'Helping Hands' Plans to Make Unique Organic Products of Northeast to Benefit Traditional Artisans

OUR CORRESPONDENT

ITANAGAR: Voluntary organization Helping Hands, which has drawn the attention of Facebook, plans to make unique organic products of North-East India money-spinner to benefit traditional artisans of the region.

Helping Hands president Robin Hibu, while chairing a virtual review meeting till late Sunday night, disclosed that the Delhi government under Swaccha Bharat Abhiyan has decided to replace all plastic is used by eco-friendly items as a model for the country for which, he has been appointed the nodal officer.

"I told a high-level meeting recently that the NE region is very well known for its handicraft items made up of bamboo and cane, besides masks, jewellery, wood carvings and textiles, which are interwoven into the culture and tradition of the people. But the artisans are yet to benefit from poor quality of the products and lack of any organized marketing platform," Hibu said.

One could imagine about huge requirements of banana leaf-made plates and bowls and bamboo spoons, for example, by Delhi's hotels and restaurants only, he reasoned.

Most of the professionals appreciated the move when senior journalist Pradeep Kumar cited the example of Arunachal Pradesh's Ziro-based entrepreneur who had started exporting orchids to foreign countries but failed due to wanting of central and state government policies.

But, Darjeeling-based entrepreneur Satya Pradhan gave a PowerPoint presentation of an IT marketing platform, offering scopes for a direct link between buyers and sellers for marketing their products without any middlemen and easy payment mode.

Appreciating Pradhan for developing such a multi-faceted software, Hibu asked IT honchos Gaurav Raj Thakur of Guwahati and Rajiv Vats of Delhi to collaborate with Pradhan and develop a user-friendly and attractive digital platform incorporating physical and digital display of products with a virtual tour of production sites at the earliest.

Announcing the expansion of Helping Hands, Hibu said its first state unit would be set up in Nagaland with noted social worker Dr Andrew Ahoto as president for which memorandum of understanding has already been signed but the unit would be launched formally at Dimapur soon after the Covid-19 gets checked.

Terming Helping Hands as a platform that has carved a niche by working for the cause of humanity, Dr Ahoto said that he was lucky to get the chance to be part of the NGO which has been linking good Samaritans and soon turn into a unique national platform.

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