Shopping on their own was a dream come true for Ramu, Ankit and Aarti, the three children who otherwise spend their day out on the streets collecting plastic bottles from garbage. The three checked off their wish-list by buying things for themselves and their families at the MahaBazar mock shopping mall set up at Ranchi Club on Sunday.
After buying a toy for her little brother, Aarti said, “I always wanted to give something to him but we do not have money to buy anything. I was very happy to buy so many things for myself and my brother.”
Like Aarti, a number of underprivileged children got the chance to experience the liberty of choice-something out of their reach, due to the efforts of Fallen Leaves, a youth driven charity organisation with an aim to bring smile on the faces of underprivileged children.
“We had 1001 kids in two sets. One from Adim Jati Mahila Ashram in Khunti and the other from Parasnath School in Bandgaon,” said Rajat, a member of Fallen Leaves. The event organised for underprivileged children aged between 5 to 18 years was a huge success and completed four years of spreading joy in this unique fashion.
“The kids seemed to be very excited and joyous when they were given the liberty to choose what to buy and experience the retail process of shopping at the mock shopping mall,” added Rajat.
The satisfaction and pleasure of giving is their biggest motivation and driving force, claim the volunteers.
Designed in a way to attract the kids, the overall experience included shopping bags labelled as ‘Bag of Happiness’ and queues of stalls with names ‘Papa ki Pant’, ‘Ma ki Saree’ and were given mock debit cards for payment.
Goods like clothes, toys, stationery items and accessories were put up for the children, with each item being marked at Rs. 200 and each child having a limit of buying five items.
The value for money and budget were taught to these kids in the process. The aim was to inculcate the concept of prioritising needs versus wants. “We believe experience is the biggest teacher and that’s the main idea behind our concept of the event,” Rajat said.
The effort of Fallen Leaves was applauded by the denizens of the City. “It is a very interesting concept for charity as we can share things with the kids in a dignified manner and they can learn and rejoice out of it,” said Anshita Mehta, a donor for Mahabazar.
“It is a nice way to unite the society for a cause and implement it in a way that produces optimum use for the beneficiaries.
We look forward to it the next year also,” said Bharti Singh, a homemaker from Ranchi.