Information is real power. That is the spirit United Way Mumbai - a non-profit organisation, which spearheaded the helpline campaign following last year’s deluge - tried to inculcate into Mumbaikars.
MUMBAI: Information is real power. That is the spirit United Way Mumbai - a non-profit organisation, which spearheaded the helpline campaign following last year’s deluge - tried to inculcate into Mumbaikars.
The purpose was to effect a change in the way urban residents and the community they live in in the event of a natural disaster or devised pre-emptive strategies to avert any tragedy of catastrophic proportions.
Thanks to the United Way Mumbai initiative, the city has its first private 24-hour helpline—
www.mumbaihelpline.org—arming residents with a “response axis” and an “online information assembly point” to fall back on in their time of need. All on a ward-to-ward basis with residents “empowered with adequate handy information” to take up individual-level ward improvement plans.
And going by the general response it evoked in the corporate sector—with 10 corporate majors backing the helpline venture — the effort is nothing short of a success story.
“Our overall investment in corporate-United Way Mumbai helpline venture is for three full years. And we are honoured that the fiscal responsibilities are shared by 10 major corporate houses based in the city. As part of our future plan, we intend to take up renovation and clean-up drives of the railway stations and the gardens in city,” said Sibani Sachdeva, executive director, United Way Mumbai.
She added, “The idea which went into creating the helpline was to install an on-line telephone infrastructural database of community-related information intended to help empower people to bring about visible changes in local urban affairs.”
The helpline was conceived in such a way as it can respond to a disaster “on a ward-to-ward basis”.
Residents were envisioned to play a critical role in initiating ward-specific improvement programmes.
Also the helpline is seen a “central forum” for Mumbaikars to come together, express their opinions, air complaints and retrieve necessary and pertinent information.
The online resource centre aspires to make a difference in the lives of the city’s residents on these counts: Assembling relevant data of 24 wards. Mumbai is divided into various wards; residents are informed about the ways and methods they should adopt to bring issues to BMC’s notice and residents are encouraged to create blogs on issues affecting them.
What is the United Way Mumbai?
United Way Mumbai is a non-profit organisation which started in 2002 courtesy founding member institutions like the American International Group, Citigroup, Ernst & Young, Hunt Partners, J P Morgan, JS Group, Mahindra & Mahindra, Morgan Stanley, Principal Financial Group and Sony Entertainment Channel.
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