Poverty alleviation, Rural development and Disaster relief and RehabilitationIn the last 2 decades, Goonj’s work has focused on evolving more equal, inclusive ways and currencies, beyond money, to involve everyone, including the rural poor, as equal contributors, responsible for addressing their challenging issues and making this world a better place.
Goonj is trying to solve the problem of poverty, inequality and indignity for millions of rural poor and marginalized, by creating non aid based replicable solutions and models that listen to their voice, value what they have and involve them in solving their problems.
We are connecting the cities with rural poor, creating a larger culture and processes of strength, sustenance and dignity in the two, by channelizing neglected basic needs material like cloth and sanitary pads from one end to the other.
Following are Goonj's initiatives:
Dignity for work (for Rural Development)- People in rural areas identify and work on their own varied issues-repairing roads, cleaning ponds, digging wells to making big bamboo bridges. They are rewarded for their efforts with need-based material in the form of comprehensive family packs.
Not just a piece of cloth (For Menstrual Hygiene)- Using the urban discarded cloth to make and reach MY Pads as a tool to open up the most taboo subject of menstrual hygiene; breaking the culture of shame and silence around this basic.
School to School (for Education)- Filling the critical gaps in education by reaching out unutilized urban material to resource-starved village/slum schools, informal setups, not as charity but as a motivation/reward for behavior and learning changes.
Rahat (Disaster Relief & Rehabilitation) - With systemic approach from immediate relief to long-term rehabilitation, every year Goonj works through its interventions in big and small disasters from cloud burst, floods, earthquakes, landslides, tsunami to human-made disasters like fire or highlighting disasters like winters.
Goonj envisions to grow as an idea across regions, economies and countries using urban discard as a tool to alleviate poverty and enhance the dignity of the poor in the world. Address basic but neglected issues of the poor by involving them in evolving their own solutions with dignity and urban material as reward.
Goonj uses urban discard as a tool to alleviate poverty and enhance the dignity of underprivileged population. By creating a barter between two new currencies, urban underutilized material and the wisdom & efforts of rural communities, Goonj works towards solving some of the most neglected issues in rural India.
