By Anshu Gupta | Founder-Director, GOONJ
All geared up to touch Indian roads on February 2020, Alan’s Morgan 3 wheeler is more than its alluring glitzy exterior. Custom built from scratch, the Krazy Horse motor will tread 3500 miles journey across India to discover new ways of circular economic model that has far reaching impact on rural communities in Indian villages. Raw and unconventional it may sound; Trans-India Challenge is more than a fun adventure. By supporting India based internationally acclaimed voluntary organization GOONJ www.goonj.org which works on repurposing urban under-utilized materials as an important resource to trigger rural development across 23 Indian states, the Challenge will shed a whole new light on human centered design on circular economy.
Apart from its deep intervention in rural development issues affecting remote underserved communities across India, GOONJ has developed a reliable and time-tested disaster response strategy which starts with relief, followed by long term rehabilitation and revival of local livelihood. This year, there was major flooding in over 9 states causing huge infrastructural and livelihood devastation. Many affected states remained largely ignored and there was very little media attention. Here is first hand story from this year’s flood affected areas in Karnataka where GOONJ has been working on for several years now.
Shilpa (name changed) was already mourning over the loss of a dear one when the floods wrecked her small grocery store in Nagaral village in Bagalkot district which is one of the worst affected states in Karnataka. With basic necessary material received under Goonj’s Vaapsi (local livelihood revival initiative) implemented with a local grassroots partner organization, Goonj’s team motivated Shilpa to set up the store again – reviving her only source of sustenance. The Vapsi initiative is not just about reviving local economy of flood hit areas but it also prevents migration of the affected communities in the long term
The funds raised by Trans-India Challenge will go towards supporting GOONJ’s work addressing material poverty in rural India, preventing tons of underutilized materials from burdening landfills and supporting its ongoing rehabilitation work in disasters.
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