Prayatna: An Initiative for a Better Tomorrow

We, as students of a prestigious institution such as IISER Mohali, have unfathomable privilege in terms of education, and the facilities that come along with them. There are children out there, who are devoid of such necessities, ones that we take for granted. However, those of us that are in a better position, can definitely work towards ensuring a brighter future for those underprivileged.

Prayatna started as a group of a few students who wanted to work for the betterment of society, primarily working in the field of education amongst the weaker sections of society. Slowly, the group grew and now there are nearly a hundred people from IISER, in different capacities. Amongst the events they have conducted, the first was clothes donation. They collected clothes from around the campus, and the clothes were then distributed in slums in Industrial Phase 1 and Manimajra. The next event involved the collection of books to be donated to orphanages and government schools who needed them. The books collection and donation are ongoing events and members of Prayatna have already collected almost 2000 books from different schools in Chandigarh. The third event, again an ongoing one, is of food donation. Our messes regularly have extra food remaining after meals, all of which is thrown away. To help put it to good use, Prayatna, with the help of Feeding India and Robinhood Army, both NGOs working to feed the poor, helped to get this extra food to reach those who required them.

We are all aware of cyclone Fani and the large scale destruction it caused. With the help of the entire IISER community, Prayatna gathered 17000 rupees and had it sent to the Odisha Chief Minister’s relief fund. Recently, as a step towards education, Prayatna reached out to Free Fragrance Tuition, Sector 69 which is a free​ tuition program aimed at educating government school students, who are the children of migrant workers, to help them in this noble cause. Different groups of three students everyday help the students to understand various subjects better.

Prayatna now proceeds further in its endeavour to fulfil the cause of the group. Its successes would have been impossible without the help of the IISER community, and to move forward, they require your further support, with more members joining this initiative.



Team Prayatna