The Joy of Giving Week (currently called Daan Utsav), is a period of great generosity, happiness and harmony. It is a time when people all over the country cross barriers of geography, culture, age, occupations and more to unite in the common cause of working towards the betterment of society. This week, the biggest philanthropic event of India, is marked by generous contributions in many forms to numerous worthy causes. But sometimes it’s hard to know which organisation to support, and how to go about it.

If you would like to make a contribution this Joy of Giving, some of the ways to support The Akshaya Patra Foundation are:

Monetary contributions: You can donate money to Akshaya Patra through an online donation or offline through a cheque or demand draft. You can also use your GPRS enabled mobile phone to make a donation using ATOM or mCheck.

Donate a vehicle: Help pave the way for a brand new vehicle to carry the tasty, nutritious mid-day meal to thousands of hungry children in your area. Well designed with a honey-comb structure to make sure the vessels are kept stable, these vehicles are insulated to keep the food hot till they reach their destination. Find out more about how you can donate a vehicle to Akshaya Patra here.

Sponsor a school for a year: Akshaya Patra provides the mid-day meal to 10,661 Government and Government-aided schools across India on every school day. Your support will make it possible for students in more schools to meet their nutritional requirements by enjoying these meals. Find out how you can sponsor a school here.

Sponsor a child for a year: You can make sure one child has access to Akshaya Patra’s tasty, healthy meals for an entire year with a donation of just Rs. 750. By providing a child with this regular supply of nutritious food you give him/her an incentive to attend school regularly and gain the education required. You can make a yearly payment to support a child through an ECS donation.

Sponsor kitchen equipment: The largest kitchen run by Akshaya Patra can produce upto 200,000 meals in five hours. The centralised kitchens are highly mechanised and equipment-intensive, to cater to the large demand for the mid-day meals. A donation towards kitchen equipment could help Akshaya Patra sooner reach its mission of feeding 5 million children by 2020.

Be a part of the festival this year by bettering a child’s life. Make a donation and join in the Joy of Giving.

To commemorate Teacher’s Day, The Akshaya Patra Foundation organised a special event. The programme which began on 06 September, 2014 is running for four Saturdays at different venues across Bangalore. Children from four schools have come together to pull off an outstanding display which includes a skit on Teacher’s Day, a dance and a musical which celebrates the spirit of Lord Krishna.

The focus of this event is commemorating the late Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the first Vice-President and second President of India whose birthday is celebrated on Teacher’s Day. It was Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan who stated that ‘teachers should have the best minds in the country.’

The students gave a spirited performance and the crowds received it very well, cheering constantly. “This is about Guruvandana (respect to teachers). Compared to the yesteryears, today the rapport between students and teachers is not as much as earlier. Having an event like this will help bridge the gap between them. It is an occasion which will be remembered by everyone,” said Padmavatham, a teacher.

The whole-hearted support from the teachers to their students in their endeavour did justice to the spirit of Teacher’s Day. “We salute our teachers for being our role models, and we want to show our appreciation to them on a day like this,” said Durga Prasad, a child from the dance troupe.

This dynamic programme has drawn lots of support which is an encouraging sign for such an event to continue every year.

You can join in to celebrate this event at the following date and venue:

27 September, 2014, RV College, Basvangudi

View some images from this programme here.