like to call it I’ll throw some numbers
at you keep these numbers in mind it’s
not a test you’re not going to be
signing any papers after this just keep
these numbers in your mind and then I
discussed it towards the end of the talk
what they actually stand for I’ll kill
the suspense then so we have 19 lakh
40,000 we have 7,000 and we have 3,000
okay so just try to memorize these
numbers
Who am I am Arushi Bertram and I’m here
to talk about my second family
the Robin Hood ami and the one on the
left in case you didn’t notice that cute
yeah I wish I was her bird so this is my
second family I basically did my masters
in economics and really prepared for the
corporate world then Robin Hood army
started and there’s no looking back I’m
still quite corporate but eventually the
caring came millions well on the topic
of introductions I like to introduce to
you a couple of friends a couple of
friends of my Jaipur Robins
this is Sandeep now he stays in is it
biased Kadam you said he says and bias
Gotham catchy busty Sandeep is probably
14 15 around the same age as you guys he
really wants to go to school but instead
he polishes shoes his parents can’t
afford to send him to school or don’t
want to send him to school because he
has to earn 300 rupees every day we
can’t wait to get out of school he can’t
wait to get into school now these five
kids sorry for the pixelated picture
because it was taken at midnight so
these five kids they found at a railway
station at the Jaipur railway station as
you can see there is no adult here so
upon talking they realized the mother
had passed away the father had gone off
to work he is a daily wage labourer so
they don’t even know whether he is
coming back or where he is going to find
them
thing they gave them food and the elders
were so happy to get that food they
wouldn’t take the eyes off the plates
they were waking up the youngsters they
like Oh Toto Kanaga not realizing that
they probably won’t get a meal the next
day they don’t know where their father
was we don’t know whether he found them
but the Jaipur Robbins didn’t find them
after that this picture one of the two
girls in the green one of them is named
dolly now dolly is as the name suggests
should be that all of the house she’s
from noida she has this skin ailment
skin disease and the fact that she’s
sitting with other kids is revolutionary
that’s what her father said because
nobody was wanting to sit with dolly
before this nobody let alone take a
picture nobody wanted to play with her
nobody wanted to touch her
her parents were also quite sad with his
whole thing because the community as a
whole was shunning her dolly had become
a taboo but the simple fact that she’s
sitting with other kids and they are
happy and smiling you can see she’s a
little hesitant still but they’re still
taking a picture that I would say is
pretty cool wouldn’t you it’s pretty
cool so who are we and what do we do now
the Robin Hood ami is a volunteer-based
organization we take surplus food from
restaurants and we give it to people who
need it more than you and me now I’ve
highlighted volunteer-based organization
is in red that’s because we are no NGO
we don’t have an office we don’t have
any employees we are all working
professionals we are housewives we are
Dada’s daddies charger nannies we have
people your age we have someone as young
as 3 who is a volunteer so it’s a
volunteer-based organization we don’t
collect money we don’t need your money
we basically need 2 hours of your time
we give it to different people we might
go to an HIV shelter home we might go to
a hospital we might go to flyovers
anyone where we see
needs food we are there is lack of food
really why people go hungry
is it because kana Haney so they can’t
eat no it’s not that is there is lack of
food up to 40% of the food that is
produced in India it goes to waste
it’s not the lack of food it’s the lack
of access now I’ll ask you a very
personal question how many of us here
have wasted food before I am guilty
everyone sort of raising the hands we’re
all guilty or wasting food throwing it
down the drain and one of the personal
incidents which comes to our mind is
that when I was younger much younger
than you guys I used to hate milk I
hated drinking milk my mother would get
me a glass of milk every day and I
absolutely hated it and I would wait for
her to leave the room and I would pour
it down the wash basin now if I had
internet back then I would have had more
ideas of how to get or do away with my
milk but I didn’t so you should just
pour it down the washbasin not realizing
that I had to sit on the tap so that
there’s no white chill
I never did that my mother would always
find out she would be super mad
obviously she would come to me and she
would say nothing she wouldn’t see
anything except this one dialogue and
she would say you’re wasting milk food
because you get it so easily just
imagine those million kids out there who
will be so eager and desperate to get
that one drop of milk that they would do
anything for it and at that time I was
like okay just dig mine then I mean I
don’t mind parting with mine but that’s
exactly what I’m doing now I’m parting
with mine so that I’m making sure that
they are drinking and they’re healthy we
call ourselves the Robins now do you
know what the what Robin wood stands for
do you know the myths the Robin Hood’s
so here we’re just not stealing let me
be very clear we’re not stealing we take
from the rich whatever you want to give
and we give it to the
and that’s why we call ourselves the
Robins all our volunteers we call
ourselves robbers it doesn’t matter
where you come from who you are
we are just robins for everyone how do
we operate so do you remember I said we
don’t collect money did everybody get
that we don’t collect money so how do we
operate the best things in life are for
free I think everybody will agree to
that the best things in life are for
free and what is free right now whatsapp
Facebook Twitter Instagram and starting
your own website if what’s up was to
charge you the next day I’m out of it so
how do you operate we operate through
these platforms and what that has done
is it has connected us to people we
would never have imagined we’ve
connected with people from Pakistan from
Philippines from Australia from
Singapore from us from everywhere and
that’s probably why I’m also here thanks
to our good old Facebook we have about
40,000 followers on Facebook all organic
we don’t pay for any ads we are not
those pesky little ads that you see on
Facebook you will never see us there
we’ve enabled setting up of new city
chapters we’ve gotten new restaurants on
board we’ve got people like yourself
joining because of all these things each
I mean I know unwell in his speech said
start young age is not a factor this guy
right here this young guy he is Rehan
he’s 3 in fact he’s just celebrated his
birthday day before yesterday so he’s
four now he’s our youngest Robin and
Lata aunty she is from noida and she’s
74 and so she has this bad problem as
you can see her back you sort of went
sorry so as you can see her back is a
little curved but she painstakingly will
pick up a samosa check the samosa and
give it to the kid so
age is not a number we have people your
age who have taken time out from their
board exams etc etc and they work this
guy right here every Sunday comes when I
was his age I would play with Barbie
dolls or go out or my brother would
wrestle me down or something like that
but this guy he comes diligently every
Sunday with his parents and he
volunteers I don’t know how many of you
have seen a bank statement before
hopefully not a terrible one but this is
the simplest yet for us the most
rewarding bank statement not to get into
the counts of it but for us Robbins how
many Romans do we have right now about
8000 we have but 8000 we started in
August of 2014 so only a couple of years
back and we’ve been able to grow to
8,000 Robin’s we are in about 36 cities
all over the world countries we are in
Pakistan Philippines Australia Egypt
India of course people served 1.6
million now this seems like a very small
number then don’t get me wrong it is a
very small number there is so much this
is then entire nation that is banking
upon us this number is actually pretty
small we always have this one tag line
my Jaipur office will agree only one
percent done always only one percent
done now this is quite exciting because
usually when we talk of Pakistan either
we are talking about cricket matches
agreed or we are talking about the
recent controversies of hiring Pakistani
act that’s all but when we started this
we got in touch with our friends in
Pakistan we tapped into a network
because of social media and we like guys
would you want to do this and because
Pakistan is so similar this society is
so similar to our own they look just
like you they look just like me they act
behave just like us we are just on
opposite sides of the border that’s all
the society is plagued by the same
problem that we are so we got in touch
with them these kids they’re off the
internet they’re not part of us with
these kids as you can see that cute
little selfie or those two guys just
merrily eating they look like us so it’s
very crucial for us to tap into the
Pakistan and tell them guys come onboard
and do it on 14th and 15th of August
what is on 15th August
ok that’s great what is on 14th August
exactly so we started this called
mission 500k where our mission was to
feed 500,000 people across India and
Pakistan we’ve had this two years in the
running and both those two years we’ve
achieved that that’s only because our
Robins were passionate and also because
they were able to get help from people
like you who are not part of the
organization beyond food so I have this
one tagline that I keep telling everyone
Robin Hood Army is what you want it to
be it’s like a platform consider it as a
platform to convert your intention your
ideas into reality so this is what we do
we have dental and hygiene drives which
you would say is quite crucial we have a
Diwali to remember where the valley
people went out and did basically help
someone else or did puja with them or
just making sure that their lives were
better
we had Santa’s going to old-age shelters
so that was quite cute and we also had
the little water drive now do you know
the the town in Maharashtra kala – that
was because of drought that was
suffering so we were able to get 75
thousand gallons of water to them now
this is again nothing as compared to
what they needed but all of this was
only made possible because people are
you came forward how much is it that we
can do we need everyone’s help war
against illiteracy now we’ve started I
was in Frank we’re behaving like an
organization we’ve started diversifying
food is always going to be a core
product but now we’ve diversified into
having our own Academy we conduct weekly
sort of
classes will have fairs will have
different sort of things we also have
PPS actually and these are all kids out
on the streets who don’t have modes of
going to school or whose parents have
nots to really warmed up to the idea of
sending their kids to school for example
on this guy right here the one in the
center
he’s from Shalom he is probably 9 or 10
but this is his first time writing ABCD
that girl you see there she she does
she’s from Mumbai she sells hair clips
in local trains and you know how
terrible the local trains can be in
Bombay so she used to sell hair clips
pair in same old story parents and
wanted to go to school etc etc we spoke
to the parents and now she’s going to
school and she’s quite excited about it
let me tell you that now this guy this
centre the one in the pink t-shirt I
don’t know if you can see him his name
is Mahesh he’s a drug addict he is as
old as probably he’s 10 12 something
like that he’s a drug addict and the
Robin Hood ami was very you have to
handle these matters very sensitively
that you should know he was a brilliant
kid he could put anyone to shame with
respect to calculations so the Robin
spoke to the parents and the balance is
like this is not in a hand he has bad
company he would go off you know drugs
etc etc we counseled him for two months
we told him what is your real problem
tell us why do you why do you have to go
to drugs
let math be your drug let that be
something that makes you want to go
higher and higher not in the literal
sense but so this guy now he is sober
for the past two months he’s sober he’s
going to be joining school in April or
May one of the batches and he already
has put all his people to shame like he
is already solving math problems way
beyond everyone’s belief and this guy’s
from Jaipur I believe as well and he was
he’s quite young but his the way he was
we are in the business of spreading
smiles that girl she smiling wishes
chicken wings on her plate
she might have not smelled before might
have we don’t know but we are happy to
see her smile like that so we like to
call ourselves being in the business of
spreading smiles now mind you I’m not
trying to say that you know you should
join us this and that know do what you
feel is right to be able to get that
that’s my lot of a person that’s
incredible just a couple of stories this
lady’s from Karachi she has to work to
get medicines for her husband and her
husband is fairly ill she still sends
her kids to school because she knows
what the importance is we found some
mooch brothers as we like to call it so
this guy right here he’s a Robin and he
found a cooling you know cool photos so
they would give food every day to them
friends now maybe even Facebook friends
who knows so this guy right here he
basically was so he was starving and you
know you can see his brother there and
he had to drop out of school and now
he’s a Kabaddi Vala he had to drop out
of school because of various reasons and
his family was like you know what is
fine as long as he gets the money again
Robins come into the picture get some
external help and now he’s going to
school in August how can you help now I
say you and I put that in red and I have
not put any other points here how can
you help only you know that it takes a
second to make a whatsapp group to
coordinate a movie to coordinate going
for a party it takes a second to make a
whatsapp group to make a plan to go to a
old age home or a shelter or to go to
someone in under the flyover and just
speak to them just matter of seconds so
remember that slide I was talking about
the numbers do you remember them was the
second third very good u+ ninety-nine
40,000 people will sleep hungry in India
just today just today 19 lakh 40,000
people and we might waste a Tiffin 7,000
Indians will die of hunger
just today 3000 kids under the age of 5
who’ve just actually been born if you
look at it they will die of hunger just
today the reasons why I’ve highlighted
tonight and today in red are because
that’s what matters
this is all in a day that is happening
and if we just see what we’ve done in a
day you will see what you have to do so
when you walk into the hall today I’m
just hoping you see your beggar you see
someone begging
I hope these numbers come to you and you
have a glucose biscuit and you have a
smile in your hand
that’s all you need basically do you
know this song drake started from the
bottom now we have so we started as a
humble group of 10 to 15 people in Delhi
and now that’s our presence you’re
getting there Russians to mammoths China
and Russia still a mammoth country to
conquer but we are here we started three
years ago and we are happy to say we are
a thousand people old we are about 36
cities and still always and always only 1% done thank you