About Diya What is Diya? Diya is a small step in pursuit of a brighter tomorrow. We are a registered social welfare organisation based in Chennai, India. Ours is a rapidly growing initiative that strives to unite socially conscious people from all walks of life and make concerted efforts towards improving the quality of life of the underprivileged. Diya was started by a group of highly motivated students who believed in positive action to bring about some sort of social change. Being small in size and low on experience, we had no illusions about our ability to bring about such changes – we were fully aware of our limitations and were quite willing to work within them to achieve what little we could. Thus, Diya did not start with a grand vision but rather focused on bringing about incremental change within the sections of society that we interacted with on a regular basis. We are of the strong opinion that the "Generation Next" in India, contrary to popular belief, is immensely committed to a fair, peaceful and an equal society. Coming from the typical urban middle-class background as most of us do, we are conscious of our social commitment towards improving the quality of life for people who have not been as fortunate as us. The inception of Diya is a small though definitive step towards ushering in change at grass-root levels - change which would have a tangible and sustainable impact. The Team Diya's core group is based in Chennai which is the scene of action for all our projects, past and ongoing. We started as an informal group in 2005 and were formally registered as a Trust in early 2007. Apart from the core team, we have a sizeable volunteer network which we leverage for our activities. All our volunteers are based in Chennai, but we have members who live and work in places like Bangalore, Mumbai and Gujarat. Since its inception, Diya has remained a "part-time" organization – all of us have full-time professions which keep us busy through the week, so we devote weekends entirely to Diya work. Most Diya members are employed with software, engineering design or consultancy firms in Chennai. Our Objective As said by Richard Leider, "The purpose of life is to live a life of purpose!"
It is a little difficult to sum up our objective in one line - or for that matter, a few lines. Suffice to say that what turns our crank is to keep looking for ways in which to step out and make a genuine difference to our society. Now whether that means a slum development initiative, or a tree planting drive, or lending a helping hand to a blind school, we're game. Check out Programmes for details on Diya's ongoing projects.
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