Q. Tell us something about yourself I'm Arushi Bhatnagar, a final year student in Mata Sundari College for Women, University of Delhi. I'm currently pursuing English Literature Hons. I have a keen interest in reading, writing and social work. I'm the founder of Aruleen Foundation. Q. Let us know some insights about the Aruleen/ Ahana Foundation. How it started and what were your initial struggles? Also how did you overcome them? It's been a year since we started this foundation with a vision to empower people who were severely affected by the pandemic. We saw that there was a shortage of even basic amenities like food and water during the initial phases of lockdown. So we decided to help them along with providing education and employment in the long run. Talking about the hardships we faced, there were minor struggles in the beginning of this foundation; the biggest being the pandemic and building our team. But apart from this, everything fell into place eventually. Q. The foundation is known as Ahana on your social media handles but is registered as Aruleen, is there a specific reason for that? Yes, there was already an existing company with the name of Ahana which is why we couldn't register our foundation with that name. It was a little heartbreaking for me, however the name Aruleen is really close to my heart as the first initial letters 'ARU' are from me and the latter 'LEEN' is from my best friend and co-founder Avleen's name. Q. Where did you draw your inspiration from? Were your friends and families always supportive from the very beginning ? During the wave of pandemic, I was living in West Bengal with my parents. This was the time when I realized there were not many foundations that were working here in these parts of the country. My inspiration is the smiles that we get after doing something for these people. It is such a warm, fuzzy feeling and is very rewarding which drives us to never stop. Our friends and family were our biggest supporters and that is the reason we are who we are today. Q. How did your journey start as an NGO? Our journey started with Instagram where we started on a small scale by helping people and sharing pictures of those we've helped. Maintaining the trust factor was very important for us as people found it extremely difficult to rely on NGOs and donate to them. We provided ration, meals and food that can be stored for some time to people who have homes in the slums or to people who are homeless. We also provided blankets in the winters and we're looking out to expand in providing shelters in the future. We also worked on Women health and hygiene and have done Sanitation drives to provide sanitary napkins in rural areas. Q. That's amazing. What have you learned from your journey so far and what are the significance of the drives you have initiated? The biggest thing I've learned is that many of us have been blessed with privileges in life and we should try to spread it for a good cause. The compassion and love we receive during this is very rewarding. For the drives that we lead, we choose a certain date and place. We all come together and pack the ration or other necessary items and we go to our target place to give it out. We also tried to increase our reach of people with each drive. Initially it was 45 families, then 100 families and so on. Q. You have a group of college students that are working for this foundation so how many members are there in your team? We have a core team that comprises around 20 people. Other than that we have volunteers that come in for a month or so who help us in our content writing, graphic designing, managing fundraisers and volunteering in different drives as well. Q. In a very short period of time, your foundation has grown a lot. You've done collaborations and fundraisers. So how did you land up with so many collaborations and do you have a plan of expanding in the future? Our collaborations were both ways, some of the times we reached out to other organisations and groups of people, and sometimes they reached out to us. Our collaborations for helping the acid attack victims taught us so much. It is like an eye opening experience for us. If time and circumstances all line up, and we find the perfect opportunity, then we would really love to expand into other areas and help as many people as we could. Q. We would love to get a brief about your whole journey till now and how can someone reach out if they want to join your NGO? This one year journey has really been amazing. It has taught me that love and kindness are never wasted. If someone has a willingness to do something, then there's always a way in which they could pursue it. If you take up something with a clear mindset and vision, it will always come through. We've helped around 1000 people till now and we aim to become an aid for much more. There are a number of ways in which one can reach out to us. They can either DM us on our social media handle or they can drop a mail, contact us on whatsapp or through our website. All options are open and we're willing to welcome people with open arms. Q. What is something you would like to say to people who would want to pursue the same thing as you do? So, the one thing I would want to say is that if you have a passion for something you should never give up. There were times when I thought that things weren't working out as planned and times when I wasn't in my best condition to work but the hope to do something never went away. The drives were very tedious and exhausting but the happiness it left within me was a really amazing feeling. So one should never forget why they started as eventually everything's going to fall in place if you put your heart and soul into it. Highlights of the Journey Arushi Bhatnagar is the founder of Aruleen/Ahaana foundation It has a vision to empower people who were severely affected by the pandemic along with providing education and employment The name Aruleen has its first initial letters 'ARU' are from Arushi and the latter 'LEEN' is from her best friend and cofounder Avleen. Their journey started with Instagram where they provided ration, meals and food to people who have homes in the slums or to people who are homeless. They also provided blankets in the winters They have collaborated with many organisations and lead various successful drives for acid attack victims, sanitary health of women and much more. The biggest thing she has learned is that many people have been blessed with privileges in life and they should always try to spread it for a good cause. They started with helping 45 families which then expanded to 100, 200 and so on. They have helped around 1000s people till now and we aim to become an aid for much more. Arushi believes that love and kindness are never wasted and if someone has a willingness to do something, then there's always a way in which they could pursue it There are a number of ways in which one can reach out to them. They can either dm them on their social media handle. They can drop a mail, or contact them on whatsapp or through their website. All options are open and they're willing to welcome people with open arms.
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