Many people love cars while many want to make the world a better place BUT only some like Alan Braithwaite a UK based car enthusiast are able to bring these together to create Trans India Challenge. In October 2019, Alan & his wife Pat will drive 5,600 Kms in their beloved Morgan 3 Wheeler across India to raise funds for Goonj- an internationally acclaimed India based Nonprofit for their environmentally sustainable work.
While people in urban India are talking about malls, flyovers & skyscrapers, locals in rural villages are struggling with malnutrition, lack of basic health & education facilities. While Indian cities are a synonym of a 'disposable society' with a growing culture of use and throw, Over 61 million Indians are still living in deep poverty devoid of basic essentials. This in turn is creating a glaring inequality of resource leading to problems like migration and conflicts.
Goonj is building an economic bridge between people of cities and villages, by sharing surplus of one's prosperity to address lack of resources of another. It is establishing a mechanism & culture of sustained giving in urban India for vast stocks of everyday necessities; from clothes to medicines, lying as idle surplus in urban homes to pass to villages with dignity. The goal is to create environmentally sustainable urban communities while reducing the environmental waste in the process.
Goonj has evolved barter between two new currencies for development - urban discard and rural efforts, to address neglected development issues of the poor. The idea goes beyond the present circular economic model to solve two intractable problems of our times - Poverty and inequality while saving the environment. The funds raised by Trans-India Challenge will directly support Goonj's work in addition to supporting academic research on it and its relevance as a powerful circular economy model.
This project has provided additional documentation in a XLSX file (projdoc.xlsx).
