DIMAPUR: In a step forward towards helping the distressed people of the Northeast region, Helping Hands opened its Nagaland chapter and christened it Helping Hands Nagaland.
Delhi police special commissioner Robin Hibu, who is the founder of Helping Hands, formally installed the Nagaland chapter of the NGO at Livingstone Foundation International Dimapur on Sunday.
Chairman of Livingstone Foundation International Dimapur Dr Andrew Ahoto Sema is its new president.
The NGO was started by Hibu with like-minded people to help the distressed people from the Northeast in Delhi.
Highlighting the activities of the Helping Hands at the inaugural programme, Hibu, the first IPS officer from Arunachal Pradesh, recounted the various kinds of heart-wrenching incidents and atrocities of some Northeast people had to go through in Delhi due to various reasons.
He said he receives a number of complaints of such incidents on a daily basis.
He said Helping Hands is a charitable non-profit NGO run by serving officers from the Northeast region.
It offers emergency assistance to those distressed people from the Northeast who have no one to take care of them, he added.
He, however, made it clear that the NGO does not offer any assistance to the well to do and financially sound people.
Hibu said the operational framework of the NGO consists of core layer with 21 members, engagement layer comprising volunteers, counsellors, legal NGOs and output.
The officer said he donates Rs 40,000 from his salary every month towards the NGO while seeking assistance from those who are willing to help the people of the region in need.
He said among the many activities of the NGO for the distressed Northeast people are free dead body transportation to different states of the region, free cremation of poor people at Punjabi Bagh crematorium and free burials at Burari in Delhi, facility for medical concessions in 54 Delhi hospitals, cancer screening and medical camp , NE blood bank in AIIMS Delhi, special voter registration camp, civil services coaching camp, scholarship for orphan girls, artists/commerce scholarship, health camps in border areas of the region, career counseling, crime prevention awareness, marriage counseling, positive awareness campaign, sports scholarship, connectivity outreach, mainstreaming the freedom fighters of the region, award for social works etc.
The new president of Helping Hands Nagaland, Sema, in his address, said the NGO has made a lot of impact on the lives of the Northeast people in distress in different cities of the country.
He said the Nagaland chapter of the NGO is a first its kind in the state to help needy people from outside as well as from the state.
“The time has come for us not to be selfish and biased and help poor people in need by being a giver. We have to leave a legacy of good work for the future generation,” he added.