During the Victorian Era, British coffee houses called Cafés were famous for their “University wits” and scholars who would gather around to discuss the society and its development, art and culture. So, when Dr. Valentine Gandhi created a group that aimed at issues of socio-economic relevance, he simply called it The Development Café.

A world free of poverty, with equal emphasis and contribution from both men and women is what Dr. Gandhi envisioned when he created the group. “I realized that many people in the social development field were unable to use the power of internet to its fullest,” he says and adds, “So I decided to connect those who have the resources, like jobs and research fellowships, with those who need them.” This open ended system of communication has especially helped out the student community, who throng the group to seek help on thesis and projects they work on. The group offers job postings and knowledge sharing free of cost, which is particularly welcomed by members from developing countries.

This successful group has been listed in the global poverty networks list hosted by the UNDP – International Poverty Centre, under the Internet and Communication Technologies for Development Section. “My group is an extension of my personality as its motto says – Bridging Grassroots with Policy. Yahoo! indeed has been a very useful tool in advancing my group from a bunch of students to the top development professionals and policy makers group across the globe.”

If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks,
Diti
Yahoo! Groups India

“Blood is the most precious gift that you can give to anyone,” believes Dr. Abhishek Nanda, owner and moderator of Yahoo! Group Sanjeevini. He says that every two seconds someone needs blood, which can be arranged as 60% of the population is eligible to donate blood but we always have a crisis as only 5% of the population donates blood. To bridge this gap, he runs the group, spreading awareness about blood donation.

The group maintains a database of people, interested in blood donation, with their blood group and other details. Every week, the members have been able to fulfill 2 requests on an average and the membership is increasing by 3-4 people everyday. The vision is to consolidate local organizations in many small cities under one umbrella of Sanjeevini to create a helpline for blood donation.

Last month, the group organized their first blood donation camp in Goa in association with “HRiday”, the HR club of Goa Institute of Management (GIM). Seventy four students donated their blood at the camp, which was backed by a blood donation awareness campaign.

There is no substitute for human blood. To learn more about blood donation join Sanjeevini now. If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks!
Shefali
Yahoo! Groups India Community Manager

Pullamangai is nestled amongst 2000 year old temples near Kumbakonam, the city of temples. The members of Ponniyin Selvan Yahoo! Group paid a visit to this lesser known town when one of the group members, J.Chandrasekaran , observed the dilapidated condition of the temples. Here, at the Pullamangai Shiva temple dating back to the ninth century, he saw the mastery of the Chola artisans in ruin. This moved him to search for groups involved in preserving heritage. His search led him to Temple Cleaners , a Yahoo! Group created by Mr. Rajan Ganesh an IT professional. Since then, Chandrasekaran has been moderating this group, which has grown it from 7 to more than 450 members.

According to him, there are more than 40,000 heritage sites in Tamil Nadu and approximately 250,000 heritage sites in India. More than 200,000 inscriptions remain undiscovered containing valuable information about medicine, archaeology and astrophysics in these temples. The single objective of Temple Cleaners is to work towards saving the ancient heritage.

The group’s members have formed a non-profit organization called Reach Foundation, which helps in rural education and conservation of heritage. The members go to villages that have ancient heritage and educate the villagers about it with the help of volunteers from Archaelogical Survey of India (ASI). Many IT professionals join them on weekends for cleaning the temple as this serves as a great stress buster for them. The founder of Reach Foundation is the famous archaeologist Dr. Satyamurthy who has renovated many temples in India. Gangaikonda Cholapuram temple, Thanjavur temple and Konark temple are just few of the temples that were renovated with his involvement.

Care for ancient Indian heritage? Join the Temple Cleaners now. If you want to share an interesting story of your Yahoo! Group, please mail it to us at groups@yahoo-inc.com. Stay tuned for our next coverage.

Thanks!
Shefali
Yahoo! Groups India Community Manager