An article on the Community Service Initiatives taken by PaGaLGuY.com members in various cities of India
Community Service initiatives at PaGaLGuY.com have been a result of many a brainstorming session between the most active members of the forum. Once it became clear to us that we had atleast the bare minimum core group to kick off activities in a few cities, we started discussing it during the frequent offline meets that we have. What was really surprising was that a LOT of our junta have already been involved in similar activity on a personal level or were most willing to, but could not find suitable avenues. The detailed discussions on Community Service and how it could evolve can be viewed on the "Payback Time" thread at our Discussion Forums.
People across India responded how we could go ahead in terms of organizing and sustaining Community Service Initiatives, what could be the stumbling roadblocks, would getting registered as an NGO be ideal, would we need to tie up with other established NGOs, if so , should it be with a single NGO that has a pan-India presence or should it be with multiple NGOs across India so we could have a better focus.
Questions of these nature and more were thoroughly discussed. We also were trying to come up with what should be the prime focus of our Community Service Initiatives. After debating over various possible issues that could be tackled, we felt that Education was something that has brought us all together and it is education that we could best payback to the society.
Towards this purpose of getting education to the under-privileged, we started identifying various NGOs that can make the best use of this diverse and pan-India group. Initially, we were looking for organizations that could best leverage us across various cities so we have a single goal with measurable results. However, due to various factors, and most importantly due to lack of a genuine pan-India NGO in the field of education, we dropped the proposal. Thence, each city that has an active volunteer base for Community Service initiatives started to identify local NGOs.
Today, our Community Service initiatives are going ahead full steam in the cities of Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Hyderabad. The details for the same could be obtained from our Community Service forum at: http://www.pagalguy.com/cat/forumdisplay.php?f=18 .
Organizations we work with:
Mumbai - NASEOH http://www.naseoh.org
http://www.pagalguy.com/cat/showthread.php?t=4080
Delhi - Udayan Care http://www.udayancare.org
http://www.pagalguy.com/cat/showthread.php?t=3075
Bangalore - Samarthanam http://www.samarthanam.org
http://www.pagalguy.com/cat/showthread.php?t=5714
Hyderabad - M.V.Foundation http://www.mvfindia.org
http://www.pagalguy.com/cat/showthread.php?t=3072
Chennai - Royapuram Boys Orphanage http://www.pagalguy.com/cat/showthread.php?t=3103
We believe, however small it may be, a start has been made. By getting involved actively in projects and successfully implementing them, we can motivate other members of the forum in general, and the larger public, in particular, of the need to contribute to Community Service. Thanks to the tireless efforts of our active members across the aforementioned cities, more people have slowly, but surely, started joining the movement. And it is only a matter of when, as opposed to if, this movement generates enough momentum so that it could become a self-sustaining movement of people across India.
In case you are interested, please come up with whatever ideas you have. Who knows, your ideas might be the exact prescription in alleviating the condition of some of our less-privileged fellow human beings.
Help
... see if you can get a URL for the boy's orphanage. Hav PMed Simon abt it 
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