Diwali, one of the most important festivals of India, is a time of celebration and camaraderie. It is also the biggest gift-giving and shopping festival of India, where presents are showered lavishly on near and dear family and friends.

With crores of rupees being spent across India every year to celebrate this festival of prosperity, we thought of a more wholesome way to take part in the festivities this year. How about celebrating this occasion by contributing to help save a child from classroom hunger?

A donation to Akshaya Patra will provide a hungry child with the nutrition he/she needs and give him/her an incentive to attend school and get educated. In fact, a donation of Rs. 2250 will feed three children for an entire year! This special donation on the occasion of Diwali will make the festivities even more auspicious and memorable for you and your entire family.

So this year have a fabulous Diwali, celebrate in style or scale down for a quiet family dinner, but make your celebrations a little extra special by giving a child the invaluable gift of education.

Joy of Giving Week (currently called Daan Utsav), is celebrated in India between 2nd and 8th October every year.

As India’s largest philanthropic event the Joy of Giving Week is a crucial time when all Indians contribute in any way they like to the less privileged members of society, whether monetarily, or in terms of time and skills. The mission of the festival is to ‘promote giving as a culture’. Through the combined efforts of NGOs, corporates, schools, the media, local citizens and other agencies, the idea behind Joy of Giving has spread like wildfire all across the country.

The week is marked by a series of programmes or ‘gifting events’ which raises huge amounts of money towards causes. Last year Joy of Giving 2013 saw staggering involvement with over 2 million people participating in over 900 events, across 80 cities. The festival raised tens of crores of rupees in money and resources, and millions in hours donated.

While the idea of giving to the less fortunate is wonderful, the logistics behind it can be a little daunting sometimes. That is why donating or volunteering via an NGO supporting a worthy cause is an excellent way to plan your Joy of Giving activities.

Akshaya Patra works to provide food for education to underprivileged children all over India, so that they have the opportunity to gain education. There are several ways to get involved with The Akshaya Patra Foundation to celebrate this joyous festival. Making a donation, whether in cash or kind (to sponsor a meal distribution vehicle, food grains etc.) will make a huge difference to a child’s life.

You can also choose to volunteer with Akshaya Patra to spend time with the children at the schools and share your skills with them, help organise a fund raising campaign, spread awareness of the cause online and more options.

There are so many things that you can do to help eliminate classroom hunger in India, and the Joy of Giving Week is the perfect time for you to start.

If you have any other ideas on how you would like to get involved with The Akshaya Patra Foundation for Joy of Giving 2014, email in at infodesk@akshayapatra.org