All posts tagged: art of giving

Mega Blood Donation Camp

The Mega Blood Donation Camp is an annual tradition that has become a hallmark of
the Art of Giving campaign. Every year, thousands of individuals from KIIT, KIMS, and
KISS donate blood, acknowledging it as a vital service to humanity. This initiative not
only helps meet critical medical needs but also spreads awareness about the
importance of blood donation in saving lives.

With the unwavering support of volunteers, healthcare professionals, and organizers, the blood donation camp continues to expand its impact each year. It creates a ripple effect of kindness, inspiring individuals to prioritize service to others and making a significant difference in the lives of those in need.

Education For All

Education for All is an initiative under the Art of Giving movement, championing the cause of “Education for All” espoused by UNESCO. This noble mission has been passionately advocated by Prof. Achyuta Samanta, Founder of KIIT, KISS, and KIMS, since 2015. Through the extensive network of faculty and staff at his institutions, drawn from diverse regions, Prof. Samanta has been reaching out to young students to spread awareness about the critical importance of holistic education in shaping lives.

His conviction stems from a simple yet profound idea:

“Education is the most powerful tool to combat the roots of poverty, hunger, and inequality. It is the third eye that opens the door to infinite possibilities.”

Starting in December 2024, this remarkable campaign gained momentum under the aegis of the Art of Giving movement. Spearheaded by the inspired faculty members of KIIT, this initiative has reached a wide audience across various districts of Odisha and other states, covering over 100 locations and continuing to expand its impact.

The seminars witnessed dedicated KIIT faculty members utilizing their time to make a meaningful difference in their hometowns. These committed educators conducted events aimed at raising awareness about the transformative power of education. Local parents, guardians, students, and other esteemed dignitaries actively participated in these sessions, creating a vibrant platform for knowledge exchange and community engagement.

This ongoing Art of Giving Education for All initiative is planting seeds of awareness and inspiration in communities. By touching the lives of thousands, it is creating a ripple effect, encouraging society to prioritize education as a tool for empowerment and development.

Constable spends Rs 10,000 every month from his salary on poor

K Krishna Murthy, a head constable attached to Parvatipuram town police station, has gone out of his way to help the poor and the needy.

During the COVID-19 crisis, Murthy selected 30 poor people every month to provide them with essentials. Presently, he focuses on supplying warm clothes to the poor and abandoned as the temperature dropped during the winter. He procures the requirements and other supplies, spending his salary every month. He pays Rs 10,000 from his salary every month to help the needy. “I have been supporting the poor since 2017. I get a Rs 45,000 take-home salary and spend only Rs 10,000 for the social service,” Murthy informed.

“He came to our village to help the poor on the request of his colleague, who hails from our village,” he remarked. Murthy’s colleague Aluru Atchyuta Rao said his friend provides groceries to the orphanages and nursing homes.

Aside from conferring a helping hand to the needy, Krishna also distributes books to students on certain birthdays and important dates. He further tells, “On birthdays of prominent leaders, such as Dr Abdul Kalam, Swami Vivekananda, Mother Teresa and Dr B R Ambedkar, I distribute books. Reading their autobiographies, I hope these kids wish to become good humanitarians. This exercise also motivates them to read.”

The art of cultivating organic food at a reasonable cost by KIIT alumnus

Avilash Mahananda’s mother passed away due to cancer. His mother never smoked or consumed alcohol. So her cancer diagnosis and unexpected death took Avilash by shock and left him troubled.
He started to examine the reasons of her cancer and discovered that the long-term build-up of the chemicals in the body, primarily through the food we consume, was considered one of the significant probable causes of cancer.

Mahananda, an alumnus of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, thus began his journey to provide chemical and toxin-free food to consumers. His passion for doing so ultimately led to the initiation of C&G Agroventures – A firm that offers toxin-free vegetables at an affordable rate. Addressing to the media, he said, “The vegetables go through a unique three-step process which reduces the chemicals in them by up to 60-90%. My goal is to provide pesticide and chemical-free vegetables at affordable prices,” says Mahananda. Now, if you are thinking that this means ‘organic’, then think again. Organic food is usually expensive, and as a result, not affordable for most, which is why the 30-year-old’s primary focus is affordability. So, they are not only retailing out of supermarket giants like Reliance Fresh, but their chemical-free vegetables are also available at local and independent Kirana stores in Bhubaneswar.”

Mahananda’s scheme for changing the face of organic food seems like a sustainable action against chemicals in our nutrition. A small project that started in Bhubaneshwar will now reach people in other parts of the country too. The entire Art of Giving is proud of the KIITian Avilash Mahananda and his contribution to society.

Nothing stops the Art of Giving, Not even a Pandemic- A food distribution programme by Dr Achyuta Samanta

When the entire world is under lockdown, the art of giving founder is doing precisely what it’s creator should do at the moment- Help every living creature within the diaries of the law. Dr Achyuta Samanta travelled to different locations in Odisha on a pick-up truck and fed stray animals with cooked food even as the nation observed the fourth day of lockdown amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Art of Giving by Dr Achyuta Samanta during Corona LockDown

The most extensive AOG communities- KIIT University & Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) have decided to distribute food items. The items including green vegetables, daily to stray monkeys inhabiting different places in Bhubaneswar like Khandagiri, Dhauligiri, Shikharchandi hills and area around Nandankanan to help them cope with unprecedented hardship due to COVID-19 outbreak. The two institutions will also provide cooked food daily to other stray animals, including dogs, cows, etc., living in areas from Nalco square to KIIT & KISS campuses in Patia. Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KIIT & KISS has started the campaign by offering food to monkeys in Shikharchandi hill.

Shortly, a decision has been made to distribute food packets comprising of flattened rice (chuda), sugar and dry food to nearly 40,000 needy and low-income families and daily wage labourers. This food will be explicitly granted to their children, in and around Bhubaneswar City thrice a week for a minimum period of 20 days.

Food Distribution to Traffic Personnels by Achyuta Samanta
The state police department is working hard to make people aware about COVID-19. They are also trying their best to effectively implement the current lockdown. To show solidarity with the police, today I provided lunch to 1200 police personnel working throughout Bhubaneswar. Besides this, we are continuing to provide food to stray cows, dogs and animals and food packets to 40,000 people thrice a week. Doing my bit to ensure vulnerable sections of the population around will not die of starvation and augmenting the efforts of state government which has robust policies for such sections in a humble way. I urge every citizen to do whatever best they can individually and to support the local administration in these challenging times.Art of Giving
Achyuta Samanta यांनी वर पोस्ट केले रविवार, २९ मार्च, २०२०

Dr. Samanta, while launching this drive, stated, “KIIT has enough stock of dry food procured for Khelo India Games that can provide nutrition to growing children residing in slum areas”. Further, two staff members of KIIT will be involved in these activities with the assistance of the police.

Note, that the entire drive is being conducted upholding the “social distancing” instructions given by the World Health Organization and the India Govt.

Anand Kumar

Super 30, a super Art Of Giving:

Anand Kumar is an Indian educationalist and a mathematician best known for his Super 30 programme, which coaches underprivileged students for IIT-JEE, the entrance examination for the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

He was born to a simple homemaker and a clerk in the postal department in Patna, Bihar. Unable to buy private schools, Anand Kumar studied in a Hindi-medium government school. The death of his father at a young age pushed the family into deep financial crisis, where his mother had to start the business of rolling papads to sustain the family. Despite his financial circumstances, Kumar was a gifted child, especially in mathematics. The papers he wrote on the number theory during his graduation were published in journals such as Mathematical Spectrum and The Mathematical Gazette.

In 1992, Kumar began teaching mathematics in a rented room for Rs. 500 a month, under the banner- Ramanujan School of Mathematics (RSM). In a span of three years, he was teaching almost 500 students. In 2002, an underprivileged student sought to coach for IIT-JEE from Kumar, stating he couldn’t afford the annual admission fee.

This inspired Kumar to start the Super 30 programme in 2002, which hunts for 30 meritorious students from economically backward sections of the society. In an extremely generous feat of Art Of giving, Kumar provides free coaching, shelter and food to help the students crack entrance exam of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). By 2018, 422 out of 480 students had cleared the entrance for IITs under his supervision. The man’s work inspired Hritik Roshan’s, Super 30 under the banner of Phantom Films.

#KaashKey – Celeberating UTKAL Diwas

Utkal Mani Gopabandhu Dash is known for his contribution to this Nation and State in need of a revolution. His revolution was propelled by awareness and hence the birth of the newspaper- “The Samaja” took place.
Taking into account of his lifetime credo of “Pen is mightier than Sword”, the AOG community had innovated its way into the minds and soul of deprived children, yet again!

This Utkal Diwas, let’s find what we have fought to come from and what we are fighting to achieve.
The voice of children will become the voice of AOG.

The team aimed to gather children from the underprivileged communities and encourage them to write their dreams down. Writing down what they want to be or simply their wants will help the AOG team to put forth a display of hopes in most appropriate way to the channels where we shall fuel dreams to fulfill them.

This initiative by the AOG community for #UtkalDiwas was #KashKey. Kash symbolizing desire and key stands to unlock their happiness. Volunteers from all across KIIT and KISS and other parts of Bhubaneswar shall gather for the event, get the wishes and try to fulfill it by making it reach the concerned levels.

The children participated with full enthusiasm and took mugshots with their wishes. These wishes might be trivial to many of us, but when fulfilled, are closer to life to many of them. With all humility, Art of Giving Community shall try to fulfil the dreams it has fuelled in their dazzling eyes today.

You may join our mission, see their wishes and become a #Key to their#Kaash and try to suffice just one wish of any child out there. Anything at all helps.

Pyaar Bhara Pack – International Happiness day

20th March 20, 2018: From one episode to another, since May 2013, Art of giving has been constantly spreading happiness amongst the underprivileged. For a country that is about to top the World’s largest Population, it is in desperate need of a start that will survive. Art Of Giving undoubtedly has proved its ability of survival and rise amongst a larger audience to serve this nation, selflessly and wholeheartedly.

Introducing the new #PyaarBharaPack gives the needy ones an experience to “taste happiness”. The initiative involves feeding a wholesome nutritious meal to 200 underprivileged kids served by the restaurant from and around Patia and other parts of Bhubaneswar. Kids from deprived bustees of the town are invited to Sandy’s Tower which happens to be the venue for the initiative. Menu spreading from across biryani to dishes of chicken to chinese and desserts were served to the kids.

To make the process pragmatic the kids were handed over fake currency which they traded over food, giving them the experience of visiting a restaurant, ordering and getting a sumptuous meal.The hustle in the hall, the bliss in the eyes of the kids and hope in their hearts deserves a commitment of encouragement for the underprivileged to have the abilities and sources to rise.

This one-day initiative helps the underprivileged ones have a meal of emotion. Food becomes driving force and Taste- the ambition and fulfillment of paying their own meals inflict empathy. Empathy can drive the indigent to rise and serve. It aims at empowering the poor making them an effective agent of change. The greatest example of this would be Prof. Achyuta Samantha who serves a picture of ambition in everyone’s mind despite being deprived of it since his childhood days. AOG, through small acts of giving, spreads the philosophy of love, care, compassion, wisdom, knowledge, skills, and talent.

Prof Samanta, Founder of Art of Giving Philosophy and the main motivating force behind the event is also the inspiration behind this mission. “One need not be very rich to give something back to the society, rather one must be poor to know the luxury of giving”. said Prof. Samanta.

For the giver, it is a form of self-delight whilst for the inheritor, it is a matter of experience. The idea was to motivate the givers, inheritors and the witnesses that there is a future to be promised because we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.

Akshara Santa

(The saint of letters)

Like the name suggests, “Santa” was actually a boon that children wished for, just this time, SANTA is for real. And this time his gifts are more than candies and cakes, this time a common man rises from illiteracy to the stardom of knowledge.

Meet Harekala Hajabba a man from Mangalore, Karnataka and an orange vendor, who had the courage to spend to spend years of savings to start a school in the region he came from so that the children there could get educated.

The unselfish man kept saving money for 15 long years from his every day earning to support the cause. Walking down a trip of 25 km daily from his native village to Mangaluru city to sell oranges and eventually starting the school with mere 28 students and a strong desire to educate every child in the village, Hajaba began the school at a Madrasa- an educational premise most often in premises of a Mosque.

Today, the school, which has grown with government hold up and donations from private folks are known as Hajabba School. He is affectionately known as ‘ Akshara Santa’.

Shamsher Khan

In 1956, Khan had become a national hero for finishing in the 5th place in the Melbourne Summer Olympics. The thing is no-one remembers who stands second so why heed someone who stood 5^th. But the fact remains in the number of hour of pain, sacrifices and fighting up the screwed political hierarchy.

Before that, he had also set national records in all four swimming strokes as well as in water polo and diving, making him the only Indian to do so. In a country like India and at this 21^st century, where sports isn’t ever on the list of favorable career as of now, Shamsher khan dared to go on to the Olympics fighting the system and people.

Though no one remembers the person who came second, we should acknowledge this extraordinary man who could dive in( literally) to work against a sports disregarding country.

Shamsher Khan passed away from heart failure on 15 October 2017. Take a moment to be proud of an Indian who was a proud yet unsung Indian hero.

Social AOG

(The saint of letters)