An Actual Aid Idea
Make “giving” extra special and joyful this festive season
The Festive season is a time for exchanging gifts and spreading cheer.

You can make a conscious effort to buy Diyas, Candles, Tea light holders, gift bags and many other specially designed festive items from NGO’s in your city.

For Eg- In Mumbai, beautiful ‘diyas’ of varied designs and colours priced at Rs35 a pair are made by Damini (for underprivileged women and women who are HIV+ ) These can be ordered by contacting Dr Pradnya 9820119446 or Ms Suvarna 9322856098.

Also very popular during this season are the candles and tea light holders made by blind women from Uttkarsh . To order any of the candles covered with sand / stone, beautiful tea light holders made of glass and other festive items please contact Ms Chaya Desai 9819410979.

Appeal for Aid
Every Pair Of Eyes Donated Can Give Back Sight To Two blind people.
There are millions of blind especially children in India who can gain vision through a cornea transplant. Every pair of corneas donated from a deceased person give back sight to two blind people. Any person below the age of 70 can be a potential donor.
A timely call to 1919 can help back sight to someone. Cornea donation involves a ten minute bloodless procedure carried out to remove the cornea of the deceased. There is no paper work required for the process and only the oral consent of the family of the deceased. The Eye Bank contacted will aim to send a volunteer within half an hour of the time the call is made to this number, to have a ten minute bloodless procedure carried out to remove the cornea of the diseased. The cornea is viable for donation only for a little while post death so the sooner the call is made the greater are the chances of the cornea giving back sight to someone.
For more details : log on to www.eyebankcrc.org or www.ebai.org

Showcasing a Cause
Prerana
Helps protect children of sex workers/prostitutes from their environment and from being put back into the trade .Hundreds of children of prostitutes in India are drugged and made to sleep either under the bed or put outside their hut for the night while the mother has to earn her living.
Preeti and Pravin Patker of Prerana have reached out to this most neglected and abhorred segment of society by starting a night crèche and care centre for these children . There are about eighty children in the shelter who are bathed, fed and sent to school . The mothers are asked to pick up the children post school after they too have had an opportunity to rest during the day.
For more details log onto: www.preranaatc.com