From the time of its inception, Arzoo has diversified from being a small play group to an activity center and more.
The Gujarat riots of 2002 had affected the young minds beyond repair. The need of the hour was to infuse fresh hope in the minds of riot affected children of both Hindu and Muslim communities and to channelize their energy in the right direction. During a play they organized in town hall in 2005, a Hindu boy Dev was initially very reluctant to enact the role of a Muslim character called Rafiq. He would get annoyed when addressed by other children as Rafiq, but after staging the play, his mindset was completely changed. He is no more displeased at the mention of Rafiq, and laughs off by saying “How does it matter what they call me. I am a Hindu, and their calling me a Muslim does not change my identity”. This was where Arzoo has made a difference in the lives of these children.
Arzoo also took strong positions in promoting cleanliness and education among the orphaned children in and around the area of their operation since 2004 by organizing cleanliness drives. Arzoo also provided a platform to unleash the creative potential of its children by getting them involved in making products out of recycled paper like greeting cards, diaries, file folders, paper bags, gift box, tags, bookmarks, lamp set, paper flower vases etc. Later it joined its hand with other organizations like Gram Shree in 2004 which helped it to market the products prepared by the children.
It went further to improve health awareness by arranging medical camp in February 2006. In August 2006, when Gujarat was facing severe flood situations throughout the state, Arzoo joined hands with Jagruti foundation to serve food to 500-1000 people daily in which Swati restaurant, Tomatoes, NGOs like Yuva Unstoppable played an important role, Arzoo also served 3000 patients who were flood victims in association with Jagruti foundation.
Arzoo was and has always been different from a lot of other similar attempts to help the underprivileged children. As Sulekha, the coordinator for the organization recalls, “There were many charitable institutions which had started on the aftermath of Godhra riots, but they disappeared as soon as their funding got over. After the 2002 riots, many people came to Gujarat to offer some help to people who want to work for some social cause. Public has a very short memory as evident from the fact that as soon as the Gujarat riots became recent history, people forgot about these social initiatives and funds too dried up. But Arzoo did survive the test of times.” In the long run the funding and resources of Arzoo will get better as it is evident from the fact that Arzoo is moving towards self sufficiency by expanding its paper and related business Arzoo has the potential to become a nation-wide movement as Sulekha envisions it.
