SG Private Banking has partnered with JSW Foundation and GiveIndia to present 1x1 India – The Indian Art Fraternity’s tribute to 26/11.

This memorial exhibition brings together over eighty Indian artists, in a collaborative spirit, to support the victims of the Mumbai attacks. More than eighty specially created paintings that are 1’ x 1’ in size are being displayed and sold to raise funds for the victims.

The paintings start from Rs15,000 with the most expensive being Rs4.5lac but most are in the Rs50,000 range.

At least 50% of the proceeds from sales will be donated through GiveIndia to the Bombay Community Public Trust. BCPT has already raised Rs3 lacs for the victims but is still in need of Rs60 lacs to help the victims completely.

Visit our dedicated Help Mumbai page to make a donation for victims of the terror attacks.

You can see the exhibition at Olive, Mahalaxmi Race Course on March 2 & 3, 2009 from noon-7pm.

Charan Sharma

We have great news for customers of Axis Bank, Citibank, HDFC Bank, and Punjab National Bank...now you can make a donation on GiveIndia and pay directly via your online banking account and the Billdesk service.

BillDesk allows you to make payments online in a secure and convenient manner. The BillDesk service is available to you round-the-clock - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year.

We have begun with four banks but we expect that list to grow and include several more in the near future.

Once a NGO is listed on our website, the diligence piece is not over. Every year, we relook at the NGOs and ask them to complete a formal renewal procedure where they submit their Annual reports along with their Financials for the past year.

So, GiveIndia is happy to report that we have uploaded new information for ALL our NGOs for the financial year 2007-8 on to the website, so when you're looking at a NGO profile, it will reflect the latest numbers.

Our entire team has worked hard on this exercise so congratulations to Gopi, Umesh, Monika, Divya, Dhaval and the many others who made this possible.

Kaushal P, one of our Payroll Givers, wrote to us with this enthusiatic feedback:

"First of all, I am extremely delighted with the concept of GiveIndia. Replicating SIP investments in mutual fund for donation is a wonderful idea. Donating a small amount every month through Payroll does not pinch one's pocket at all.

GiveIndia is still getting donations for the victims of the Mumbai terror attacks. In fact, one fundraising event just took place in Iowa, USA recently and another is scheduled to take place in Mumbai soon. Watch the blog for more details.

BCPT has set up another page accepting donations after the previous page expired in early February after raising in excess of Rs3lac.

Just a reminder that GiveIndia as a practice does not do any due diligence on iGive projects. Donors are advised to take their donation decisions keeping this in mind.

Here is the latest update from BCPT about how they plan to provide support to those affected by the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

On behalf of the citizens of Mumbai, BCPT endeavored to reach out to all affected families – deceased and injured, rich and poor, Mumbaikars and those residing in other parts of the country. Since the Taj Group of Hotels, the Oberoi Group of Hotels, the Police and the NSG immediately announced to take care of their own personnel, and since other NGOs had announced their intention of supporting the victims admitted to JJ and GT hospitals, BCPT therefore concentrated on contacting 72 families of deceased victims and 80 victims who were injured as they did not fall in any of the above categories. Additionally, referrals of 11 cases given to BCPT with a request to extend support were also included in the list.

We focused on 72 families of deceased victims. Of these, we contacted 66 families but were not able to locate 6 families since some addresses were incomplete, homes were locked and phone numbers were wrong.

Of the 66 families, the families of 20 deceased victims require help. The remaining 46 families have stated that they do not require help or are receiving required support from other sources. The 20 victims have left behind

28 minor children
6 retired, dependent parents
11 widows and
1 family has lost both parents.

The families contacted by us all require support. They are going through a very difficult time and have yet to come to term with their loss. The widows are traumatized as they all have young children and now have to work out ways of caring for the family single-handedly. Most of them are housewives, so they also have to prepare themselves to step out of their houses and earn a livelihood.

A few of the deceased victims were unmarried, yet were the main bread winners of their family. In these families the dependents include old parents and siblings – small children and/or young adults.

Some of the families were living in small rented houses in low income neighborhoods. With no steady income now, they are faced with the situation of having to move out of these houses and either move in with relatives or go back to their hometowns.

One of the deceased was a taxi driver who drove a rented taxi to earn money. He is survived by his wife and two young children aged 5 and 3. They are currently in Mumbai but will go back to their village, where they do farming. He was the only earning member of the family. His father has cancer. He used to send money home to his village every month for the treatment of his father. One of his brothers is also a taxi driver in Mumbai. He has another brother who is going to come to Mumbai now to earn.

A young woman who lost her life used to work as a domestic help to support her family. She lost her life in the bomb blast at Wadi Bunder. She is survived by her husband and two young sons. Her husband sells fish from door to door for a living and does not have a fixed income. It was his wife whose monthly income was used to support their family. Her husband and children currently stay in a rented house. However, since her husband does not have a fixed income, paying rent and school fees has become difficult for him.

Recently a fundraising event was held in Des Moines, Iowa to support victims of the November 26 terrorist attack in Mumbai. The event was primarily a winter sports event with table tennis, carrom and chess as the main attractions. The response to the event was wonderful with over 150 people from various nationalities coming together to lend their support to the cause. In addition to the games they were six food stalls serving a wide variety of Indian dishes such as chicken curry, chole, samosas, pav bhaji, and biryani.

There are so many special days in February and so many ways to make a difference. Which of these days has special meaning for you?