The Pleasure of Giving

To know more about Crowdfunding:
read this -->> Crowdfunding in Social Media
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8th April 2013, for many people in the world it might have just been a normal day; a usual hectic day for some, dull and boring for the rest. But somewhere in a very small town in this big busy world, it was quite a special day. It was the happiest day for us for some years now.

Yes, Blogateurs who set out on a mission to develop Future India had their first success.

Crowdfunding, the most popular model was implemented by us. Crowdfunding, simply put is the process of collecting funds from large groups of people. We created a business model out of this concept. Initially Blogateurs set out with a motive that rural students should be given proper career guidance. But later we changed a normal lecture into a business model where we applied the concept of Crowdfunding to help a rural child who is unable to pursue his/her education due to poverty. We collect voluntary funds from the students to whom we will give lectures and this amount will be fully donated to the student who is unable to pay the fees from the same school.

The selected student from the school SJMS was a girl. She was going from 9th to 10th standard. The school SJMS is one of the reputed schools around its area. Hence, fees structure was too demanding for the girl and her father, a tailor.

As a result of the Career Guidance Session, we collected Rs. 6195 from the students. Along with the Rs. 450 which was donated by Blogateurs along with couple of our friends Sarathi and Srinivasan. A total amount of Rs. 6645 was collected.  This amount was good enough to pay half of the fees for the next year.

We gave the entire amount to the girl and her father in the presence of the school Principal Mrs. Helen Felix and the Class Teacher Mrs. Aldrin Ayyapan who were instrumental in collecting such a big amount from the students.

The happiness in the father’s eyes could not be explained by the words. He was so inspired by the fact that this was a result of two young students’ initiative. He said that this event would motivate the girl to achieve greater heights and will contribute to the society effectively.

SJMS school had written a testimonial for Blogateurs:

We are still taking small steps towards our Vision. But we are in the right direction. We would also like to implement few other business concepts in the pursuit of our selfless aim. We provide insights to a right career so that it helps to attain their personal success. And also we inspire the students to contribute to the society throughout their life. We plan to visit more rural schools and help more students in the near future.


Blogateurs will continue being a student identity to develop Indian society. Hence, we will stay as an unregistered organization and hence we would not be accepting any Individual funds.

Why This Kolaveri English?

                 The passel of sophomores were ensconced at sea after the preceptor left. I referred to a Thesaurus for the above sentence because I am not an English freak and also I do not see the need anytime sooner.

                 English is just like any other language. It is a platform through which we can convey our thoughts to other. Though  we must develop the professional lingo in our communication it is equally necessary that we understand the importance of the basics in communication. Suiting up does not mean that we always address highly-educated audience.

                “Distance la Moonu, Moonu Color White, White Background night, Night Color Black” I still could not imagine these words were taken from a song which was considered a prodigious worldwide hit. Intentionally or unintentionally, Dhanush and his team enticed the entire world with easy-to-understand words and catchy music. With due respect, even distinguished lyricists and poets like Vairamuthu, Javed Akhtar could not achieve this feat.

Kolaveri Dhanush

   
               Effective communication lies in ensuring the message that it reaches the other person as we meant it to be. Our choice of words must be simple yet effective while communicating.

             I did not use any confusing or charming words but I hope I had managed to drive the point effectively. Next time the moment a person uses complicated language to confuse, ask him, "hey peter, why this kolaveri?"

Blogateurs

Crowdfunding in Social Media Helping for Better Education

“We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone”

-Ronald Reagan

               Ever since I joined the Management Course, my life has been clogged with complicated words (referred as jargons which on its own is complicated!). It was the same frustrated feeling when I came across this word called "crowdfunding" in a newspaper. Not having much to do in a Sunday afternoon, I decided to read the article.

              Shubhashish, a business journalist by profession and working as a teacher had applied for a Master's degree in U.K. He got the desired seat six years back. But he was unable to pay the required fees then. 

               Later, some of his friends guided him to ask for a bank loan since Hon. Fin Minister had said that banks cannot refuse an education loan to any eligible student. But, it is mandatory in all banks that for loans above 7.5 lacs, we need to submit collateral. 

               Only then he came across this concept called "Crowdfunding". He posted a blogpost titled "Hope" asking for people to donate Rs.800 through his blog to enable him pursue his dream. Titled, "Project Hope", he promises that this project is not charity or a donation. Instead he would pay the investors with 8% simple interest in 7 years. And having more than 2500 twitter followers along with 600 friends on his Facebook, even if half of them funded "ProjectHope"  it would help him to attain the target. 

               For transparency, he has also updated an excel sheet in his blog so that the investor can follow their money.

               You can help him at http://shubhashish.com/

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               When was the last time you went to a restaurant only to see a young boy doing your 3 digit billing without a calculator effortlessly? 

                How would you react when a poor little young girl comes to you and sells a product that you really do not want?

                In our daily life,we come across many poor children who are academically good but could not pursue their education due to financial constraints. We feel pity just for a moment or two and then carry on with our regular lives.

                In this era of digital connectivity where  if Facebook were a country it could be the third most populated place, Twitter being the most sought after place for celebrities and Blogs serving as online word-of-mouths, this is where a concept like "crowdfunding" can really have an impact. There are lot others like Shubhashish out there who need financial help but do not really know how to do it. It might be your cousin applying for a foreign course or a poor boy residing by the nearby slum area.  

                 Educate them about this opportunity. Help those children start a facebook page or a blogsite. It ain't going to cost us anything. We can help them create a platform where the interested public may or may not invest in their talents. In Shubhashish case, many of those who have invested money do not wish for the money to be returned. Month and a half and he has managed to collect about half of his target amount.

                 Let us carry forward this great initiative titled "#PROJECTHOPE"  just not only to help Shubhashish but to enlighten others who could not afford their desired education. Let this jargon (crowdfunding) kindle a light upon their future.

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” 

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jai Hind!

Blogateurs

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P.S. :: Some wikipedia stuff, "crowdfunding" started with the book called Sleeping in Homes of Strangers: A month-long Journey of Trust by Mark Dickinson.

Career Guidance and Counselling Session in SJMS, Guduvancheri, Tamilnadu – Blogateurs

Looking back…

                Blogateurs was started by two students who shared the same passion of writing. Commenced on June 1^st 2012, we have come a long way forward registering more than 4000 hits with a regular traffic of 40-50 visitors.

                We decided to step up our passions, so that it benefits our society. What started off as a blog site, it went on to become an educational website providing deeper insights into current issues. Our motive was to Educate, Inspire and Transform.

• ·         By our intellectual posts we try to Educate people about various issues,
• ·         Inspire them with our flair for creative writing and
• ·         Hope to Transform their lives so that it contributes to their personal and societal success.

The Transformation:

Our primary target was to reach out to students who are from rural and semi-urban schools. Many articles like Worth the Risk, Post Graduation, How to Choose the Job you Love were targeted to these students. But many of these students did not have access to internet.

Hence, our reach was reduced to those who can access internet. This prompted Blogateurs to expand its reach and visibility. We then decided to target rural and semi-urban schools. We specialized ourselves in the field of Career Guidance and Counselling.

Why Career Guidance?

We belong to a generation where lakhs of Engineers pass out every year not knowing their future and sometimes even unaware of what they really want to do. This has prompted us to help our future generations from this pitfall.

The Grand Stage:

Stepping into the sands of SJMS Guduvancheri, with loads of childhood memories (we did our schooling from the same school till 10^th standard) we had a huge task in our hand. Being part of alumni did help us in getting this opportunity.

And Yes! Finally, the first-ever Blogateurs Venture on Career Guidance and Counselling to 10^th students went ahead on 26^th of January 2012 with a 2 hour long session which involved lectures about various career choices, interactive activities and career and personal assessment tests.

With the Students

Raj Bharath started off the session with few examples of people who followed their passion and achieved tremendous success

Few Interactions to get to know what they want before what we want to offer

Students Listening 

Few Fun Activities to engage them 

We let their burdens and worries fly away

Students making notes of the important conversations

Interest Club Activity enabled the students to identify their classmates who shared the same interests

Self-Esteem Assessment

Raj Bharath narrating the importance of Self-Esteem and how it helps in overcoming conflicts and obstacles for career happiness

Evaluation of Individual Self-Esteem [Even the teachers participated]

Koushik Balaji taking over and talking about the possible career options

It was a Victory for us on our first session with the students actively participating and asking doubts

We sincerely thank Mr. Ramkishore Subramanium, a hardcore Electronics Engineer by profession,  who took in-charge of the photos and videos(to be uploaded shortly on our YouTube Channel).  

At the end, we explained what prompted us to do this and also we told them that the funds collected at the end of this session would be spent on various rural children who do not have enough opportunity to pursue their further education.

Immediately few students stood up and came near the fund box and were taking out coins and whatever they had in their bags and pockets and donating. It may be a meager amount of tens and twenties, but we were moved by their spontaneous reaction to donate the poor children. That moment! That single moment served us the purpose of what we wanted to do - Educate, Inspire and Transform. 

We got very good response both from the students and the teachers who gave us positive feedback. Though going forward, we would constantly monitor ourselves and improve. 

Future Plans:

                As said earlier, we would serve as an eye-opener to various rural and semi-urban schools about the career choices other than the conventional ones like engineer, doctor, etc.,

                100% of the funds or fees collected as a result of our venture would be spent on rural children welfare who are financially bound to pursue their career choices.

“The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal him his own.”

-          Benjamin Disraeli

Jai Hind!

Blogateurs

We Vision Beyond 2020

Our first Promotional Video