Meet Anushka Jain, A Young Woman Who Collects Donation From Your Doorstep To Help The Needy

Indiatimes
Indiatimes
Updated on Jan 15, 2019, 17:02 IST-2 K Shares
Anushka Jain

Whether it’s the famed ‘Wall Of Kindness’ or any other initiative which helps people get a designated place to donate books, clothes, stationery or even cash for the needy, it encourages people to donate more as they can see their efforts making a difference in the lives of the needy.

But the people’s wish donate is often thwarted by their inhibitions to personally reach out to NGOs etc and this inability works as a deterrent to personally hand over items at a place often finds their way to the dustbin.  

Anushka Jain

The Better India

But Anushka Jain, a resident of Bengaluru, has found a solution to this problem with SADS. SADS implies to Share At Door Step and it helps people get over all their inhibitions and donate with a free mind to help people. Anushka’s SADS  has come up as an answer and till now 2.5 lakh people across eight cities in India have done their bit with SADS.

Childhood lessons led her to SADS

 “As a child, I would visit an NGO on my birthday with my mother each year. We would collect all the material that we wanted to donate through the year and take it all with us on that one day. As I grew older, I would ask my mother why we visited the same NGO each year. The comfort of knowing where the materials were being used was one of the primary reasons,” Anushka spoke to The Better India sharing her thoughts about SADS and what made her start it.

Anushka Jain

TheBetterIndia/Linkedin

She also mentioned that making non-monetary donation requires a bigger bandwidth and that’s the reason Anushka’s family could donate only once a year.

From a job person to an entrepreneur 

Being a corporate working professional, starting SADS wasn’t easy at all. Anushka started SADS in 2015, but like millions in India, she also belonged to the middle-class family and starting something of her own wasn’t an idea approved by the family.

 “I started the organisation in 2015 when I was still employed with Accenture. I would go for pick-ups in the morning before heading to work, and with each pick and drop, my belief in wanting to start this organisation formally just kept getting stronger,” she said.

Firsthand experience

Anushka initially didn’t hire anybody and wanted to have a firsthand experience of the idea that stemmed in her mind. She did the first picks and drops herself in order to sink in the complete process of how things work. 

SADS also had its share of problems

No idea worth its salt gets a smooth run, and neither did SADS had one. 

“Despite recognition over the last two years, my parents are still not convinced about what I do. They still want me to do this on the side, as a hobby, but not as a ‘real job’.”

Anushka Jain

yourstory

Like the majority of the middle-class parents, Anushka’s parents had the same concern ‘log kya kehenge’. Their concern was that if she had a steady job it would invite better matrimonial proposal and being an entrepreneur slightly put perspective grooms and their families on backfoot to some degree since she was “of marriageable age”.

Her father’s lessons motivate her

“It’s just a vision. Individuals and brands are all moving towards a cause, and that has been one of the biggest motivations for me to continue on this path,” she said.

She shared an anecdote of her childhood where she was afraid of swimming and her father helped her overcome the fears.  “He would often tell me to trust myself, have faith in my abilities and just take the plunge. I have pretty much applied that to what I am doing now,” she says.

She wanted SADS to happen, thus it is

SADS started with only NGOs as partners which would also the articles collected by it to reach to the needy and today SADS has over 100 NGOs as partners across eight cities with over 2.5 lakh donors. SADS has partnered with the likes of Snapdeal, Flipkart etc and it has partnered with 40 corporate organisation to expand their reach to both- the donors as well as those who deserve those donations.

Anushka Jain

TheBetterIndia

Now SADS has 12 full-time employees and over 120 volunteers who would come forward for the campaign and collect things from people’s doorsteps. 

“Donating should not be a difficult pursuit for people, and I endeavour to make that process as smooth as possible. Even if I have one small toy that I want to donate, I must be able to do it easily,” she says.