Guwahati: What if biting into a delicious momo could help provide food for a starving child and adorning a wall with a beautiful picture or help put a roof over the head of a destitute family?
That’s exactly what has been envisaged. Just chomp some momos at Nehru Park or buy a photograph from the exhibition at Rabindra Bhawan over the next couple of days and you could provide some much-needed help to the victims of this year’s floods in Assam.
“The floods this time have caused huge devastation and left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Although a huge amount will be required to help the people, we are trying to do whatever we can in our own capacity. We have decided to donate the entire amount that will be generated from the sale of the photographs during this year’s edition of our photography exhibition,” one of the 56 photographers behind the exhibition, Arpan Kalita, told The Telegraph today.
Each of the 93 photographs to be exhibited and sold have been priced at Rs 1,000 and the amount collected will be handed over to organisations distributing relief materials. This is the fourth edition of the exhibition, titled Pohor, being organised by the Photography Club of Assam at the State Art Gallery in Rabindra Bhawan.
“Besides, we will put up donation boxes on the premises of the exhibition where people can donate clothes, food items, medicines, books and stationery for the children affected by the floods,” Kalita said. Social Organisation for Change and Help (SOCH), an NGO, is organising the Northeastern Momo Festival, which will begin at 3pm tomorrow at the Nehru Park here. A portion of the profits from the festival will go towards relief efforts. They will also collect donations from the visitors at the venue.
“The visitors can relish various items like chocolate momos, Afghani momo, tandoori momos, cheese momos, fish momos, smoked pork momos, mutton momos, momo burger and many more. We appeal to people to visit the festival not only to relish their favorite momos but also contribute to our initiative to help the flood victims,” one of the members of the NGO, Mayur Shivam, said.
Many other NGOs, individuals and business groups are also collecting donations for the flood victims.
Altogether 18 ,708 flood-hit people are still taking shelter in 62 relief camps in Dhubri, Barpeta, Golaghat, Kokrajhar, Bongaigaon, Jorhat, Nagaon and Goalpara districts.
Dhubri district in lower Assam has the maximum number of people in camps (11,808). Atotal of 285,000 people are still under the grip of the floods in 10 districts, the weather department’s daily flood bulletin said this evening. This year, the state has witnessed the worst floods since 2004 with the deluge impacting 28 of the 34 districts in three waves since April. Altogether 31 people have died in the floods so far this year.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh, who undertook an aerial survey of some flood-affected places on July 30, had appealed to NGOs and the general public to chip in for relief operations.