A year ago, when COVID-19 was moving towards its first peak, a group of well-placed professionals of the apparel industry, who also happened to be NIFT alumni, started the NIFTWeCare initiative to support the batches of 2020 and 2021.
The intention of the initiative was to support the students with regard to internships and jobs, and also mentor them for entrepreneurship, in these unprecedented times.
These professionals always knew the challenge that they had undertaken in those most uncertain times.
They were very clear from day one that as senior alumni and industry leaders, the onus is on them to stand up and be counted in these moments of crisis that no one had ever seen or experienced before.
And now after one year, this initiative, founded by Niftians Kishan Daga (2000-2002), Manish Tribhuwan (1995-1997), Maniesh Sondhi (1990-1992), Sanjay Shukla (1990-1992), and Nitin Gupta (1989-1991), has proved to be quite successful, purely based on the number of students who benefitted from it.
More than 1,000 jobs and internship opportunities were created and more than 6,000 students mentored on career and other technical and life skills, to help them deal with any situation.
The process has already begun to extend support to the batch of 2022, which is turning out to be another challenge in the badly hit industry.
“As we started working, we found mentors/contributors, who we call ‘Angels,’ coming forward to support. And in no time, we had more than 75 angels standing up for these young adults coming out of NIFT, with clear commitment to support them in their journey of life. What’s most satisfying and inspiring is that today the batch of 2020 is standing up to support the future batches. They are to the Gen Next, what we were for them,” says Kishan Daga, one of the founding ideators.
Some of the students, Sai Sindhura, Shweta Iyer, Jai Tikkiwal, Priyankur Sengupta, Anshita Batra and more, shared on social media how much they have benefitted from this initiative.
Each of the founding ideators and angels divested their time and personal equity in the industry to create job and internship opportunities, mentoring and parenting sessions, give them start-up guidance, including providing financial support for education and medical emergencies, as some of their parents had lost their livelihood.
“We are extremely thankful to NIFT and only hope that our Alma Mater will continue to extend its support to the initiative. This journey has just begun. We have miles to go and smiles to come,” says Manish Tribhuwan, another founder of the initiative.
