Kolkata’s Dawoodi Bohra community has significantly ramped up its efforts in environmental and social welfare through a series of focused initiatives under its global philanthropic endeavor, Project Rise. These community-led drives aim to address critical urban challenges, including environmental decline, malnutrition, and general vulnerability.
Focus on the Environment and Wildlife
One of the most notable contributions is the extensive “Save Our Sparrows” campaign, an initiative by the Burhani Foundation. The Kolkata chapter has installed over 5,300 bird feeders and nests at prominent city landmarks, including Fort William (Vijay Durg), the Botanical Gardens, Eden Gardens, Science City, and Banobithan (Central Park). This effort is a direct response to the alarming decline in the local sparrow population, seeking to improve urban habitats and raise public awareness.
Beyond bird feeding, community volunteers have also engaged in large-scale tree plantations across Kolkata and adjoining districts, alongside regular cleanliness drives to improve public spaces.
Social Upliftment and Relief
In tandem with their environmental goals, the community is actively working on social support programs. Volunteers have organized extensive food and clothing distribution initiatives to provide assistance to vulnerable groups in the city.
The entire project is inspired by the guidance of His Holiness Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin, promoting the idea that complex global issues like climate change and poverty require collective, on-ground action. As one project volunteer stated, acts like “Feeding a bird, planting a sapling, offering a meal,” are steps toward building a culture of care and creating more resilient and inclusive societies.
Project Rise, established in 2018, is the Dawoodi Bohra community’s global initiative spanning multiple focus areas, including healthcare, nutrition, water security, women’s empowerment, and environmental responsibility.
