Meet Asechan Chib, the boy behind the healing hands of Raunak

Switching on the television that fateful evening of March 2020, nobody in India could predict what lay ahead. As we navigated the new world order under COVID, our lives as we lived them turned upside down almost overnight.

As months rolled by, we were a society long battered and bruised by the impact of successive COVID waves — which disproportionately impacted those without access to adequate resources — craving for healing hands. Along came Raunak, a social service initiative started on 25th October 2021 by Asechan Chib.

The initiative kicked off with the purpose of spreading COVID awareness. Raunak went into the slum area at KC enclave near Udheywala, gathered the children living there, and held its first COVID awareness drive.

The success of the event propelled Asechan to pursue more avenues to give back to society in a meaningful way.

As Raunak went from strength to strength, Chib’s dream of helping society had many more people join hands with him along the way. This led to various branches being cultivated throughout the city boasting of more than 20 volunteers at each. Starting from organizing classes 4-5 times a week, Team ‘Raunak’ went on to identify the needs of the Jammu community and developed a unique approach towards charity. Here are 15 initiatives that Raunak has undertaken since its inception:

1. Book Donation Drive Every time a person picks up a book, they are transported into a new world. With the intention of bringing the world to the children of Govt. School Munshi Chak, Govt. School Gole Panjpeer, and Govt. School Patta Bohri, team Raunak started a book donation drive on 27 October 2021. The young minds managed to collect and donate 300 books in December 2021.

2. Music lessons A great way to channel energies into mindful and fun activities is to take up music in any form. In this pursuit, team Raunak, under the tutelage of Mr. Rohit Sharma, a music teacher at KC Public school, organized free music lessons for children in October 2021.

3. Diwali Celebrations Diwali, the festival of lights, is a time to remember the blessings we have in our lives and nothing is better than sharing the blessings with everyone around us. In that vein, team Raunak distributed Diwali goodies among children. To go beyond just materialistic celebrations, the youngins also organized drawing classes, numerous storytelling sessions, science classes, and spoken English classes. In order to share the gift of knowledge further, they even organized nukkad nataks (street plays) to entertain and educate members of society.

4. Children’s Day Students of KC Public School Samyagya Chopra and Rasalika Chopra joined hands with Chib’s Raunak to organize a Children’s Day event. Fun races and a dance party were the marquee events of the day during which they also distributed woolen caps and socks.

5. Warli Art Sessions Art is an empowering form of expression. Couple that with a traditional art form and one creates a pathway for connecting the new and the old. A series of Warli art classes were conducted by Mrs Saakshi Saini and her daughter Anadi Saini, a student of KCPS, in November 2021 with the aim of combining the unique art form with self-expression.

6. Dance Class When looking for ways to keep healthy, nothing beats dancing to get your body moving. Team Raunak reached out to Mr. Ankush Padha and Mr. Deepak Saxena to organize a charity dance class at their Artistic Dance and Fitness Studios. The event in December had everyone shake a leg to popular dance numbers while learning about the importance of exercise.

7. Theatre Sessions The ability to wear our emotions on our sleeves while also being fully in control of them is something that theatre inspires us to do. To teach children this, ‘Raunak’ organized a series of interactive sessions with Mr. Pratiush Toor, a well-renowned name in the world of theatre, who helped guide everyone into the world of performing arts on 4th December 2021. The students did so well that three of them — Bharat, Vikas, and Uttam — were selected to perform at the annual day function of the school.

8. Christmas Celebrations Team ‘Raunak’ became the real-life Santa Claus for underprivileged children when they distributed cupcakes and chocolates among them to mark the joyous occasion. They also taught the children how to make Santa Claus puppets from paper.

9. New Year Celebrations Ringing in the new year surrounded by people with good intentions is perhaps the best way to do so. Team Raunak left no stone unturned in organizing a New Years’ celebration which was sponsored by Parimita, Sristhi, Eesha and Krishna Bakers, Jammu.

10. Tracksuit distribution To stave away the cold, Team Raunak organized a tracksuit donation on 15th January 2022 to commemorate Makar Sankranti. On the occasion, Mr. Bhartendu Vaid, Odeeps Garments, Samya Vaid, and Arnav Vaid graciously donated tracksuits for children of all ages.

11. Painting competition Motivated to raise funds for the orphanage Ved Mandir Bal Niketan Jammu, team Raunak put on their thinking hats and came up with an innovative online painting competition. Padma Shri Vijay Sharma is set to declare the results end of March 2022.

12. Sweater donation Using the Hiver fest to raise funds, the Raunak team along with the Commerce Department of KC Public school distributed sweaters to fight off the biting cold of mid-February 2022.

13. Shoe donation All students of Raunak got to walk around in brand new shoes as Mrs. Arti Chowdhary, Managing Director of KC Public School donated shoes to the children at Raunak.

14. Blankets distributions To beat the winter chill, blankets were distributed by Mr. Arham Jain at the Channi Himmat branch of Raunak. The mid-February gift came as a boon for the children just in time for the winter showers that hit the city.

15. Women’s Day celebrations To honour the women in their lives, the children of Raunak put together a special programme they invited all the women of the slum to. Amid all the dancing and music, the children expressed their gratitude to everyone who has helped them rise up.