I do why I do I wanted you guys to meet
a few people the lady on the left is
Sameera aunty she’s 56 she doesn’t look
at the older than 35 I told her she has
seven kids five are her own and two are
her brothers who passed away last year
she’s bringing them up she told me she
runs three businesses she didn’t say
three shops she didn’t say three tell us
she said I run three businesses she is
the true definition of a girl boss the
couple on the right they from the
streets of Delhi we told them what
Valentine’s Day was all about and the
first instinct of the husband was to go
down on his knee take the heart-shaped
balloon and a rose from us and give it
to his wife the girl on the left is
Suman she had to drop out of school for
obvious reasons but she was so committed
to studying that she actually is now won
a scholarship till class 12th at the SRM
International School in Jodhpur the
doctor towards the right is dr. Sonam
knee he does free cataract surgeries for
the people on the streets in Pune and
this young fellow he actually belongs to
a very small village in Karachi Pakistan
our volunteers in Pakistan told him that
will paint India’s flag on one side and
Pakistan’s flag on the other side
without an ounce of hesitation all he
said was via a famous to hajong Ghana
will I become famous and he has no idea
how iconic his face would become for the
Robin Hood army the reason why I’m
telling you this is because these are
the kind of people that inspire us every
day to do what we are doing these are
the kind of people and more I’ve been
fortunate enough to have come across
during my time volunteering with the
Robin odami
so again when I say thank you so much
for inviting me because I want to and I
love to talk about my second family the
Robin Hood army
so what is it that we do it’s fairly
simple we collect surplus food from
restaurants parties weddings and we
distributed amongst the homeless or
people out on the streets who don’t know
where the next meal is going to come
from who don’t know whether it’s
actually going to come at all we’re all
working professionals we do this on the
side we started in August of 2014 and we
served 150 people on the first night of
distribution from the food that was left
over at an office party three and a half
years down the line
we’re in 58 cities we have 13,000 of us
we like to call ourselves robins and
we’ve served 49 lakh twenty thousand and
781 people today to show you exactly how
we do this I’m gonna play a little video
this is exactly how we do it we meet
every Sunday at a local meeting point we
collect the food from our local
restaurants and we then go around
distributing in the city it’s a very
community driven model where if I am in
Noida I would like to serve the people
in Noida I have restaurants coming in
both from noida we are very hyper local
we have very very community driven now
why was the ihe really started it’s very
simple in this day and age when people
are you and I have access to any cue
zine in the world at any point in the
day click of a button away there are
people out there probably within 500
40% of the food that is produced in the
world today is wasted and in the same
world we have a child that dies of
hunger every ten seconds so that is why
we was that is why we started to make
sure that the food that is going to
waste which is perfectly edible actually
just goes to the kids or to the people
out in the street who actually need it
more now a buzz word for all of us we’re
all MBA students and we’ve come from I’m
guessing and commerce background the
buzzword is startup RHA operates like a
startup we are not a typical NGO we
rather like to call ourselves a chilled
startup
just without everything a startup needs
we don’t have rent we don’t have any
employees we don’t have a spot at the
local cochere we don’t have any
employees as I said and we don’t take
money as you can see this balance sheet
I used to hate making them in school but
I actually really love making this one
because the last line when it says
smiles infinite that’s it
so we operate like a start-up but just
without everything a startup needs and
the question we get very often is how do
you guys operate if you don’t take money
and you don’t give money how do you
maintain that continuity how do you
motivate people to come and do
every Sunday and the answer is very
simple is the sure determination is this
sure compassion that the Robbins have
they are the backbones of the
organization so who are these Robbins
that I keep talking about
so the Robbins are as you saw data
analysts interior designers you have
doctors you have CSU have bloggers and
someone like me I work for a family
business I manufacture automobile
components so in fact when I got the
email and it said that the theme of the
event was manifold I actually make a
part which is called exhaust manifold so
I I’m glad someone else also finds it
funny and I said this is the one so what
I’m trying to say is when you’re a Robin
you can also be a CA you’re a housewife
you’re a student being a Robin is not a
full-time job it’s a way of life anyone
can be a Robin and just to prove you we
have on the left hand side we have Robin
Rehan he’s 3 in this picture now he’s 5
he was our youngest Robin then on the
right hand side we have three uncles we
have Pradeep uncle Sunil uncle and we
have bratty uncle who conductor drive
every single night of the year we’ve
actually se seen them reverse in age and
we’ve seen Rehan grow up so that’s the
beauty of it you’re never too young
you’re never too old to make a
difference and a lot of people will ask
us and we’ve asked this question as well
what does it take to be a Robin just two
hours of your time that’s all it takes
regular people with regular jobs coming
together because we want our lives to be
slightly more than just a nine-to-five
now I’m guessing a lot of people are
have studied economics and the first
line which you read always is that
there’s a scarcity of resources I’ve
begun to differ with that statement the
most important resource we have today is
us is you and I if you decide that you
wanted to get into an MBA college you
did you’re sitting here if you decide
today that every time someone spits on
the road you
stop your car and say boss don’t do it
you’ll do it you need determination and
it is that determination that helped us
launch a second ambitious project which
was the Robin Hood Academy it was an
idea from the Robins they wanted to
impart basic primary education to kids
out on the streets and also conditioned
their minds to go to school and more
importantly condition the mind of the
parents to send them to school we
started in 2016 with the pilot city now
very happy to say we have a Robin Hood
Academy in 20 cities we have 1,600
Academy students and a number that makes
me very very proud we have five hundred
kids that we’ve enrolled in the
government schools that is the power of
art that is the power of you and I had
the birth Robins decided that one fine
day enough is enough we keep complaining
about the state of our roads but we
don’t do anything so they said why to
wait for the local authority we are
going to gather all Robins that’s your
labor we are going to get material we
all can just go and buy a packet of
cement on ourselves and then they just
fixed potholes as simple as that that is
the power of us the picture that you see
on the right
something that warms our heart you all
remember the drought that affected
latitude in 2016 it was a terrible
drought and the Pune Mumbai Robbins
wanted to do something about it they
wanted to send water now we started
sending in small batches earlier how
whenever the local government train was
going we started sending small batches
but soon someone from the Robin Army
knew someone who knew someone and the
next thing you know there are special
trains being organized every Monday
Wednesday and Friday taking the water
that the Robin Hood Army had organized
it was the end we ended up sending 80
thousand liters of water we are very
happy that it could at least if not make
a huge difference make one percent of
the difference we had Chennai in floods
we had surah
in floods and our Robins were out on the
fields making sure that every family
really received the relief that they
should get that is the power of you and
I that is the power of us and what are
the rewards like simple you get to take
back cards like these thank you Robin
Hood ami I get friendship bands I didn’t
believe in the hallmark sort of
friendship bands but every frenches day
I go to this particular cluster and the
girls come and give me these two
friendship bands and more importantly we
came in the Amish with ricotta I mean
that’s gotta count for something keeping
every keeping every famous person
tweeting keeping every social media post
that’s ever gone up aside being featured
in emerge with Agatha a book that you’ve
grown up with that’s that’s pretty
special to all of us now what are the
things I’ve learned being a Robin first
only 1% done we are solving or we have
served five million people to date there
are about 800 million people that sleep
hungry every day we’ve barely barely
scratched the surface we are sending 500
kids to school but where millions go
uneducated we’ve barely scratched the
surface so that’s our way of saying that
we’ve only done 1% there’s a lot more to
do it goes beyond then just distributing
food so it’s not how you would expect
that you know we take a packet and we
give it to a kid or a family and then we
off to another shelter know for us it
goes much more beyond food food is a
medium through which we create a bond we
create an interaction I still remember
the first time I went the first few
drives that I did this is one young kid
whenever you would give him a packet of
Kittery he would be so shy he would chew
away his mother dupatta you know how
kids just chew away because they’re so
shy three years down the line he comes
up to me voluntarily
and he says do you want to listen to a
poem do you want to listen to a song and
he’ll show me his report card to me that
is important to me that is personal
growth and it goes much beyond than me
just handing over a packet of key to him
think less do more it’s all about the
action we have five days in a week where
we can plan an over plan and think in
overthink but that Sunday when you’re
out on the field for two hours meeting
people understanding their problems it’s
all about action
Sheila Robins actually got 200 bank
accounts opened within a span of three
to four weeks which usually takes about
months and that is all about action more
than just a passion project I’ll be very
honest it started off as you know
working professionals coming together on
a Sunday seeing what happens when
happens making sure our community was
fed we were happy it started off as a
passion project but now if we’ve
committed our lives to making sure
sweetie receives one to two hours a day
getting her classes right or if we know
that a family has to think of one less
meal or worry about one less meal we
take it as a responsibility now our
community is our responsibility bringing
about change is easy now the reason why
I’ve been talking about what we do and
why we do is because I want to tell you
guys that bringing about change is easy
it’s easier than what it was probably 10
years ago because you have all the
necessary tools needed to bring about
change you have social media where you
can connect to people you have whatsapp
where you can do real-time exchanging of
information as well as coordination
that’s how we operate all our activities
are through social media and Watsa and
third you have a ready base of people
willing to help your friends and family
who really want to help but like us they
don’t know where to start from usually
people don’t do things because they
don’t know where to start from and Robin
and Army has now become more than just
an organization has become a network of
Robins a platform that they use to
create and execute real-time solutions
and this is what we are very happy about
because we are able to bring out the
best in you
Manatee we have bride and groom’s who
are actually wanting Robin Hood army to
come to their wedding and spread
awareness about food wastage they’re
more worried about there being enough
leftovers for Robin Hood army to
distribute then actually their guests
and that is incredible we have
restaurant partners who want to even
make fresh food for us because we’re
distributing it to the homeless people
and that is the beauty of humanity today
as we say and I’m coming back to the
start of analogy we are in the business
of spreading smiles and the good thing
about this startup is that you don’t
have to wait for break even their
profits from day one and I would want to
end with a small video this is how my
Sundays look like I call these kids my
Sunday because I meet them on every
Sunday and every time I’m down and out I
like to look at this video so very short
so this is that kid I was talking about
who now voluntee comes up to me and says
do you want to see my report card do you
want to see my poem do you want me to
here do you want me to sing a song for
you and those ladies and gentlemen are
how I spend my Sunday’s thank you [Applause]