Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Dec 21: Seppa (East Kameng)-based Kampu Hollen Orphanage’s (KHO) chairperson Renu Bengde on Friday informed that the NGO will organize a three-day “mega charity show” at Seppa from 10 January, 2019.
Briefing reporters at the press club here, Bengde said the event will be held to collect fund to run the orphanage. Bengde has rented the orphanage’s current accommodation from the tourism department, but, she said, it is sometimes impossible to pay the rent.
“Though we are getting support from the people of the district mentally and physically, the KHO needs financial support for the clothing, livelihood and education of the children,” she said.
The fund collected through the charity show will be used solely for the welfare of the orphanage’s wards, and also go towards building a permanent home for the orphans, Bengde said.
“It is very difficult to manage the daily needs of the orphans as their number is increasing day by day,” she said. “Earlier there were only around 20 orphans in the orphanage, but today there are 27, including widows and children who had been forced into child marriage.”
She said she cannot afford to maintain the orphanage and ensure a brighter future for the children on her own. The fund-raising event is being organised so that “at least a permanent home for the orphans can be built,” Bengde said, and urged the people of the state to come and witness the show.
When asked about the plot of land donated by one Pai Dawe to the KHO, Bengde said: “I am very much grateful to him, but the land is located atop a hill, and it is very difficult to connect the location with a road.”
“Being a single mother to 27 children, it is very hard for me to fulfill all their needs. No doubt people of the district and the state have been very kind to me, but they cannot continue helping for a lifetime. The charity event is an effort to collect a little fund,” she said.
KHO member Sol Dodum said the show is being organized “on individual capacity” to help the orphans pursue higher education, among other things.
The charity show will be held at the general ground in Seppa from 10-13 January, he said, adding that the event will include cultural and academic programmes.
Dodum informed that renowned Bollywood singer Zubeen Garg along with local singers and bands from various parts of Arunachal and other states will perform at the event.
