GOONJ: From Relief To Resilience

Disasters in India are no longer occasional events - floods, cyclones, heatwaves, landslides, and extreme winters are becoming a recurring reality. In these moments, what matters most is not just relief after damage, but preparedness, participation, and dignity. For over two decades, @Goonj has been working across India to rethink how society responds to disasters. Its approach moves beyond charity, focusing instead on community-led recovery, where people are partners - not passive recipients. Through initiatives like Cloth for Work, disaster-affected communities rebuild roads, ponds, bridges, schools, and livelihoods by contributing their labour and local knowledge - transforming relief into long-term resilience. Goonj's work connects everyday development with disaster response, ensuring that recovery strengthens systems rather than creating dependency. In just the last decade of its more than two-decade journey,Goonj has touched more than 20 million people across 31 states and UTs, facilitating over 110,000 projects chosen and implemented by the most vulnerable communities, by channeling 72+ million kilograms of surplus material from cities, as their reward. Through #SARRD (Societal Alliance for Resilience and Response to Disasters), Goonj brings together citizens, institutions, schools, corporates, and communities to prepare before disasters strike, respond faster when they do, and rebuild stronger systems for the future. Watch this inspiring story on The Changemakers, Season 5 - only on NDTV.