Vrikshit Foundation
Vrikshit is a foundation founded by and made up of young people who want to see change in India. We are willing to strive to make India not only clean but also green. Our ongoing efforts help to raise awareness about the sanitation gap that impacts so many people’s lives in India.
Today the foundation is spread over about 15 states. We have cleared tons of waste and cleaned up more than 150 locations whilst the cleaning of two rivers is in progress.
We believe in action and hence have an action-centric approach. We don't wait for funds, equipment, or support to arrive. We work with whatever we have and are driven towards having a cleaner India very soon. We realize how urgent the need for climate change is, hence we act and we act fast.
We have yet been supported by many Bollywood celebrities, National media channels including CM Of Delhi, and were even invited by our CM, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal for his oath-taking ceremony. We also want to create more awareness around issues centered around the environment and hence actively engage in activism both physically and digitally through our campaigns.
We’ve planted more than 5000 trees and our team of hardworking and committed volunteers monitors their health to help them thrive.
During the tough times of COVID19 Vrikshit provided rations and basic necessities to 2500 people.
What inspired you to start?
Vrikshit foundation was founded in 2019 when founder, Shankar Singh, decided to act and step up to address a number of environmental concerns in India as a result of poor waste management, trees being eroded for commercial purposes, and pollution increasing by the passing second.
He asked himself the question, who was to blame? The officials? No
Instead, he personally took responsibility to take charge and clean the mess that we humans and residents had created in the first place.
Starting small, initially, Vrikshit chose local areas to clean up, removing rubbish and debris. We then joined hands with local officials to maintain improved sanitation in these areas.
“I have grown up in Delhi which ranks the most polluted state in India and after all my years here, it still tops the scale. I am an ardent believer that one must protect the resources we use to live and grow our food. I grew up witnessing all around me no proper waste disposal and pollution levels rising each day. With a vision in my mind to start small but change big I started Vrikshit.”
What do you wish you'd known at the beginning?
When you start a small non-profit organization, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Starting Vrikshit has been a turning point in my life. From life as a student who chilled in weekends to becoming a responsible youth, I’ve learned so many things across my own journey. At least a few times I wish I had a reality check and known few things before I started Vrikshit
- It is hard to run an organization where you run errands to make ends meet.
- Growth is bumpy, we started small and faced infinite difficulties in achieving goals that we set
- There was a safety net to go back to being chill and not caring about the environment again, but it sucks. Raising your voice and consciousness is a difficult thing to do but what's more difficult is to shush it back too.
- Criticism was always there. The responses to Vrikshit were varied and were often looked at with narrow minds. In turn, we had to learn to deal with criticism and stay true to ourselves and our vision.
What's the one piece of advice you'd give an aspiring change-maker?
A piece of advice to anyone who wants to start a change would be,
- Address excuses, countless people dream of making a change, but only few are able to do it. Be amongst the few.
- Absorb everything, keep yourself open to appreciation and criticism. It fuels the growth of you and your organization at large. What you can achieve with kindness is never achievable by force. Be a solution to people's problems.
- Imagine yourself with zero achievements, that will help you with planning and preparation.
- Be genuine, just do the hard work. Nothing is impossible
How can people get involved in your project or help out?
Because Vrikshit is a Non-governmental organization we face difficulties in gathering the necessary funds to enable us to undertake our clean-up drives through to providing accommodation for the needy.
Vrikshit falls short on making ends meet
Vrikshit aspires to reach more young people who we can invite to join hands with us and work towards making the world cleaner and greener again.
For offers of support please dm us on instagram or whatsapp us at +91 7827552596
What are your plans for the future?
In the next 6 months, we’re focused on creating as much awareness as we can and we all are waiting to resume our groundwork as soon as possible. In the near future, we will be focusing on planting another 10000 trees and will continue to be highly active on social media in order to influence more people to join the cause until the situations resume to normal. Also, we will work on providing sex education to underprivileged kids working with renowned teachers.
