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Members of Club Friday perform at Okakura Bhavan; (below) Rupankar on stage. Pictures by Bishwarup Dutta |
A township-based group called Club Friday celebrated its second foundation day at Rabindra Okakura Bhavan on July 20 and marked the occasion by gifting medical equipment to an organisation that works for children with thalassaemia.
The all-woman Club Friday donated a semi-automated 3-strip Elisa reader machine to the Nimtala Ghat Street-based Thalassaemia Guardian’s Association, which looks after 450 children afflicted with the blood disorder.
While the machine had been sent to the association the previous day, secretary of Club Friday, Aparajita Jha, handed over the invoice of the same on stage. Present at the event was local MLA Sujit Bose. “Instead of matching horoscopes of prospective brides and grooms their blood samples should be checked to ensure they are not at risk and that their children are not born with thalassaemia,” said Bose, who also launched a souvenir of the group called Identity.
Gouranjan Aich, vice-president of the association, was grateful to receive the equipment. “Many of our children are needy and their parents cannot afford these tests,” he said. The machine, which costs Rs 1.8 lakh, detects the level of iron in a patient’s body.
The members of the NGO then went on to perform for the audience. Fifteen of them, led by Manasi RoyChoudhury, wove together songs like Cholo jai and Dhitang dhitang bole in a script. Guest artiste Rupankar took the stage at the end.
“Through the year we distribute clothes, food and toys among the needy, and once a year we raise funds and perform an act of charity like gifting of such equipment,” said president of the club, Kumkum Dewan. |
