The Covid-19 situation brought an abrupt pause to the lives of the daily wage earners and stray animals who got minimal food and care. Contemplating this scenario, the “Bondhu Chol NGO” stepped up.

Konnagar :

With the existing mankind having been divided into class and categories, with the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, life, as a matter of fact, is challenging and troublesome. It is heart-wrenching to swallow the fact that the less privileged part of the population is deprived of basic food, cloth and medicine supplies. We, the more privileged half, do feel bad for them. However, we seldom try to do anything about it. The escalating economic crisis and unemployment during the Covid-19 pandemic have rendered almost everyone in the world helpless and worried. During these hard times, the working-class could barely keep their heads above water and the daily wage workers got drowned. To change the existing scenario, up to whichever extent possible, a few students from our college, named Rohan Brahmachari, Saptarshi Banerjee, Sayan Banerjee, Biswajit Parui, along with some of their friends decided to open an NGO all by themselves to extend help to the indigent out there. According to them, helping others is an act of utmost forbearance and also a powerful way to boost our happiness, as well as that of those around us. 

On 1st October ‘20, Rohan got a text from Arijit Roy, who first came up with the idea for the NGO, “Let’s start something new with friends and help people….they are dying.” It was October ’20, when Rohan and his friends finally decided to try and implement Arijit's idea into reality and thus, it came into existence.

The “BONDHU CHOL NGO", as named by Sayan Banerjee, their motive, as they say is, "Friends coming together for a greater good.” The “Bondhu Chol NGO" is an initiative taken in order to help the under-privileged children, left out elderly family members, stray animals and other people in need. 

However, these guys are just college students and thus, in spite of having big plans they had very limited funds to execute their ideas. But this did not discourage them and, as George Herbet once said, “Where there’s a will there's a way”, they surely did find a way! Since, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs all had the beginnings of their great empires in a garage so they decided to do the same. The garage of Samadrito’s house was turned into their kitchen, temporary office and warehouse. They performed their first event in October ‘20 when 

the founding members cooked food and provided medication to the local street dogs of Uttarpara. The happiness and tranquility that washed them over after carrying out this event encouraged them. By this time, their parents got interested and helped by contributing to this noble cause. With a subtotal of about 6000 bucks they carried out their second event on 21st December ‘20 by supplying blankets, food packets, masks and sanitizers to the left out elderly members of families who lack adequate facilities. 

They say that these people also deserve to be happy and the smile on their faces and twinkle in their eyes is what makes their initiative worthy. They continued with their third event on 12th January ‘21, where they provided 35 local street dogs with proper food, medication and water supplies, all from their own pocket money. The fourth event was carried out on 23rd February ‘21, in which they got sponsored by a localite and they organised a Sports Competition for 35 local children from the innards of a village named Kanaipur in Konnagar. This was followed by prize distribution, a surprise birthday celebration of a kid and distribution of Biryani packets to everyone. The fifth event took place on 4th April ‘21, where they distributed food packets and stationery products to 45 under-privileged children of Hindmotor. 

The “Bondhu Chol NGO" that started with a group of 4 members, has now grown into 27 members. They plan to get their NGO verified and carry out further events in the future and are currently working on creating a website of their own to reach out to more people. Little help can turn a small idea into a huge success. They also plan to open “Bondhu Chol Gurukul” to impart knowledge, free of cost, to under-privileged children by teaching them cultural arts, crafts and some important values of life which needs a funding of around 15 lakh rupees.