Mumbai: 50 NGOs Gather To Ideate And Collaborate For Betterment Of Society Through Social Work; See Photos Inside

Representatives of over 50 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) met in the city on Saturday to create a network to share resources and ideas. NGOs along with individual social workers discussed their work and indulged in a networking session to boost their social work and morale to facilitate the initiatives for the betterment of the society.

The networking session for the social organisations is an initiative started by Vinay Somani, the founder trustee of Karmayog, an NGO working to connect citizens, civil society organisations, media, corporates and government officials by online and offline method. This was the sixth quarterly meeting organised by Somani at the C. K. Nayudu hall at the Cricket Club of India.

The meeting aimed to bring people on a common platform who are willing to use their time, skill and abilities to help NGOs involved in social causes and civic issues. Over 55 individuals ranging from youth to a 90-year-old representing different organisations working in the fields of environment, education, medical and other sectors joined this meeting and introduced their work.

Somani said, “I like to help those who are working for others. A lot of people like me are not in a situation to actually work for social causes but we can have a supporting ecosystem for the social sector. In every meeting I meet new people and get to know about all the amazing social work that people are carrying out.”

The attendees talked about different issues ranging from funding to lack of passionate workforce, policy obstacles and ways to connect with the government. Through collaborated ideas and efforts, the NGO Meetup has become a way of solving issues pertaining to social organisations. The gathering also discussed the ways of solving organisational issues within an NGO and the need to work on the organisation’s culture.

Abhishek Thakore, founder of Wisdom Tree, which works for capacity building of the NGOs, said, “Finance is not the only form of capital for social organisations, they also need social and spiritual capital. Such kind of gatherings unlock these different forms of capitals and evoke resourcefulness. Through these meetings, we can collaborate with different NGOs and offer them our service of solving their organisational issues.”

Sheetal Agarwal, founder of Clownselors Foundation, which offers medical clowning services to patients and elderly citizens, said, “This group has been very helpful to an outsider like me who was new to the city and had no contacts. For a social worker like me, just knowing people in the city is also inspiring and these meetings gave me that platform. People that I met here connected with me and got me connected with more people and that even helped me on the funding part.”