Future Agents Of Change: How Mumbai's School Students Stood With Their Support Staff During COVID-19

Children are seen as the future agents of change. As they grow up in the environment around them, they imbibe whatever it has to offer. From the best things to the downright worst, they learn from it and work towards making a change.

In their lifetime, an event may take place that completely turns everything on its head. For many school-going children in 2020-2021, COVID-19 brought about an unprecedented change in their lifestyle. The laptop screens became their classrooms as schools across the country were forced to shut down during the lockdown.

While the step was important to curb the deadly virus, it proved disastrous for many. From the support staff in educational institutions to bus drivers, cleaners and others, the pandemic took away their source of livelihood, leaving them to fend for themselves. In light of this, several school students in Mumbai decided to start an online fundraiser, to help the ones that have played an integral role in their formative years.

Students from Bombay Scottish School in the city's Mahim suburb came up with an initiative called 'Not My Stop.' Their aim was to raise money for 'bus didis and drivers' to help them stay afloat during such hard times.

The initiative was the brainchild of a Class 10 student's mother named Tarana Masand. Along with other parents from the same batch, they started an online portal on a crowdfunding website 'ImpactGuru' where all the money was donated. Eventually, the drive gained momentum. Students from different grades, as well as their parents, wanted to pitch in as well to do their bit.

Gymnastics Lessons, Art Classes -Students Getting Creative

In order to raise money, students got extremely creative. Around seven to eight of them came up with activities online in which everybody was eager to participate and contribute. Yasmin Bakerywala, the mother Sanaya Bakerywala, a student at the school, told The Logical Indian, "She (my daughter) thought it would be a good idea for me to start a platform that caters to all imported snacks and daily edible items to tickle one's taste buds. " Called 'Snack Stories', it enabled people to place their orders on Instagram.

A Class 5 student named Shanaiya Bharucha started online gymnastics classes. She was inspired by her brother, Arhaan Bharucha, who started doodling lessons on Zoom and raised money for the frontline workers during the first wave. Tanaz Bharucha, their mother, was involved in the financial and logistics part of the projects. "Just like Arhaan is fond of doodling, she (Shanaiya) is fond of gymnastics. Therefore, she offered to do gymnastics class or something related to it. We could also help the didis," she recounted.

Other students who were involved held bake sales, art and dance classes, etc, to raise money for the support staff.

Overwhelming Support To The Cause

The fundraiser collected a total of ₹78,15,136 for the staff. It got an overwhelming response. Not just the students, their parents as well as their family members, chipped in to do the needful. "A lot of people enrolled in the gymnastics classes to support her cause. Cousins, relatives, elderly people who do not do gymnastics enrolled and supported the cause" Bharucha added. She landed up collecting almost ₹ 1 lakh.

The money collected was then given to an individual who was involved with paying the school staff. A consolidated list was made of all the people involved. The amount was divided equally and was transferred to their bank accounts.

For these students, the support staff has kept them safe for many years. It was because of this that people kept donating even after the goal was met. Sanaya Bakerywala continued working on her 'Snack Stories' platform, with which she collected funds and bought essentials for the people in need, such as stationery materials for students who could not afford them.

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