Three girls make paintings to raise funds for COVID-19 battle

Three teenaged friends in Maharashtra's Nagpur district have used their creative skills to raise funds for those at the forefront of the battle against COVID-19 and for mentally challenged children and an orphanage. Soumya Dalimya (17), a Class 12 student, Presha Bhattad (15), a student of Class 10, and Ditya Thapar, who is in Class 8, utilised the lockdown time to make 44 paintings.

They have so far raised Rs 84,000 through the sale of their art works. They intend to donate 50 per cent of the amount to the Prime Minister's CARES Fund and the remaining to an orphanage for girls and a centre for mentally deranged children. Soumya, who has been painting since she was in class 3, told PTI that after seeing people suffering at this time of crisis, she and her two family friends thought of using their creative skills to help the needy.

"We made 44 paintings and promoted their sale through social media. I have an art page on Instagram through which the paintings were put up for sale. We also made paintings on order," she said.

Initially, they faced problems in getting the painting material during the lockdown, but a shop owner helped them by fulfilling all their requirements, considering the cause taken up by them, she said. They also came to know about an orphanage for girls in the city and another centre for mentally challenged children through 'Swacch Nagpur' NGO and decided to contribute money to them also.

Soumya said they plan to donate 50 per cent of the amount to the PM CARES Fund and from the remaining amount, they will provide health care necessities, like sanitary napkins and hygiene kits, as well as books to the orphanage for girls and the centre for mentally challenged children. Talking about their initiative, Presha said after seeing people losing jobs and many not having enough food, they decided to help them.

"We started painting and selling our art works. We got a good response and got more painting orders. I was also inspired by my mother as I have seen her doing a lot of charity work," she said.

"It feels nice to do our bit for the society, and people are supporting us a lot," she added.

The girls said they still have a lot of painting orders to complete and their target is to raise Rs 1 lakh for the causes.