Project 72 Hours, a voluntary organisation famous for their life-size murals and caricatures all over the state, has beautified Lower PWD colony, Kohima, Tuesday, with a mural of young kids in Naga traditional attires to spread the message, “Be The Reason Someone Smiles Today”.
The group comprising of young men and women from Kohima, pledges 72 hours of their time to work for the community annually and that is where the namesake of the group is derived from.
Apart from painting murals on walls at strategic locations, the group also conducts cleanliness drives, remove posters pasted on public properties, organise cleanliness seminars and put up signages for public awareness on various issues.
Project 72 hrs was formed in the year 2015 and over the years, the group has earned itself a reputation for painting more than 20 realistic traditional and theme based mega murals in almost all the districts of Nagaland.
They take up projects mostly upon invitations from the concerned civil society organisations and departmental campaigns based on community wellbeing.
The group also takes up city beautification projects in collaboration with department of Art and Culture, Tourism, Government of Nagaland and other like-minded NGOs.
There are currently eight active members who engage in regular community services ensuring that they devote at-least 72 hours to serve the community in a year.
Lower PWD Youth president-Kevimese Mere while thanking the group on behalf of the colony for putting in their effort, sacrificing their time and braving the winter wind to beautify the city, said he was greatly encouraged by their dedication.
He said being a concerned citizen himself, he had been closely following the group’s various projects all over the state and that he was very appreciative of how a bunch of young men had devoted so much time into community service without any hopes for repayment from any corner.
He added that if youths from all the parts of the state could come up with such initiatives, it would change the face of “our” state.
Waden Pongener, a member of the group, thanked the colony for allowing the group to close the year 2020 with this project since they could not take up other major projects owing to the Covid-19 lockdown.
He also thanked the youths for extending a warm hospitality towards the group by providing warm refreshments to the members until the project was completed.
The group would be taking up their next project in Tuensang which would be the kick off for year 2021.