When it comes to helping people, age or financial position are not constraints. A wonderful example of this was shown by 55 students of Bombay Scottish School in Mahim, Mumbai. The Class 10 students attended a workshop by crowd-funding platform Fuel a Dream and found out about Marathwada farmers who didn’t have adequate funds to set up storage facilities for their fresh produce.
According to Hindustan Times, each student raised over Rs.30,000 (a total of Rs.13.87 lakh has been raised so far) so that 100 farmers could install ‘Subjee Coolers’ and keep fruits and vegetables fresh for up to 5-6 days.
14-year-old Auroni Gupta was quoted saying, “I honestly went into the campaign thinking I’d barely touch the goal of Rs 30000 and I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I’m currently at Rs 1,29,100. The first day, I texted and called close friends and relatives about the campaign.”
The cooling unit has been created by an IIT Bombay startup named Rukart Technologies and does not require any electricity. The brick and mortar set up has to be watered once a day and the water evaporates to lend a cooling effect. Founder Vikas Jha was quoted adding, “If we could find finance for half the price, farmers were willing to pay the other half.”
Kudos to the students for coming forward and helping farmers in Maharashtra!