Local Bengali community makes donation to St Hilda’s School

Bandhan, members of the local Bengali community, received made a donation of €700 to St Hilda’s Special School in Athlone.

For the third year in a row, Bandhan brought together the Bengali community living in and near Athlone to celebrate Durga Puja at the Drum Community Centre on September 27 and 28 this year. Like the year before, there was a recognition among the members of the importance of giving back, to strengthen local causes that are important to the people of the town and surrounds.

After a brief deliberation among the members, Bandhan was extremely proud to choose St. Hilda's Special School as the beneficiary of a fundraiser raffle that was conducted over the two days of the Durga Puja festival.

The festival celebrates the Goddess Durga and is the biggest and most important festival of the year for most Bengali speaking people of Hindu origin, originally from the eastern parts of India and Bangladesh. However ,there is a long history of inclusion and families of all faiths and beliefs have always been welcome to be part of the festival in any capacity that they can.

And families across Athlone contributed generously to the raffle, along with some important businesses who kindly sponsored the prizes - River View Bistro, Spice India, Nearby and Hera Foods. With this help, Bandhan was able to sell 483 raffle tickets and raise €700 for the school over just two days.

Bandhan members met the Principal Pia Hughes and other representatives from St. Hilda's Special School after donating the proceeds on October 8, reiterating Bandhan's commitment to help in any way in the future and gratefulness for the work that the school is doing.