Coronavirus: East Bengal fan forum contributes to fight against Covid-19

East Bengal the Real Power (EBRP), a fan forum of Indian football giants East Bengal club, has pledged to keep the torch blazing in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.

It has been more than two months since the world started reeling against the onslaught of the deadly coronavirus and India announced full lockdown from 3rd week of March 2020.

The current week is the fourth week in running that we all have spent in lockdown based on the medical professionals’ advice. Not only the factories and stores, the buses and trains, the movie theaters - there has been a complete shutdown of sports activities worldwide as well. The European football powerhouses - Italy, Spain, Germany, France have been among the worst-hit countries with some of the highest death tolls.

There has been a significant impact of this in India as well. Like everywhere else, India has been put under complete lockdown to prevent the pandemic from spreading. For a developing nation like India where a large percentage of the workforce are daily wage laborers, the lockdown while attempting to ensure physical well-being has far reaching economic impacts.

The central and state governments are trying to play their part to ensure the populace stays healthy and there have been welfare funds set up from both ends for this purpose.

EBRP, throughout its existence, have never kept itself limited just to the definition of a Football fan forum. They have always involved themselves in social welfare and relief activities wherever applicable. In this situation as well, they stepped up to collect funds to donate to the Prime Minister's Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM CARES Fund) and West Bengal State Emergency Relief Fund. In just 4 days i.e. 96 hours, the fan forum was able to collect Rs 71,971 for this purpose.

But this is not where they stop; they have stretched ourselves even further. They have taken on the responsibility of helping out 100 lower-income families residing in Halishahar (an outskirt of Kolkata, India), by providing them food, masks and sanitizers. They have already started collecting additional funds for this purpose - and they are confident that theyall, working as a team as always, will win this “match” as well.

There is always light at the end of a tunnel, always daylight at the end of a dark night. In a while from now, THIS TOO SHALL PASS and things will be all right and normal as usual - and this will just feel like a bad dream. But even in these dark times, EBRP will shine through with the club’s blazing torch in hand and will help our whoever is in need.

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