Daan Utsav, a festival of ‘Joy of Giving’ for a week kick-started here on Friday and would continue till October 8.
A series of activities involving students and others would be undertaken during the seven days, said orginisers.
Programmes like “A night under stars” to provide support to homeless people, “Unfolding potential” to unfold potential of weaker students by the Mindoctors, “Jagnath Darshan” by Auto Mahasangha for poor handicap people, and “A day of service” in orphanages, slums and old-age homes by the Bakul Fondation” would be organised.
This year, over 50,000 Scouts and Guides volunteers would be involved in events like Daan Booths and Smile letters. “We are going to put multiple Daan Booths in schools of two cities, Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. We are sending more than 5,000 ‘Thank You’ letters to the ITBP (Indo- Tibetan Border Police force),” said organisers.
They said students of educational institutes like the Utkal University, Silicon University and the KIIT University would undertake different kind of activities during the Daan Utsav.
Besides, many NGOs and corporate houses would also undertake blood donation and tree plantation drives to mark the utsav.