Arzoo is an education and activity centre created with an aim to provide a secure knowledge and livelihood base to the underprivileged children. The basic driving factor behind Arzoo’s formation has been to provide moral, social and material support and a sense of security to the underprivileged children. Arzoo is an initiative to touch every sphere of social relevance and strives to promote harmony through education and extra-curricular activities.

Arzoo provides basic education to the 5-15 years old children belonging to families below poverty line (BPL) at a nominal fee of 10 INR. These children are mostly rag pickers, labourers and street hawkers. Arzoo has 75 students registered under its rolls, of which 10 are orphans. Students who can not afford their fee are allowed to pay it in installments.

They buy flowers from a local florist every month and utilize them in making cards, paper bags, bookmarks, diaries, folders etc. Arzoo showcases its products in forums like Shodhyatra conducted by SRISTI and Gram Shree by Seva Café since 2004. Arzoo also showcases its product in SRISTI’s food festival called Satvik.

Arzoo organizes plays and shows involving children with themes based on real life problems and real events. Till date, they have staged shows at the Municipal School, Townhall and Darpan Academy. Awareness for women education is also spread by Arzoo in its plays, shows and dramas. They also performed at IIMA’s cultural technical fest CHAOS’07. Arzoo arranges sports kits to encourage students for playing sports like cricket, football, chess and carom among its children.

Healthcare camp for the Arzoo children was arranged in Feb 2006 with the help of Kesar Sal Hospital whose doctors supervised medical prescription, and medicines were arranged by Arzoo. Arzoo also conducted cleanliness drives in various localities (like Kasai ki chali, Jethalal ki chali, Gujasiram ki chali and Allahnagar). Arzoo organised a women’s healthcare camp on May 2007 in association with Jagruti Foundation where female (15 years and above) health issues were addressed.

In August 2006 when Gujarat was facing severe flood situations throughout the state, Arzoo joined hands with Jagruti foundation to serve food to 500-1000 people daily in which Swati restaurant, Tomatoes, NGOs like Yuva Unstoppable played an important role. Arzoo also served 3000 patients who were flood victims in association with Jagruti foundation.

Arzoo has received support from by NGO’s like Manav Sadhna, Yuva Unstoppable (www.yuvaunstoppable.org) and SRISTI (www.sristi.org) in its motives and noble intentions. The volunteers of YUVA teach the students, play with them, play music for them, spend quality time with them and make them feel loved. Gramshree (www.sevacafe.org) helped market the products made by the Arzoo kids. Jagruti Foundation helps in arranging medical camps for Arzoo students. SRISTI and Alok Charitable Trust have provided financial aid to the organization

During a play they organized in town hall in 2005, a Hindu boy Dev was initially very reluctant to enact the role of a Muslim character called Rafiq. He would get annoyed when addressed by other children as Rafiq, but after staging the play, his mindset was completely changed. He is no more displeased at the mention of Rafiq, and laughs off by saying “How does it matter what they call me. I am a Hindu, and their calling me a Muslim does not change my identity”. This was where Arzoo has made a difference in the lives of these children.

Arzoo also took strong positions in promoting cleanliness and education among the orphaned children in and around the area of their operation since 2004 by organizing cleanliness drives. Arzoo also provided a platform to unleash the creative potential of its children by getting them involved in making products out of recycled paper like greeting cards, diaries, file folders, paper bags, gift box, tags, bookmarks, lamp set, paper flower vases etc. Later it joined its hand with other organizations like Gram Shree in 2004 which helped it to market the products prepared by the children.

It went further to improve health awareness by arranging medical camp in February 2006. In August 2006, when Gujarat was facing severe flood situations throughout the state, Arzoo joined hands with Jagruti foundation to serve food to 500-1000 people daily in which Swati restaurant, Tomatoes, NGOs like Yuva Unstoppable played an important role, Arzoo also served 3000 patients who were flood victims in association with Jagruti foundation.

Arzoo was and has always been different from a lot of other similar attempts to help the underprivileged children. As Sulekha, the coordinator for the organization recalls, “There were many charitable institutions which had started on the aftermath of Godhra riots, but they disappeared as soon as their funding got over. After the 2002 riots, many people came to Gujarat to offer some help to people who want to work for some social cause. Public has a very short memory as evident from the fact that as soon as the Gujarat riots became recent history, people forgot about these social initiatives and funds too dried up. But Arzoo did survive the test of times.” In the long run the funding and resources of Arzoo will get better as it is evident from the fact that Arzoo is moving towards self sufficiency by expanding its paper and related business Arzoo has the potential to become a nation-wide movement as Sulekha envisions it.

Choose from a range of handmade products and place orders for all occasions. Arzoo also offers a 10% discount on a bulk order of 100 cards and 20% discount on a bulk order of 500 cards.