Bloggers throw their weight behind Akshaya Patra

Hundreds of bloggers from across the country gathered on Sunday to brainstorm ways in which the Internet could be harnessed for charitable causes.

On Sunday, the bloggers were talking specifically about the work of the Akshaya Patra Foundation, a wing of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which has been providing mid-day meals for students in government schools for the past ten years.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation hopes to reach out to fifty lakh children across the country by 2020. To gather funds for the purpose and also garner greater public support for the cause of providing a nourishing meal to children in government schools, the Foundation held a meeting in collaboration with IndiBlogger.in, which brings together over 20,000 Indian bloggers spread across the world.

The Foundation had earlier held a contest, ‘Blog and Fest’, aimed at reaching out to philanthropists through blog posts. Over a hundred bloggers spread across the world campaigned for the cause of the mid-day meal programme through this fest, and the ‘hunger warriors,’ as the bloggers were called, explained the significance of the mid-day meal in ensuring basic nutrition and school attendance. 

 “For every blog written about Akshaya Patra, more people became aware of the importance of feeding the hungry and the underprivileged children of India,” said Chanchalapathi, vice chairman, Akshaya Patra.

Anoop Johnson, director of marketing, IndiBlogger.in. “In the ongoing blogger competition, 115 bloggers across India wrote blog posts for Akshaya Patra. We are excited that so many bloggers joined the cause,” he said.

 Continuing this initiative, the Akshaya Patra Foundation will be organising the Internet Industrialists Meet in February, where industrialists from across the world will gather to discuss the possibility of expanding the use of the Internet in charitable causes.

The Foundation, which is planning further expansion of its operations, is also working towards optimum use of search engines. It hopes to create a mechanism that will throw up Akshaya  Patra among the top search results when people browse the Internet for charity institutions.