What is ‘Share the Language of Love’?
Share the Language of Love is an initiative by Johnson’s Baby to inspire mothers across various cities to contribute their child’s old or unused articles to an underprivileged child in need of them. The campaign is an extension of our core philosophy of ‘care’ and we have partnered with GOONJ, a reputed NGO that resonates this philosophy, to make the campaign a continued success.
Together, we organize various collection touch points in major cities in India to encourage mothers to contribute.
The idea behind the campaign (The Joy of Sharing)
The core idea is to develop a platform wherein less fortunate children can also ‘experience the joys of childhood’. The same platform also uplifts the spirit of all those who contribute as they feel they have played a small but significant part in helping these children feel the warmth and care they desire. We would like the articles, which were bought by parents for their children out of love, to have a positive in the life of yet another less fortunate child and brighten up his or her childhood. The act of bringing joy to another child’s life certainly has a heartwarming effect on mothers, who best understand the happiness of a child. By contributing, the mother will also become a role model for her child, instilling the value of sharing and compassion in him or her.
The partnership with GOONJ
We wanted to engage with a partner that shared the same commitment, passion and belief towards this campaign and we approached GOONJ without any hesitation. The team at GOONJ has been very co-operative and has helped us grow SLOL from year on year.
The partnership is strengthening pillar to pillar with Johnson’s Baby handling the front end allowing it easy for mothers to contribute and GOONJ ensuring the collected articles reach to the needful.
In fact various incidents that we have come across have further strengthened our belief in this activity as a sharing a simple toy/book/clothes brings a huge difference in the life of the underprivileged child.
– Colorful aanganwadis bring children back
– Material like toys, games etc. are a big motivator for the little children in aanganwadis in villages. These are otherwise bland spaces with very little color or activity to involve or interest a child. As a result they would earlier come in for a little while, only long enough to pick their midday meal, even that they would prefer finally eating at home. As a result all the Government’s child health initiatives centered on the aanganwadis are not that effective. When GOONJ turned some aaganwadis into colorful spaces with charts, toys, games books etc. the place become vibrant and kids who had never seen so many toys and games, were elated. They not only came in hordes, they stayed back to play and spend as much time as possible in this new happy environment. Their prolonged stay in the aanganwadi, helped facilitate proper health checkups for malnutrition and other diseases.
– In the words of an aanganwadi worker “Pehle baccha aaata nahi tha, ab baccha jata nahi hai.”
– A soothing touch to the disaster hit children
– Toys, games, books etc. play an impactful role especially for the disaster hit children. Whether it’s Bihar, Uttarakhand or Muzzafarnagr camps. Children respond similarly to these symbols of innocence and fun. For the time that they spend with these things, they tend to forget, even if momentarily, the trauma of the natural or mad made disaster they have gone through.
– A healing touch to sick children
– In Madhya Pradesh, we found that at a hospital when stuffed toys were given to a child at the last stage of malnutrition, who otherwise had very little energy for any movement, the holding of a toy not only brought a glimmer of a smile but it also made him do some movements. As he clung to the toy, it made his last days more cheerful.
– We are taking this as a new approach for the malnutrition areas where we advocate that the treatment doesn’t mean food supplements and medicines only but the playful and healthy atmosphere has a much larger impact.
How has the campaign fared in the past?
The campaign started in 2012 and the next year, the contributions received doubled as compared to 2012. Last year (2013), we also had a ‘Share the Language of Love’ bus, which travelled over 5 cities in 21 days, to create awareness for the campaign and encourage contribution. There was enthusiastic participation from a lot of retail partners who volunteered their space to set up collection centres. In all, more than 250 collection centres across 12 cities over 3 successive weekends were setup. In addition we got 65000 + calls on IVRS, collection centers in 250 stores in 12 cities and 170 residential societies in 5 cities, mobile collection buses in 5 cities, and moved a 450,000 strong community on Facebook. Continue reading →
What is happening this year?
This year the collection center is being set up in 14 cities including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Cuttack, Pune, etc. over 3 successive weekends. Collection drives shall also begin in 170 residential societies in 5 cities.
In order to contribute, we have made available various touch points through which a mother can contribute to the campaign. To get more information about a nearest collection center, all one needs to do is give a missed call on 1800 267 6767/ 1800 267 2222 which will guide you to the nearest out of the 300 collection centers set up.
What happens to the items once we contribute? How does the process unfold?
After all the items are left in the drop box for the day, they are collected from all the drop boxes in the city and transported to the nearest Goonj Collection Centers. Here the things are cleaned, sorted and pressed. These are transported to the local Goonj centers and given to the needful.
