What is volunteering?
Volunteering is an unpaid service often made to an NGO to benefit different sections or communities.

Why do people volunteer?
Volunteering boosts physical and mental health of the volunteer as well as the beneficiaries with their services. A rise in the volunteerism culture in the past few decades makes it evident.

Furthermore, organisations prefer hiring those who have significant volunteering experience as it demonstrates:
• One’s ability to work in a team
• One’s passion to help the society
• Leadership skills
• Time management skills
• Accountability
• Integrity and ethical behaviour

Additionally, it brings a sense of purpose and boosts confidence in volunteers.

Volunteer with The Akshaya Patra Foundation

We at Akshaya Patra are an internationally recognised NGO, nourishing millions of Government school children with mid-day meals under the Government scheme of PM POSHAN Abhiyaan. Our vision is to ensure that “no child is deprived of education because of hunger” and our mission is to feed “3 million children by 2025”.

You can volunteer with us both online and offline.

Offline volunteering opportunities

Introduce us to your organisation
Help us reach your connections and motivate them to donate to our various programmes for people coming from challenging socioeconomic communities.

Raise funds for a cause of your choice
You can conduct fundraising events to donate for children from low socioeconomic backgrounds; they may be wedding ceremonies, birthday parties and similar gatherings.

Take us along with you
Take us along to the places you visit and introduce us to the people you meet. You can help us reach more people by:

• sharing presentations about our initiatives while addressing a gathering.
• distributing print-outs of information about volunteering opportunities with our NGO in your apartment, office, neighbouring localities and at special events.

Be our consultant
You can offer your services as a consultant for the various departments of our NGO depending on your skills and our requirement. You can guide us on Operations, Marketing, HR, Finance, Logistics, Online presence, Health and Nutrition, Fundraising and others.

Trainers and physicians can conduct workshops or check-ups for our employees.

Visit our beneficiary schools to support the midday meal scheme
If you wish to support the midday meal scheme, we can arrange your visit to one of our beneficiary schools near your area as per your interest and availability. You can spend some memorable moments with the children, serve meals and talk to them about the importance of health and nutrition. You can also taste the mid-day meals during your visit and provide valuable feedback.

You can share some of your skills and talents with the children which will help them in their learning journey—it may be related to sports, fine arts, magic tricks, mental math, science experiments or anything of interest to them.

Help in kitchen operations at our premises
As a part of your CSR activity, volunteer in our kitchen processes such as cleaning and cutting vegetables, cleaning the distribution vehicles and other similar activities depending upon your interest. It will give you a first-hand experience of how our kitchens operate and what goes behind preparing hygienic meals for over 2 million children every day.

Online Volunteering Opportunities

Sometimes our busy schedules prevent us from helping people in need. So, we have a solution!

Cyber Advocate with Akshaya Patra
You can sign in as a Cyber Advocate for The Akshaya Patra Foundation. This opportunity entails:

• Forwarding mailers to your contacts to help spread the word about our work
• Promoting our programmes from your social networking accounts and asking your connections to follow us
• Introducing Akshaya Patra in your online communities
• Using our screensavers, buttons, posters, wallpapers, banners and more

Guest-blogging opportunity for volunteers
If you like to write, you can blog about us and let people know about the cause you like to support. You can also send your articles to us and we will then publish them as our guest blog.

Online fundraising volunteer opportunities
We feed 2 million children every day across 14 states and 2 union territories of India from 65 state-of-the-art kitchens. We plan to expand our operations to more locations for which people across the globe are helping us raise funds in their own ways.

If you also wish to donate for children, you can register yourself as an online fundraising volunteer. All the funds raised will go to providing meals to underprivileged beneficiaries. Dedicated fundraisers are acknowledged for their efforts on our select collaterals.

Social media volunteering opportunities
You can become a social media volunteer on the social media site you visit frequently.

When all of us spend some time on social media platforms, why not support a noble cause through them?

Here’s what you can do:
• Become our fan on Facebook. Like our posts and share them with your friends
• Tweet and re-tweet about us on Twitter
• Share our YouTube videos
• Add us to your circle on Google Plus

Contribute to our NGO in your own way!

It is your call to be active in any or all of these activities to help the underprivileged and fill your life with goodness. We will appreciate your efforts on our Facebook page.

We also welcome suggestions!
If you believe there are other effective ways to support us that are in line with our objective, we would love to hear from you.

You can download the volunteering form and send it to ho.hr@akshayapatra.org
Now pull up your sleeves and get ready to fulfil dreams!

Giving someone hope is giving someone life.

It’s true! All of us go through the daily hustle, hanging by the delicate thread of hope—the hope of a better lifestyle, better relationships and a better tomorrow. We stress when these hopes are challenged. 

During COVID, many of us experienced depression while we sat at home all day. Two years felt like an eternity because of our diminishing hopes of returning to our original routines. 

It was hard to get by with a limited supply of daily needs and an extinguished social life. Many of our plans and goals were shattered. Some of us couldn’t meet our families, while others lost their loved ones and are still mourning. 

But among us are millions who have been struggling for years together—working hard to make ends meet, depressed for not being able to look after families and stuck in a state of insufficiency for generations. No matter how much we advance technologically, these underprivileged families have to deal with daily physical and mental stress. 

For them, it is the fear of a vicious cycle that one day may lead to NO HOPE, NO DREAM AND NO LIFE unless we, the better-off individuals, intervene.

Although it is a challenge to reach these people directly, we can be their hope and the reason for happiness by supporting institutions that work for their welfare. 

How can you benefit the underprivileged through NGOs?

• Help disaster victims: Countries like Africa, India and Ukraine often witness deadly disasters and/or political unrest. Millions lose lives, livelihoods, savings and loved ones. We are fortunate to be living away from the affected areas and can contribute online to support the victims with necessities for survival.

• Support well-researched programmes by NGOs: Contributing to existing NGO initiatives is the easiest way to help those in need. Visit the websites of globally-recognised NGOs and select programmes that you feel drawn to. Once you choose your cause, support it with your donation with just a click.

• Volunteer: Volunteering is the best way to spend memorable moments with underprivileged people. If you have the time, visit old-age homes, orphanages, Government schools and NGOs to teach, play, or do fun activities with them. Make them smile and allow these precious moments to heal you for the rest of your life.

• Fundraise: If you cannot donate a lump sum amount, you can start a fundraising campaign with a third-party crowdfunding website and spread the word among your social network to contribute. Additionally, you can inspire them to help more people.

• Write articles: If you like writing, you can submit researched guest blogs to not-for-profit websites for the causes they support. Remember to get in touch with them before you start writing and ask if they accept guest entries.

How do NGOs support underprivileged people?

• They feed and treat malnourished people
• They support the treatment of patients in hospitals
• They arrange therapies for children with special needs 
• They train individuals with disabilities to help them get employed
• They raise funds to coach unemployed individuals
• They sponsor items of women’s hygiene
• They help marginalised communities get opportunities in the fields of art and sports

Donate for children in need. Support Akshaya Patra

We, The Akshaya Patra Foundation, are a 22-year-old NGO in India with a vision that “No child should be deprived of education because of hunger”. With mid-day meals (MDM) supporting the PM Poshan Abhiyaan of the Indian Government, we aim to incentivise children to come to school. Free school meals also help their parents prioritise their future and well-being instead of forcing them to work or get married.

We currently feed 2 million children from our 65 kitchens across 14 states and 2 union territories in India. We are also registered under the Indian Trusts Act of 1882 and implement the world’s largest NGO-run school lunch programme.

When you donate to our NGO in India, you will also receive a 50% tax exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act as we are registered u/s 12A of the IT Act as a non-profit organization.

Today, with unconditional support from our donor family, we also run programmes for pregnant women, nursing mothers, homeless mothers and disaster victims.
Your support can help us end hunger in India entirely!

The impact when you donate towards PM Poshan Abhiyaan

Neha knows she needs to be disciplined and focused on academic training to become a doctor. She does just that by studying for at least 5 hours every day without fail.

She says: “My village does not have healthcare facilities. So, when I become a doctor, I will treat poor patients for free. I will open a hospital here so that they don’t have to travel long distances for basic treatments.” When asked about mid-day meals (MDM) served at her school, she mentions that Dal Khichadi and Kheer are her favourite.

Another reason for this dream is that he believes the work of the police force is an engaging job that would keep him on his toes and in touch with his people daily. He is also attracted to the prospect of becoming a police officer because it requires a person who is flexible and willing to deal with varied situations every day.

Talking about the mid-day meals (MDM) served in school, he says he enjoys every dish as they are both nutritious and delicious.

Final Thoughts

When we become the hope for someone else, we recover from our own losses much faster.
As His Holiness, the 14^th Dalai Lama says,
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

So, let’s recuperate by helping children from low socioeconomic backgrounds through PM Poshan Abhiyaan. When you donate to NGOs like Akshaya Patra to provide unlimited food and education, be assured that you are also contributing towards the development of their entire communities.

Donate now!