4 years back I discovered Jagriti Yatra during a lazy evening Facebook browsing. That very moment, I knew that I had to go on the Yatra.
Jagriti Yatra is an exciting train journey taking 450 bright youngsters to 12 locations across India over 15 days to learn from the perspectives and ideas of today’s change-makers and be one tomorrow. The Yatris meet and interact with role-models such as Aravind Eye Care (Madurai), Anshu Gupta (Goonj, Delhi), Narayan Murthy (Infosys, Bangalore). Yatris also work in groups to identify socio-economic problems and work out a solution for the same.
Here’s a video of the previous Yatra that motivated me to go for it!
Every year I waited to turn 20 and finally, this year I applied. I got selected! 🙂
I recently ran a crowd funding campaign #AruforJY to support my Yatra ( http://ket.to/aruforjy ).
The campaign was a resounding success — I hit 100% in 5 days with 52 backers! Thanks to all for believing in me and support me in my growth 🙂
Why this campaign?
Like any other parent, my parents were also concerned about the Yatra initially and I received less support. So it was upon me to raise 62K to pay the Yatra fee. I learned from Yadu, friend and previous Yatri that most Yatris support themselves through Crowd Funding campaigns. I started with CF as an experiment — to learn the space. But soon, I got a huge response from friends, family and the community. All this support has helped them overcome their fear revolving around the Yatra. This is a huge huge cultural shift as far as a young girl like me is concerned.
“I already feel like a winner moment”
On September 9, at about 7:30 pm, Amma sat next to me and asked “How can I put in money and share news about your campaign?”. She herself shared my FB post and contributed 2k supporting my cause. I couldn’t have asked for more. This is the true success of my campaign — when my parents and the community finally believes in me.
Why 100?
I’ve been requesting for contributions less that INR 1000, preferring amount between 100 and 500. Because it is not the amount that matters but its the gesture that counts. I’m overwhelmed by the support I’ve received.
I received so many comments and mails that made me believe that this campaign serves a bigger purpose. I’m attaching a few here.
The campaign has also helped many girls understand that there are many opportunities such as the Yatra out there and has helped them believe in themselves. Its also a validation that people support good causes 🙂
When I started this campaign, I had no clue that I’d complete it. That too in 5 days with 52 backers! All that I was certain was that I would learn a lot and yes, that happened. in the following blog posts, I’ll be sharing my take on CF campaigns and how I managed to make this happen!
It’s said “ When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you achieve it”.
Or must we say,
“When you want something, you force all the universe to conspire in helping you achieve it”?
Stay tuned for more on #AruforJY!
Feel free to write to me at aryam1995@gmail.com or leave a comment below 🙂