Kids from Delhi Public School, Bangalore are crowdfuding to help 50+ poor kids who need heart surgeries by raising over 20 Lakhs in 60 days!
Bangalore: 50 plus students from the 9th,10th & 12th grades from Delhi Public School, Yelahanka are running a first of its kind crowdfunding campaigns on Fueladream.com to raise funds for Paediatric heart surgeries (for kids). They are raising 40000 INR & each student is running their own individual campaign to raise funds for an underprivileged child who is in dire need of these surgeries.
The total amount to be collected is approximately 20L INR over a 60-day period.
The campaign has been an exceptional success with over 14L INR already collected in the first 45 days thus validating the power of crowdfunding. That’s a big amount and shows how problems can be solved & social impact made even by students as young as 13 years!
Fueladream the crowdfunding platform based out of Bangalore conceptualised this campaign by tying up with the Rotary Bangalore Indiranagar (RBI) and the Needy Heart Foundation. These 2 organisations have been in the forefront of helping kids who need heart surgeries & have tie ups with 2 top hospitals in Bangalore – Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology, JP Nagar and Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta.
The campaign is LIVE at the link https://www.fueladream.com/home/dps-big-hearts
Mr. Ranganath Thota, Founder & CEO, FuelADream.com says,” This campaign has already taught the kids at DPS that they have the ability to make a difference to the lives of others. It’s a wonderful initiative that we definitely see other schools adopting soon “
This is a unique concept which leverages the power of crowdfunding with a unique set of partners coming on-board – a school, 2 charity focussed organisations and 2 hospitals. It’s the largest ever crowdfunding campaign done by a school in Bangalore before & reflects the fact that DPS was willing to embrace crowdfunding and get kids who wanted to help others come onboard.
Ms. Manju Balasubramanyam, Principal DPS North Bangalore, says “The future of the world will need citizens who are empathetic, embrace diversity, communicate well and work collaboratively in a global world. Fueladream.com provided the perfect platform where students from DPS Bangalore North could develop these and other 21st century skills, network with the community, tap on the positive power of social media and uphold the DPS Society motto of ‘Service before Self’.
Once the fund is raised they will be given to the hospitals for the surgeries. Each student will be informed by Rotary in association with Needy Heart as to which child benefitted from their crowdfunding campaign. This information will include the child’s name, details of the parents, contact information (if they want to meet the child or keep track of their progress), the hospital in which the surgery was conducted, the surgeon who conducted it and pictures of the beneficiary kid.
This unique partnership model teaches kids in school the power of giving at an early age, exposes them to crowdfunding and technology and gives them a learning as to how to manage such campaigns. It gets them to interact with parents too as there is responsibility shared amongst them when it comes to raising funds.
How students benefit:
The campaign has, as of 4th MAY already raised about 14L INR – enough funds to impact 40 needy kids. Crowdfunding is a very powerful tool that is slowly gaining adoption as it makes a massive impact using the power of people & technology. There are another 2 weeks to go for the campaign to end.
Says Mr Pradeep Visvanathan, President – Rotary Bangalore Indiranagar “We are excited that students are using crowdfunding to make a difference to the lives of other Kids & amazed at the results. The obvious success of this program is making us look at crowdfunding from a very strategic perspective.”
Heart Disease is # 1 killer in the world. While we can rejoice that Bangalore has some of the top world class cardiac hospitals in India, the fact remains that these are out of reach of 90 % of the people without outside help.
Says O P Khanna-Chairman & Managing Trustee, Needy Heart Foundation “Starting with just 8 heart Surgeries in 2002, NGF is we are now saving almost 1100 lives every year thanks to Initiatives likes this.”