Giving back to society has always been on our minds. Born into a middle-class family in New Delhi, India, Amit was fortunate that his family could afford a good education for him. However, his father was not so lucky and had to work hard to ensure that Amit could receive a good education, including a master's degree at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands.
The stories his grandmother told him also made it clear that Amit is very lucky. She has never been to school and cannot read or write. About 30 million children in India have never been to school. In addition, according to UNICEF, about 50 percent of young people do not complete secondary education, while about 20 million children do not attend kindergarten. (Source Rapid Survey of Children 2013-2014 MWCD) India's education system is one of the largest in the world with more than 1.5 million schools, 8.5 million teachers and 250 million children (UNICEF). However, approximately 10% do not attend school and half of primary school children (approximately 50 million) do not achieve a level of learning that is appropriate for them. (Source: National Achievement Survey, NCERT 2017)
This means that there is a lot to do in education and Amit wants to do something to improve the situation. Danielle is no stranger to this either. While traveling through Southern Africa, she witnessed poverty and children unable to attend school. After Daniëlle's first visit to India with Amit in 2018, we decided that we wanted to set aside part of our income (wherever we would generate it) for personal initiatives. From the moment that Amit started working full-time, he has always financially supported the initiatives of his sister, who works for the well-being of people and animals in India. She is involved in the care of sick and rescued animals from the meat and dairy industry. She also arranged food parcels to be delivered to poor neighbourhoods during the corona outbreak. Together with Amit's sister, we want to join forces to support small, local projects, especially aimed at child and animal welfare.
Jiven is the Hindi word for 'life' and through every little bit we do, we believe we are impacting lives positively. Our big goals are: to realize a library in India, where children have access to good books and information. Secondly, we want to fully support an animal shelter, where rescued or injured animals can be taken care of.
We have decided to set aside 10 percent of the total profit we generate with Hey Groentje. Later this year we hope to be able to travel to India and support or set up a number of projects. We will keep you informed via social media and this page.
We thank everyone who has supported us and will support us in the future, because with that you also directly support the Jiven Project!