Transforming India’s Villages
Meet Goonj Anshu Gupta
Anshu Gupta is known for his extraordinary charitable work, helping rural communities in India with food, clothing, and shelter while teaching them skills to secure livelihoods for their families.
Anshu first started his professional career as a journalist, but his work on the frontlines led him to pivot towards social impact. He left the corporate work in 1998 and established Goonj first to deliver clothing to those in need, but he soon saw an opportunity to make a difference in other areas.
Building Infrastructures
Goonj’s activities grew to major schemes, from building bamboo bridges, digging up wells, designing drainage systems to creating canals for irrigation and road repairs.
Anshu now focuses on duplicating his project modules to help other countries grow their economies, towards eradicating rural poverty. His work has garnered him recognition from NASA’s Launch Award, World Bank’s Development Marketplace Award, to Ashoka and Schwab Fellows.
Anshu explains, “Goonj doesn’t want to grow only as an organization; it wants to grow as an idea… where organizations and individuals across the world take up the work, learning from our experience and help reach the basics of life to people who need it urgently. Mindful of their dignity and their needs, not as charity.”
Goonj School Projects
Goonj offers village schools materials such as no pencils, water bottles, notebooks, education material, stationery, often transferring materials that are in excess at city schools.
Goonj Natural Calamity Response
Goonj has been closely working on various relief and rehabilitation services for natural disasters like cyclones, floods, tsunamis, and earthquakes to name a few. Rahat is one such initiative that grew to become a reliable network of investors and stakeholders collaborating to respond to both rural and urban natural calamities.
Goonj Going Green
Goonj offers eco-friendly solutions, recycling materials to make more than 100 different products such as fancy bags, mats, file folders, and more from worn-out jeans, audiotapes, used paper, etc.
The project involves developing craftsmanship skill of women who become empowered to make sustainable products for sale.
Goonj Health Care
When it comes to health care, Goonj addresses the need for social distancing for families who currently are large numbers living in small confined spaces where diseases can spread more rapidly. To solve this problem, Goonj has facilitated support for front-line workers and rural families by offering medical devices and kits, and other essential supplies of rations.
Learn more about Goonj and get involved.
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