A group of students from the city and parts of the UK have been making art on the theme of kindness, responding to a call by a 10-year-old girl from Derby who has also launched a fundraising campaign.
Pragya Mitra launched a campaign in July urging those below 18 to join her with an objective to inspire everyone with kindness to donate for an NGO that works for underprivileged children, men and women.
“We all know how badly the second strike (of Covid) has hit Calcutta. On top of that the disaster Cyclone Yaas has created, so, I need support to raise funds for this cause. Please request children to create their piece of art based on the theme of kindness. Take a picture of it and send...your artwork will be posted on a digital art gallery. Please, please don’t forget to donate as well,” she said in a video appeal on social media.
The money Pragya is raising will go to Calcutta Rescue and towards the work that the NGO has been doing during the pandemic.
Pragya puts up the artwork on a social media page. Some of the contributors of the artwork are children from Calcutta Rescue. They are also the beneficiaries.
For Pragya, this is the third year in a row when she is raising funds for the organisation. She had raised 700 pounds last year.
Pragya lives in the UK, where she was born, but spends her holidays with her grandparents in Calcutta. Her last visit was in the summer of 2019.
“She has raised funds through events but this year she decided to have an online campaign that she felt would invite more people from around the globe with participation. We encouraged her because children are otherwise busy with their daily schedule and activities but it is these things that instil values in them and make them think about others,” mother Nabarupa Mukherjee told Metro from Derby.
Pragya wants to engage more young people in the project. Teachers in her school have shown interest in opening the drive up for the primary section and encouraging their students to participate, her mother said.
Those at Calcutta Rescue feel that such acts will inspire kindness among others.
“This spirit of helping others will motivate more children and help the next generation to think about others,” said Ananya Chatterjee, the school administrator at Calcutta Rescue.
“It shows that they are putting themselves in the shoes of others and trying to understand how difficult the situation of these children, who are almost their age, and the kind of challenges they face to study or to live.”