Rana Siddiqui Zaman/New Delhi

It doesn’t take pots of money for helping others; philanthropy begins with intention as it happened to the Noida-based Dr. Sadaf Hameed, who launched a philanthropy project where people of all ages, and income groups can chip in to help those in distress.

The 100 Rupee Project is the brainchild of Sadaf Hameed, a doctorate in psychology, in which one can help others by just contributing Rs 100 per month.

The money raised helps those in need to buy rations, pay school or college admission or tuition fee,  buy medicines, and so on.

Sadaf Hameed launched this project in 2019, with three main motives; inclusion – making everyone donate, and contribute to society, uniformity – offering a cost-effective option of philanthropy to all- be it an aristocrat or a person with a meager income, and propagating the idea that small donations can make a big impact.

Sadaf Hameed launched this project to help people in education, health, and livelihood as she always “wanted to do something for the society but in a different way.”

The desire for helping others arose inside her when her maternal grandmother passed away in 2004. She wanted to do something in her name but had no clue how to do it

In 2018, when her mother passed away from pancreatic cancer, she finally launched it with the help of a friend Safia Chaudhari. She battled grief and depression as her mother was the only daily “go-to” person.

Her mother, Dr. Firoza Hameed, a professor of Pathology, at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh Muslim University, was a strong lady who raised her four children alone after her husband Dr. Sami Hameed passed away. He was the founder of the department of Pathology and the principal and Dean of Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College.

Sadaf was two-year-old she lost her father. 

Since the 100 Rupee Project was in her mother’s name, it was launched with seeking donations from mothers.thers”.

Interestingly, soon after the project was launched in 2019, the pandemic hit. It was tough to reach people out to people.

Sadaf and her team of volunteers including her husband Akif Khan collaborated with some non-governmental organizations that were working in pandemic-hit areas across Delhi/NCR and also in villages.

Initially, out of the helplessness of losing jobs due to the pandemic and other multiple reasons, “people didn’t want to contribute even one rupee”. She reached out to the AMU old boys and girls association and this helped spread the word. Gradually, others joined in as 100 rupees wasn’t too much to donate and feel happy and valued.

For now, the 100 Rupee Project is in its initial stages. It has nine volunteers spread over Dubai, and Frankfurt; local volunteers are helping by managing social media and advertisements. With people constantly losing jobs and even the bare minimum income to survive, donations are slow to trigger in and yet the project has helped around 4,000 people, so far.

Sadaf is happy to know that children are saving their pocket money to contribute; a beneficiary getting a job at companies like Larsen & Turbo has started donating.

The initiative has started the “Sponsor a child” programme. At present two students are being sponsored by donors and also volunteers. The latter teach them in their spare time.

Sadaf wants to reach out to more underprivileged people who are on the threshold of losing hope as jobs are hard to get by.

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Notably, a couple of years after the 100 rupee project was launched, the famous online charity organization Ketto also started a similar drive.