{"id":5563,"date":"2020-07-25T12:00:55","date_gmt":"2020-07-25T06:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/?p=5563"},"modified":"2020-11-27T12:40:02","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T07:10:02","slug":"global-walk-a-thon-to-raise-money-to-fight-covid-19-in-kolkata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/blog\/2020\/07\/25\/global-walk-a-thon-to-raise-money-to-fight-covid-19-in-kolkata\/","title":{"rendered":"Global Walk-a-Thon to Raise Money to Fight Covid-19 in Kolkata"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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More than 130 walkers from around the globe \u2013 from Australia, India, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, France, Netherland, Belgium, UK, USA and Canada – took part in a grand Walk-a-thon on July 25 to raise money for the COVID-19 challenge that we are facing in Kolkata.. Hundreds of people generously sponsored the walkers and thousands watched a two-hour live broadcast on Facebookand YouTube.<\/p>\n

The event was organized by Calcutta Rescue UK and we were able to raise approximately $ 150,000. Thanks to the active solicitation by Nirmalya Chakraborty, a Trustee of Calcutta Rescue UK, his employer, Barclays Bank also agreed to a matching contribution of approximately $130,000, making the fundraising a grand success. This was our once-in a-lifetime fundraising success to combat once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.<\/p>\n

It was a massive undertaking with huge coordination issues and a day-long eventin many different time zones. Its successwill help us cope with the massive challenges we are facing in fighting COVID-19 in Kolkata. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported our cause. <\/p>\n

The money will be used for treatment of hundreds of COVID victims in the areas we serve, food for the patients and the slum dwellers who have lost their livelihood due to COVID, continuing education of our schoolchildren through online learning and the daily meals that they used to get at schools, smartphones for on-line schooling of children whose families cannot afford the phones, computers for doctorsproviding online treatments, PPE for our staff, masks and cleaning and disinfecting products for slum dwellers, and many other expenses to continue our commitment of education and healthcare for Kolakta\u2019s poorest.<\/p>\n

The eventwas timed to coincide with the 90th birthday of Calcutta Rescue founder Dr Jack Preger. It was also a celebration of his life. Leaving a comfortable life in UK, Dr. Jack came to Bangladesh and then Kolkata nearly five decades ago and started treating patients in the pavements of Kolkata. He founded Calcutta Rescue, and in spite of millions of adversities, through his persistence and guidance,he has grown it into an organization serving hundreds of patients through four medical clinics and two mobile clinics, and educating hundreds of children in our two schools. We all are proud to be flag-bearers of Dr. Jack\u2019s mission of healthcare and education for Kolkata\u2019s poorest. <\/p>\n

To thank all supporters and well-wishers of Calcutta Rescue, wehave made available on our website (www.CalcuttaRescue.org) the documentary film on his life, Doctor Jack, made by the Swedish film maker, Benoit Lange. The film won multiple awards in Europe and India.<\/p>\n

Dr Jack, who is deeply concerned about the COVID situation in the slums of Kolkata was delighted by the success of the event and sent his sincere thanks to all the walkers and donors.<\/p>\n

It was a novel idea with beautiful results and showed how a world torn apart on many fronts can walk together on the path of a great humanitarian cause of helping Kolkata\u2019s poorest in their fight against the worst pandemic in a century. <\/p>\n


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More than 130 walkers from around the globe \u2013 from Australia, India, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, France, Netherland, Belgium, UK, USA and Canada – took part in a grand Walk-a-thon on July 25<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5588,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5563"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5589,"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5563\/revisions\/5589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calcuttarescue.org\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}