Making Mumbai the Kindness Capital

Happiness delivery: Organising meals and vaccinations for the underprivileged in Mumbai and offering educational and financial support to children orphaned during the pandemic

- ADITI PAI

SHISHIR JOSHI, 52

Founder & CEO, Project Mumbai

Mumbai

Each morning, amid the doom and gloom of the pandemic last year—when visuals of overburdened hospitals, homeless migrants, and burning pyres dominated the news—volunteers of Project Mumbai took some joy in the smiles they were bringing to the faces of children among whom they had just distributed bananas and packets of Parle-G biscuits. In 2021, as the situation eased a bit, they moved on to donating mobile phones among municipal school students so that they could attend online classes. The NGO also deposited Rs 25,000 each in the name of three girls who lost a parent to Covid. “It has offered them a sense of security because they have some money to meet their expenses,” says Shishir Joshi, founder, and CEO of Project Mumbai, an NGO which won the United Nations SDG Solidarity Action Award 2020 for its Covid relief work. It was among 50 organisations globally to receive the award.