My first brush with the world of
child rights and its sorry state of the neglect, came one afternoon in college,
when a tall, burly man walked in to talk to us about his organization, and how
he had pledged to work towards upliftment of this cause.
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| Mr. Nitin Wadhwani addressing the CACR interns. |
Soon after, almost all of my
friends began to get involved with this organization. ‘CACR’ would be mentioned
in almost all of our conversations and I would be bombarded with stories of the
successful initiatives it had undertaken, and achievements that had accrued to it.
And now, here I am, a little more than half a year later. The organization, the
Citizens Association for Child Rights, that had taken HR College by storm is a
place where I can proudly say I am a blogger and intern. That man, Mr. Nitin
Wadhwani is now my boss. This is my story of how I got involved with a cause that
deserves a lot of attention, but gets only a little.
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| The "sweet delight" of CACR (pun intended.) |
Sadly, all of these endeavors,
while successful, were short lived. Poor coordination, waning enthusiasm, and a
myriad number of other factors caused these to go south.
But after having completed one
internship period at CACR, and on the brink of my second, I am proud to say
that this is far from what is happening here.
It is one of the few NGOs I have
seen, that is gifted with a team of dedicated, and experienced individuals,
that swear by its cause. It is one of the few NGOs I have seen, that has
successfully managed to create for itself a network of student interns, and a
network of tie ups with respectable organizations such as the BMC, social
service cells of other colleges etc. It is one of the few NGOs I have seen,
that has strived not only to sermonize about the cause they are working for,
but has strived to actually make a difference.
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| The MustRun Marathon |
Whether it is holding talks with
the BMC, checking the quality of mid-day meals, or hosting marathons, dance
sessions and organizing computer literacy sessions and other activities for
underprivileged children, I am proud to say, CACR has the unique distinction of
being an NGO that not only preaches a cause, but actually works extensively to
support it.
My personal experience too has
been one providing few matters to complain about. Being active in various
spheres of academics and extracurriculars, I wasn’t fortunate enough to
dedicate myself completely as a volunteer, but could only find it in myself to
contribute to this organization through helping in handling the blog of CACR.
This has provided me with a
wealth of knowledge on many issues, and has helped me hone my writing and
content creation skills. Having a relatively free reign in choosing of topics
to write upon, I discovered a number of topics and issues that I previously
knew nothing about, and this strengthened my desire to be more involved.
I am truly proud to be a part of
this organization. Not only am I gaining invaluable experience and honing my
skills, but I also feel I am able to contribute, no matter in how small a
quantum, to a cause that deserves the attention of every person who has a
heart.
-By Anand Banerjee
Anand is a creative intern at the +Citizens Association For Child Rights , handling the CACR blog.
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