The Helping Hands of Kolkata (HHoK), a foundation from the city, which has embarked upon a mission to bring joy to those who have been deprived of it, organized its first fundraiser in Kala Kunj. The event also provided a platform for the donors and supporters of the foundation to meet the beneficiaries. Sahyog saw several beneficiaries performing on stage and putting up a show for the people who help them realise their dreams. The event also witnessed established artists and upcoming talents take the stage and mesmerise the audience with their performances.

Having been founded in 2012, HHoK was registered as a foundation in 2020. The primary projects of HHoK include the HHoK Community Kitchen, HHoK Paathshala, Girl Child Education, and the HHoK Store of Happiness. Other than these HHoK carries out several other projects like supporting young athletes, providing food and medicine to animal shelters, distributing relief items during natural calamities, and distributing food packets.

The objective of HHoK Community Kitchen is to provide daily food to the underprivileged community, whose livelihood was impacted the most by the pandemic-induced lockdown. HHoK Community Kitchen has been continuously running for over 675 days since June 2020, amid the thick of the pandemic, and has served over 40,000 meals. HHoK Paathshala was set up in January 2021 to provide underprivileged children a safe and engaging place to learn and follow their passion for drawing, singing, dancing, and other co-curricular activities, so that they can develop themselves into adults who can play an active role in building our nation. Both activities are carried out in Uttarpara, Hooghly district.

As part of its Girl Child Education initiative, HHoK currently sponsors the education of 4 bright girls who come from underprivileged backgrounds. The HHoK Store of Happiness is an annual event that is carried out in Sonajhuri, Sundarbans, where a makeshift store is set up with tens of thousands of rarely used and unused items available for the people of the village to come in and pick up any item they want, without paying a single rupee. Until now HHoK has provided monetary aid of over Rs. 20,000,000 to the underprivileged community, touched the lives of over 3500 people directly with their helping hands, and sponsored 32 talented individuals inspiring them to grow up and carry the baton forward.

Kaushik Dey, founder of HHoK said, “Collaborative support was the underlying concept with which HHoK was conceived. Development projects need support and funds. We have all been heavily dependent on individual donors, rather than grants and funding from public and private agencies. Sahyog was just an honest attempt to channelise these funds. It was heartening to see our donors and supporters meeting with and enjoying the performances of the beneficiaries. The entire HHoK team and I would like to thank all our donors and supporters. Our monthly expenses go up to a lakh to continue lending a helping hand to those who need it and without our donors by our side, our dream will never take shape.”