As part of the 72nd Republic  DAY celebrations Helping Brainz honoured 14 changemakers from different parts of the country, who collaborated with Helping Brainz in various aspects of community service. The online event was inaugurated by Former Union Minister and Member of Parliament Alphons Kannanthanam (Retired IAS officer), Justice Kurian Joseph (Former Judge of Supreme Court of India) and Subu Rehman IAAS (DDA Commissioner). Our chief guests appreciated the 14 unsung heroes and the change catalysts, for their hard work, dedication, sacrifices and determination in bringing in changes in others lives.  The 120 mins event started with the National Anthem followed by inspiring talks by the chief guests, guest of honour, panel members and Helping Brainz founder Yedhu Krishna Menon.

This pandemic did hit everyone including the marginalized and underprivileged mercilessly, however the ground level NGOs, community service professionals and volunteers came forward to serve the affected people by helping them with food, sanitary pads, shelter, medicines and with safe travel. Many of them are even still providing free and quality education to the kids from the marginalized communities.

During the pandemic, Delhi based no-to profit organization Helping Brainz invented a  “Linking the Shopkeeper Model” that helped more than 7000+ people get food, with the help of 62+ Shopkeeper who turned into community service professionals, who also made a way of their living during the lockdown through the model. Helping Brainz also donated Sanitary Pads for the migrants travelling from Bangalore as well. Volunteers and well-wishes of Helping Brainz crowdfunded the funds which were used to buy groceries for the needy. During this pandemic, Helping Brainz also trained 300+ students on cyber security and cyber crime awareness in partnership with ISAC, conducted health awareness campaigns for more than 400+ people and is helping the unemployed youth in getting employment opportunities through various skill development programmes.

People who were shortlisted as Helping Brainz Changemakers of 2020 were :
Murshid Ali Kuttihassan (Delhi), Dinesh Pandey (Humara Kartavy, Noida, Chandrajeet Kumar Gupta (Jeevan Stambh Foundation, Delhi), Navneet Gabriel Fullinfaw ( Fullinfaws College, Bangalore),  Adv.Kanika Agrawal (WeAreSaath, Delhi), Jyoti Goyal ( TOLI, Delhi), Tarun Saluja (Delhi),  Arbaz Khan (Mystory Trust, Delhi), Sarah Kazmi (Student, Jamshedpur), Sanjay Solomon (Student, Jamshedpur), Peter Ngamlai (Chennai), Vikash Kumar (Pahal Ek Nayi Soch, Jamui), Bibek Bora (SEWA, Jorhat) and Jitesh Kumar (Bachpan Bachao Foundation, Delhi).

Teachers and Students from various parts of the country namely, Ajay Gawali, from TCH Aurangabad; Astha Tyagi from Meerut Public School; Sohamm Srikant Kulkarni from TCH, Aurangabad; Priti Kumari from Pahal Ek Nayi Soch, Jamui; Priyansh Parwani and Siddhi Pevekar, University of Mumbai performed various literary activities.

Going forward Helping Brainz is planning donate school Stationeries and set up libraries for the underprivileged children from Noida, Ghazipur, Deoria, Ladakh, Jamui and Cherthala. Helping Brainz is also conducting Cyber and Legal Awareness campaigns, Health Awareness Sessions on their weekends for the school going children and corporate professionals.

Diksha, a volunteer from Helping Brainz, went to Fullenfaws College and donated 50 kilograms of rice to the migrant workers from Northeast India working in various districts of Karnataka. They wanted to go back to their home; however, they were stuck in Bangalore as the nation declared a complete lockdown. Fortunately, Fullenfaws College sheltered them. She met the only two volunteers, a father and his son – head of Fullenfaws College. She received a positive response from them, and she is happy to see their regular updates on social media. Not just the food and shelter, the two volunteers have created a community where they are putting up various ways to entertain to bring joy in their stuck lives while following the social distancing norms. Helping Brainz is happy to be associated with such change-makers in society.

A request came to distribute sanitary napkins to the migrant workers who were taking Shramik Trains during the lockdown. Diksha, a Helping Brainz volunteer, could manage to connect with the manufacturer from whom she could get the pads at a more affordable price. She decided to get it delivered at her residence in Bangalore. She took the packets to the station with the help of her friends. Upon reaching the station, she could find the other organizations were distributing Food kits to the passengers. She was amazed to see the efforts of such selfless groups helping the neediest at the railway station. Helping Brainz was one of the organizations that could reach out to the disadvantaged women and put an effort to make the travel of these women a little easier. Diksha says that spending just 4 hours at the station gave her an inner satisfaction. She felt encouraged to see many people joining their hands and helping the migrant laborers to reach their homes safely. 

Helping Brainz teamed up with Bibek Bora of SEWA, a NGO based in Assam, during the Assam Floods in 2019. Helping Brainz had transported essential supplements like lentils, rice, cooking oil and medicines through train to SEWA in Assam. Once, the necessary supplements reached Assam, the team of SEWA packaged it, in order to be distributed to the flood affected villages in Assam. Due to heavy floods, the road transport was inaccessible. Hence, the SEWA team, used boats as a means of transport to reach these villages. The essentials were distributed in 10 villages, including Maujili, which is an island village of Assam . SEWA’s 25 volunteers distributed the essentials to 700+ families. Also, SEWA’s 5 volunteers and interns, who were college students, collected donations for the Assam Flood Relief Fund. The NGO, SEWA, had to face certain obstacles. Such as the food materials received, most of them were damaged, which created shortage of essentials, so they had to arrange and replace the damaged materials. Another problem was, due to heavy floods, there was no road connectivity to reach out to the flood hit villages and families residing there. Despite of all the obstacles, SEWA, with the essentials received to them with the help of Helping Brainz, provided the essentials to maximum flood affected villages in Assam.

Mr. Kishore Das, who works as a consultant at an event based company, teamed up with Helping Brainz, during the Assam Floods in 2019, which had caused a huge loss in major parts of Assam. Mr. Das along with a team of 8 members conducted the relief drive in Western Assam, by providing the essentials including groceries, medicines, baby foods & sanitary napkins to around 40 families in 4 villages, which they had received with the help and co-ordination of Helping Brainz. Reaching out and helping the villagers during such natural calamity, was not an easy task for Mr. Das and his team, as the road connectivity to these villages was inaccessible due to heavy rains and floods. Even under such circumstances, the team was deterred to serve their cause; they took help from National Disaster Relief Force (NDRF), reached out to the affected villages through rescue boats and gave the essential supplies to the families residing there.

Helping Brainz, a not-for profit organization which continuously thrives to work towards women and child empowerment, went a step ahead, and organized High School Leadership Program, in collaboration with Ek Kadam Aur Foundation, a non-profit organization, that focuses on upliftment of underprivileged children ,by providing them education, health and rural resurgence at grass root level.
Mr. Yedhu Krishna Menon of Helping Brainz delivered a lecture on, ‘The Art of Giving Back’, via virtual session for class 9 students, comprising of 80 students from 4 schools: Lamdon Sr Secondary School, Leh, Ram Krishna Mission School, Sitanagaram, NK Memorial School, Kathmandu & Ram Krishna Mission School, Vishakhapatnam. Mr. Yedhu, shared stories and examples on ‘The Art of Giving Back’, which made a huge impact on these students. The Leadership Program is a setting example that Helping Brainz focuses on uplift of child empowerment not limiting to geographical territories and ensure that we reach maximum parts all over India.