth come together. That is exactly what a group of youngsters are proving through their NGO Expectation Walkers India. True to the name, the ‘reformers’ -- as the members of the organisation like to be known -- are trying to live up to and beyond the expectations of society by striving for reformation.  

The NGO took shape from a thought that Jayajith Prasad, then a student of Christ College, Irinjalakuda had. “When it comes to bringing reforms in society, the youth can do a lot. When Jayajith talked it over with some like-minded youth, they decided to come together and that was the start,” says Shika K, director and one of the co-founders of the NGO.

That was in 2019. While they started off with five members, now they have more than 200 reformers, all college students. “We also have two state teams and are driven by our goal to do our part in making the world a better place to live in,” she says. The Expectation Walkers (EW) began by organising blood donation drives. 

“Often, the kith and kin of patients have to run around blood banks or make appeals through social media platforms to arrange blood. So we decided to launch an app that helps out people in need of blood,” Shika says. 

Now, Friend2support is the world’s largest voluntary blood donation app that has won the United Nations World Summit Youth Award for providing blood on demand without the help of a third party, she points out. “It brings all those who want to donate blood under one umbrella,” the Expectation Walkers director says.

The NGO aims to effect a revolution to society through the most powerful weapon -- art.  Shika says what they are doing is not merely social work. “That is a bygone thought. We aspire to instil social responsibility in today’s generation, and instead of focusing on social service, we focus on social reforms by undertaking various initiatives,” she says.

Expectation Walkers has its finger to a lot of pies. Be it blood donation, flood relief, holding hair donation campaigns for cancer patients or launching India’s first online home charity store, Expectation Walkers has gone ahead and done it successfully.

“We do it in a style that is very connected with the youth. We conduct various street jams, awareness classes and musical programmes to send a message to the youth. Our very first campaign took off with a musical event seeking blood donation,” said the youngster. 

Expectation Walkers is also into charity. “EW Sells, the online home charity store, not only provides a means to livelihood for the people who find it difficult to market the wares they have produced at their homes but also helps out people in need,” Shika says.

The concept is simple. EW Sells markets the products collected from the entrepreneurs. “We take a very small percentage as a fee from the entrepreneurs. However, this fee goes towards funding the charity activities of the NGO. Another plus of EW Sells is that it has a special section dedicated to mompreneurs. So, here comes woman empowerment,” she says.

Expectation Walkers is providing the women with a platform to be who they are and show the world they are not just ‘only enough’ but are ‘more than enough, says Shika. “We have a lot of projects aimed at women empowerment, like the ‘Mom’s Made United’ under our EW Sells programme and the Lakshya Project to cite a few. At EW, we identify a pressing issue, transform it into an initiative, invite the youth to participate, and with the help of our reformers, arrive at a solution.”

The projects undertaken by Expectation Walkers focus on a variety of issues, like art and culture, children, differently-abled, disaster management, education and literacy, environment and forests, human rights, labour and employment, legal awareness and aid, minority issues, women’s development and empowerment, and youth affairs. 

“And the seed that was planted is growing bigger,” says Shika. One of their upcoming projects is Help Ring, which aims at maximising the development of human potential and the fulfilment of human needs. Another is Hire a Friend, under which a platform for jobseekers will be launched. 

“Hire a Friend will help the job seeker find a job that suits their qualifications, besides providing them with a bunch of opportunities to support them on their journey to establish a career. Then there is We Are You for the marginalised people, and many more,” Shika adds.