In the run up to the TCS World 10K which happened on May 15th, Citizen Matters was looking for runners who we could collaborate with to raise funds for our journalism. And now that the run is over, we couldn’t have asked for a better set of people to collaborate with.
With their help, we managed to raise Rs 2.13 lakh in a span of a month for the journalism on Citizen Matters.
Thank you, all of you for being a part of our fundraising.
The TCS World 10K is over, as are the runners’ campaigns, but Citizen Matters is still in need of funds. We had set a target of 3 lakh (approx the budget for a quarter), and we are a short distance from getting there. Can you help us get across the finish line? Click here: https://oorvani.org/support-us.
Shilpi Sahu
Shilpi Sahu, who was running to raise funds for lakes, is already a champion for lakes. In the past month alone, she has been relentlessly writing about the development coming up in the valley zone between Kaikondrahalli and Kasavanahalli lakes. In addition, she is also a member of Kasa Muktha Bellandur, a citizen group that works with the community on adopting efficient waste management practices.
At the TCS World 10K, she did spectacularly well – she ran a sub-50 minute 10K, and came third among women in her age category. In the overall rankings, she placed 13th of 1,199 women. The icing on the cake is the amount of funds we have raised for coverage on lakes – a whopping Rs 80,000!
Thejesh GN
Thej, our champion for open data is someone who we have worked with time and again. He is also the founder of DataMeet, a non-profit working on bringing open data to the forefront. From putting together maps for our Election coverage, to helping us out with visualisations for our data stories, he is someone that we have come to depend on. He is also the tech brain behind OpenCity.in, an urban public data portal that Citizen Matters is jointly working on with DataMeet.
While Thej was unwell and couldn’t participate in the race, his campaign brought in over Rs 40,000 in donations for stories on Open Data and transparency.
Jothi Padmanabhan
Jothi Padmanabhan, a Bengaluru resident and a longtime friend, is a believer in the adage, “Education is every child’s right”. It was for this that his campaign was to support sustained coverage on education and schooling on Citizen Matters.
Raghu Kashyap and Kalyan Devikumar
Considering that the garbage menace is a pet peeve for most Bangaloreans, it was only fitting that we found two people who wanted to raise funds for the topic – Raghu Kashyap and Kalyan Devikumar.
Raghu Kashyap is a technology, running and cycling enthusiast, and we were put in touch with him through his wife Archana Kashyap, a member of the Solid Waste Management Round Table. While he claims to only offer moral support to his wife’s cause, in his own right, he is a champion for waste management. He was instrumental in getting his office on MG Road to adopt waste segregation and in-house composting.
Kalyan Devikumar was introduced to us by Vani Muthy aka Worm Rani of SWMRT. With a keen interest in protecting the environment, Kalyan is a home composter and urban gardener, who has anchored several workshops for We Care For Malleswaram.