PONGAL is a harvest festival celebrated by Tamil communities in India and across the world. The festival marks the start of the harvest season with farmers offering food, prayers and other sacrifices to hope for a successful harvest season. Pongal is celebrated each January and will be celebrated from January 14th to January 17th in 2025. Each of the four days signifies a specific aspect of Pongal with activities around each of these aspects. The Pongal festival is also a time for people to share their compassion with the less fortunate.
This Pongal, we are running two special campaigns with two Tamil Nadu-based NGOs that are reaching out to abandoned grandparents on the streets and rescuing them from their distress. Atchayam Trust and Akshaya Trust are the two NGOs that offer a safe and loving home, regular and nutritious meals, round-the-clock medical care, recreational activities and companionship for abandoned elders. When you support these campaigns, you provide these necessities for elders thrown out onto the streets with no one to help them.
What is Pongal?
Before we explore the important work of Erode-based Atchayam Trust and Chennai-based Akshaya Trust to rescue and empower abandoned elders, let’s learn a little more about Pongal. Pongal is celebrated across four days in the month of January, or the Thai month in the Tamil solar calendar. The four days of Pongal are called Bhogi, Thai Pongal, Maatu Pongal and Kaanum Pongal and each day has its own activities that people enjoy with their friends, family members and people in their neighborhoods.
What are the 4 days of Pongal?
Bhogi is the first day of Pongal when people clean out their homes and discard old items. Just before sunrise, people light a small bonfire outside their homes in which these old items are burned. The second day marks the start of the new month and is celebrated as Thai Pongal. On this day, people prepare and eat pongal, a dish made out of rice, milk, jaggery, cardamom and other spices that can either be eaten as a sweet or savory meal. The special part of the preparation of this dish is the “boiling over” of the dish during which people chant “Pongalo Pongal”. Maatu Pongal is celebrated on the third day when cows are honored for their hard work during harvesting. Their horns are painted with bright colors and designs and flower garlands are placed around their necks and ears. This third day is also when the famous sport of Jallikattu is played in certain locations across Tamil Nadu. The fourth and final day is Kaanum Pongal when families get together for a meal, movie or a day out at the beach, the zoo or other popular places. But the most significant part of Kaanum Pongal is the tradition of blessing elders in by presenting them with sweets, presents and spending time with them.
Bless destitute elders this Kaanum Pongal
Giving and receiving blessings from elders is one of the most special parts of Kaanum Pongal. For most people, this includes their own grandparents or great grandparents, for those who are fortunate enough to still have them in their lives. For others, Pongal is a time to share these special blessings with old people who are alone and have no one in the world to care for them. Atchayam Trust and Akshaya Trust are two NGOs that have witnessed the suffering of old people who are miserable on the streets and rescued them with care and compassion.
A chance encounter at an Erode bus station
When the founder of Atchayam Trust was at a bus station in Erode, he encountered an old man who was homeless and living on the streets. He stopped and talked to him and heard the heartbreaking story of how he was abandoned by his family and thrown out onto the streets destined to spend the rest of his life alone and afraid. P. Naveenkumar had just cleared his GATE and TANCET exams and was all set to join an MNC. He continued his conversation with the man and ended up missing his bus, but he made the decision to start Atchayam Trust to rescue people just like that old man.
10 years later and Naveenkumar’s NGO has rescued around 1,300 people from the streets and given them a safe and secure home with regular meals, medical care and the companionship of the other elders. Atchayam Trust has also counseled more than 12,000 people with vocational skills training that has allowed them to get jobs and be independent and live dignified lives. Since 2014, Naveenkumar’s vision has been to help people who beg on the streets and give them the chance at a more dignified livelihood. This Pongal, you can support Atchayam Trust:
Locked in a room for 6 months
There was a man whose wife died, leaving his mother-in-law in his care. But instead of taking care of her or sending her somewhere she could be cared for, he locked her in a room for 6 months and starved, abused and tortured her. When G. Gopalan heard about this, he immediately sent a team from his NGO to rescue the old woman, who ended up living at the Akshaya Trust home. Since 2001, Akshaya Trust has been rescuing abused and abandoned old people and giving them a safe and comfortable life in their home.
Gopalan founded Akshaya Trust around 24 years ago and since then, he has transformed the lives of countless elders who have been chased out of their homes by their own children in such a cruel and heartless manner. He shares that parents should be valued and treasured by their adult children but for those who are unfortunate enough to not have this relationship with their families, Akshaya Trust will be the caring children they never had and give them a loving home, nutrition, medical care, counseling and friendship. This Pongal, you can support Akshaya Trust:
Share compassion with elders this Pongal
When you support Atchayam Trust and Akshaya Trust this Pongal season, you can help spread compassion and warmth to those without anyone in their lives. Celebrate the joyous Pongal season this 2025 with a charitable donation to bless destitute grandparents this Kaanum Pongal!
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Shirley has been in the development sector for over 10 years and is passionate about making a change in the world around her, including adopting dogs and writing to make a difference.
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