LONDON: A virtual event in the UK has helped raise over 3,500 pounds for a charity providing emergency relief supplies to families living in vulnerable circumstances in Kolkata due to the coronavirus pandemic and the recent Amphan cyclone.
The HOPE Foundation's "Conversation for HOPE" brought together Kolkata-born Miss England Bhasha Mukherjee and broadcaster Andrea Catherwood from the UK and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor from India for a free-wheeling discussion broadcast recently.
"Crises and tragedies will occur in life but if we can make a difference in some small way, that's the best any of us can do," said Tharoor, referencing his work with the United Nations in the past and as a politician in India.
"The constant making of an effort is warranted because of the hope that it brings to people.
Each of us can do something in small ways," he said.
Mukherjee, who is now on the National Health Service (NHS) frontline as she resumed her role as a doctor in the East Midlands region of England at the peak of the pandemic in early April, said she hopes the coronavirus crisis would result in human evolution.
"Whenever we are faced with adversities like this, it really does test us and pushes us to evolve.
Maybe at the end of this, we will see that humanity has evolved at a very fast pace because of this crisis," she said, during the fundraiser.
The organisers said the event, priced at a 5 pounds per ticket donation, has had an overwhelming response and will therefore be broadcast again on June 14.
"It was a compelling and compassionate broadcast, aimed at raising vital funds and awareness for the street connected and slum dwelling communities in Kolkata," said Reza Beyad, London-based entrepreneur and HOPE Foundation's UK ambassador, who hosted the discussion.
The foundation, created in 1999 by Irish humanitarian Maureen Forrest to provide protection and safety to young girls in Kolkata who were forced to survive on the streets, said it has already used the funds raised through the initiative to provide 140 families with shelter materials, drinking water and food for a few weeks.
Speaking from Kolkata, HOPE Foundation Director Geeta Venkadakrishnan said: "We cannot thank enough, everyone who so generously supported Conversation for HOPE, which has enabled us to continue to provide emergency supplies to those most in need.
"I can testify first-hand the difference which this has made to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people living on the streets and in the slums of Kolkata."
The foundation says it has been able to support more than 30,000 people whose lives have been devastated by the twin disasters of COVID-19 and Cylcone Amphan but the work remains ongoing, with further virtual Conversation for HOPE events planned.