Cloth Collection Drive

Around 170 million, almost two thirds of people living in rural areas in India are poor. Clothes are of utmost necessity and can be the difference between life and death for poor people. Aimed at making the chilling winter a warm one for the poor and also to get the best out of the waste, NSS IIT Roorkee organized a cloth collection drive on Sunday, 17th February, 2013 in the campus of IIT Roorkee.

The Cloth Collection initiative of NSS IIT-R headed by the EMP cell was slated to be a two day event, with a publicity drive on 16^th February followed by cloth collection and sorting on 17^th. But due to the rain-marred first day, the publicity phase was unfortunately cancelled. To make up for the low publicity, hordes of student volunteers, approximately 500 of them, gathered for the extended cloth collection session starting at 9.30 am on Sunday. These students were then divided into numerous teams and sent to different locations for cloth collection. Apart from the 9 boys hostel, 2 girls hostel and the single married persons’ hostel, the teams went to many other locations including Niti Nagar, Saraswati Kunj, Hill view, Canal View, Vigyan Kunj, Govind Puri, Aamod Path,  Vikas Kunj, Khosla, Azad wing, GP Hostel, C-Class Club. One could trace the smile of joy on the faces of IITR students, professors and staff who willingly donated their old clothes. The enthusiasm and effort of the NSS team was well appreciated by them. The cloth collected from each of these locations were deposited at the Mandi cell in IIT Roorkee with the help of a vehicle which proved to be a very versatile and efficient addition to the event.  The collection of clothes went on from 9.30 am till about noon and was followed by sorting and packing of clothes which extended up to 6 in the evening.

A whooping 2500 kg of clothes, ranging from sweaters to shoes, were collected and sorted on Sunday. The distribution of clothes will be carried out later this year by the NSS team in Chandighat, a perennially flood affected area of Haridwar. 

Collage Making Competition

Prerna cell, of NSS IIT Roorkee, organized a collage making competition for its students on 3^rd Feb. i.e. Sunday. Children started arriving at 10:30 am. Meanwhile, the seniors put up the banners in the lawn, where the competition was to take place. The banners had itself been made by collage to inspire the students and give them ideas. Competition started at 11:30 am. Everyone was given white charts, glue and some newspapers. The basic concept was to make a collage on any topic using newspapers and glue only. The students were assisted by the volunteers of first year for selecting theme and making collage. Finally the winners were decided on the basis of their collage and their explanation of their theme.

About 45 students turned up for the event, all of whom brimming with excitement. Some had thought of their themes beforehand only. In the hour that followed, you could see everyone lost in their work-cutting, pasting, etc. The air was full of creativity. There were wide varieties of themes-from Save Environment, Go Green to Women Empowerment, Indian Army. Finally seniors short listed some of them like-Women Empowerment, Save Trees, Dream India, Sports, etc. Lastly, the ex-secretary of Prerna and Prof. G.K Kumbhar of Electrical Department listened to the explanations of the shortlisted candidates. After much discussion, the selected collages were- Saving Women, Indian Army and Save Trees respectively. Winners were awarded with prizes such as sketch pens, crayons etc. Everyone was given chocolates for their active participation. All in all, it was an interesting Sunday.

  

Lifestyle Modification for Prevention of CANCER

On the occasion of World Cancer Day(4th February), NSS IIT Roorkee organised a cancer awareness campaign, “Lifestyle modification for prevention of cancer”, on Sunday, 3rd of February 2013. The guest lecturer, Dr. Sunil Saini, Director of Cancer Research Institute, Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, Dehradun delivered an informational lecture to make the people aware about the cause and cures of cancer available today.

The event commenced at 15:00 with the presentation of a bouquet to Dr. Sunil Saini by Dr. Smita Jha, Program Officer, NSS IIT Roorkee. The lecture started with an introduction to various types of cancer like colon cancer, breast cancer, uterine cervix cancer etc. He then enumerated and explained the different causes of cancer like tobacco chewing, unbalanced diet, bad eating habits, and high intake of salt, alcohol etc. Guiding the students through the preventive measures, he said, by maintaining a healthy life style, the one including regular exercise and meditation and avoiding exposure to carcinogens, one can tackle cancer. He then shared his views about cancer in India and steps taken by the government to eradicate it. He concluded by saying-

"We must find time to get ourselves aware because awareness can translate into less number of cancer patients in our society"

The mind stimulating lecture was followed by a question session in which many questions were put forward by the students and professors. The vote of thanks was given by Dr. Smita Jha by expressing her gratitude. The event ended with the presentation of memento to Dr. Sunil Saini by Dr. Anjan Sil, Program Coordinator, NSS IIT Roorkee.

Model Village : Bhangedi

After their incredibly successful Bhangedi Talent Search Examination (BTSE), the Model Village Cell of NSS is focusing on more lucid tasks which are largely youth-centred and would help in making Bhangedi self-dependent thereby achieving a holistic development.

 As a follow-up to BTSE, Model Village has made a few groups of NSS students who shall be tutoring and mentoring the village students (who made it through BTSE) in academics, sports and art so as to hone their specific talents.Four groups have been made for this purpose. First one is for children of classes 6-8 which shall give particular emphasis on making the children, especially girls, bold and self-confident. Second one will be for boys of classes 9-12 and will employ sports as a major tool for teaching them instead of the usually boring verbal lectures. A third one will handle the girls of classes 9-12 and would focus on women empowerment. The last group gets more creative. It is for teaching science to students by interesting and curious experiments and will take help from various Profs of IITR to design some to cater to the needs of village students.Apart from these, several other groups have been made one of which is socio-economic technical initiatives which shall discover various socio-economic exploits in the village. There is a separate task group entrusted with exploring the possibilities of using the Right to Education Act for getting the village kids into Private schools. Last but not the least is the plan to grease together a faction of village women who will work for tackling social vices prevailing in the village. In a nutshell, Model Village continues to do some awesome work and one can really hope that they can turn Bhangedi into a model for the rest of Indian villages.