Stocking up on sweets and savouries for the various guests who come visiting during the festive season is an annual ritual for Shikha Sharma.
Stocking up on sweets and savouries for the various guests who come visiting during the festive season is an annual ritual for Shikha Sharma. But this year, the homemaker decided not to pick up the items from the local supermarket. Instead, she bought laddoos, chivda and chaklis made by entrepreneurs from the city’s slums and widows of farmers who committed suicide in Vidarbha.
Different types of foodstuff and more was available at an exhibition-cum-sale held at the Juhu residence of Hena Khanna who is a volunteer with the Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA), a non-government organisation (NGO) that works towards nurturing active citizenship amongst children.
“This exhibition tries to bring together a committed group of volunteers and various microentrepreneurs under one roof every year,” said Khanna. Usually, a CMCA volunteer opens up her home to let friends or acquaintances display their goods with 15 per cent of the profits going to the NGO.
“The idea is to provide a platform for those who otherwise struggle to get a chance to display their products or services. At the same time, the initiative also helps the organisation in its fundraising efforts,” said Tanya Burman, another CMCA volunteer who had helped organise the event.
This year, CMCA has collaborated with Vandana Foundation, a not-for-profit company that supports microentrepreneurs in Mumbai’s slums and widows of cotton farmers in Vidharbha. “We help the underprivileged start their own small businesses by giving low interest loans and educational grants,” said Saumya Roy of Vandana Foundation who helped two borrowers from Mumbai and two beneficiaries from Vidarbha to sell products like bangles and food items at the CMCA exhibition.
However, it was not just charitable causes that were addressed at the event. For those who wanted to splurge on branded products and festive finery, there was an array of designer clothes, jewellry, purses, accessories and home decor products
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