NGO 'RAAHEIN' on a mission to serve poor cancer patients

Staff reporter

GUWAHATI: What else can be more inspiring for a group of youth than trying to work for their society, fighting against calamities rather than choosing enjoyment from materialistic and lavishing lives like most youth dream after their teenage hits the end of the road? 'RAAHEIN', a one-year-old Guwahati-based NGO motivated to work for women and children from underprivileged classes, has decided to take its work to the next level by providing resourceful (medicine and accommodation) help to poor patients suffering from different types of cancer. RAAHEIN was founded from scratch post-COVID by some youths and college-or-university-going students.

"RAAHEIN, when founded, had the motive to work for women and children belonging to the underprivileged lot in society. After the anniversary on 7th November 2022, our core-member team decided to work for cancer patients," the President and Co-founder of the NGO, Dipraj Chakrabarty, informed The Sentinel at a verbal meeting.

Dipraj, a youth entrepreneur from Guwahati and a B Tech student from Assam Don Bosco University, witnessed a trail of devastations post-COVID in 2021. The scenes he saw were lethal enough to shatter his mind. Dipraj and his close friends soon got into a huddle and decided to extend a helping hand to the poor by providing food and clothes to the homeless loitering here, there and everywhere in the state.

"Most of the people avoided and ignored us when we decided to start the NGO. Be that as it might, RAAHEIN set to sail its voyage with the help of a few good people. We have completed a year!" Explained Dipraj.

RAAHEIN organized several events — cleanliness drives in different areas of Guwahati city, food donation drives in several places, cloth donation drives, blood donation campaigns, art competitions in schools, education-related workshops among school kids and whatnot since its inception.

The co-founder said, "Organizing events and various drives were tough to work at the beginning. Fundraising and getting donations and their ilk are by no means an easy task. 'When going gets tough, toughs get going', goes the adage. Our team members had to contribute funds, let alone time. Fundraising continues to be a major hiccup. After all, most of us are still in the 18-30 age group. Most people believe that youths are ineligible to take responsibility for social problems or maybe they think we are frauds trying to launder their donations. People generally are busy with their lives, trying to become rich. Of course, exceptions are always there. A few helpful people contribute, and we are very grateful for it."

He said, "RAAHEIN has collaborated with various institutions to organize events. Some institutions are Chandrapur High School, Anganwadis (crèche centres), the NCC Wing of B Barooah College at Ulubari, the student wing of Cotton University, B Barooah College, Nagaon Gopinath Dev Goswami Commerce College, Assam Downtown University, B Barooah Cancer Institute.

"We have our vision cutout — to extend a helping hand to victims of crimes against women, to give succour to abused children, to help cancer patients hailing from financially weaker sections and to look after stray animals. Right now, we have the plan to hold blood donation camps and crowdfunding campaigns for cancer patients in different districts of Assam with the help of B Barooah Cancer Institute within a few months. So far, so good! We hope to make our plan a success."

"RAAHEIN has conducted a litany of activities since its inception in 2021. RAAHEIN conducted a food donation drive among the homeless near Sukreshwar Ghat on 9th November 2021; a food donation drive at Guwahati Railway Station among the people staying nearby on 17th July 2022; a clothing donation drive among the financially weaker people in the Mathgharia area on Guwahati on 31st August 2022; its Nagaon district wing conducted a cloth donation drive Panogaon village in the district on 19th November 2022; celebrated the Children's Day in an Anganwadis Kendra in the Nagaon district through interactions with children and distribution of study kits, and celebrated the World Children's Day at Chandrapur High School on the outskirts of Guwahati on 20th November 2022. The celebration had an art competition and a self-improvement session conducted by a Therapist, Melasim, in the presence of renowned singer Padmanav, Dr Bijoy Das and Dr Suantak Demkhosei (Assistant Professor of ADTU, Guwahati).

"RAAHEIN has its wings (groups) spread all over the state, district-wise. A winghead and an assistant winghead lead the groups from the front. The wings operate through online and offline modes. We have plans to create more wings to make our voice heard and reach the target beneficiaries — Women and Children."

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