The Power Of Giving - Pockets Full Of Love

A growing number of Indians are donating funds for social causes and medical emergencies, thanks to credible online crowdfunding platforms that have gained prominence

- V. Kumara Swamy

INSPIRED BY a successful Manila-based café run by people with autism-spectrum disorder, Mumbai’s Yash Charitable Trust (YCT)—an organization dedicated to adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities such as autism, Down’s Syndrome, cerebral palsy—wanted to start a similar enterprise in India. That was about two years ago. While the YCT was running a small dabba lunch service managed by people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, opening a café was a big step. There were many hurdles on the way—limited professional resources, possible licence issues and the biggest of them all, the lack of funds. As Ashaita Mahajan, a YCT trustee, reveals, the entire team decided to take these challenges head on. They held discussions with all the stakeholders on the way forward and finally came to the conclusion that there was one definite course of action for raising the money—crowdfunding.

Within a few days of YCT talking about the plan to open a café as a way to provide ‘real employment’ for adults with developmental disabilities, donations started pouring in on ImpactGuru.com in August 2018. Hundreds of donors who had read about the efforts on the website and social media contributed small amounts of money. And, the trust was able to raise around ₹7 lakh on the crowdfunding platform. They managed to raise another ₹20 lakh from other sources. Café Arpan, run by 14 young team members, celebrated its first birthday this August.