New Delhi: Ngayawon Shimray from Nagaland has been promoting re-use of old clothing for a long time. So when it came to her own wedding dress, she decided to donate the expensive outfit to someone who needed it.
This led her to an initiative called the ‘Happily Ever After Campaign’ that involved renting out wedding gowns donated by people in order to raise money for a children’s home in Imphal, Manipur.
“I bought my wedding gown from Dimapur and the cost was of course high, and that made me think — Why waste a beautiful gown which I wore only once and keep it hidden in a cupboard afterwards? I’d rather donate and share with someone who needs it,” Shimray told The Morung Express.
So far, five wedding gowns have been donated by people from Nagaland and Delhi. These will be given to the children’s home that will manage its upkeep and rent it out at minimal rates. The money generated will be used for the children’s education.
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3 women bikers on tour of Northeastern states
Three women bikers — Nirmali Nath from Assam, Onen Nenty from Nagaland and Rosalynn Lushai from Mizoram — are on a tour across seven states of the Northeast to “break stereotypes” and “redefine” the region.
The tour was flagged off from Kaziranga National Park on 3 April. The riders will travel across Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
Nenty was quoted as saying that the tour was initially planned with an aim to see how the Northeastern states looked like after the Covid-19 pandemic hit people. This, she said, was also the reason why they used the term “redefining Northeast” as a theme for their tour.
“As women, we want to see changes in society, for the women folk across the world … the three of us are here to break the shackles in the minds of women from our region and we want to tell them that the kitchen is not the only place where a woman belongs,” she added.
Only 20% of 50,000 fauna species discovered in Meghalaya
Meghalaya chief wildlife warden, H.C. Chaudhury said that only one-fifth of fauna species have been discovered in the state so far.
“Only 10,000 of the estimated 50,000 fauna species in Meghalaya have been discovered so far,” he said while speaking at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) recently.
He also said that the Meghalaya Forest and Environment Department was working closely with the ZSI for creation of a GIS-based database of fauna species.
According to data published in a book titled ‘Faunal Diversity of Biogeographic Zones of India: North East’, a total of 18,527 fauna species have been discovered in the Northeast so far, which represents 18 per cent of the total known fauna of India.
Guriya Khatun wins 1st medal for Assam in national women’s bodybuilding
In a first for Assam, a woman body builder has won a medal in a national championship held earlier this week. Guriya Khatun won the bronze medal in the Federation Cup National Women Sports Model Physique held in Lucknow. She competed in the above-162cm category.
This was the 10th Federation Cup National Body Building Championships, hosted by the Uttar Pradesh Body Building Association.
Fitness guru Chetan Pathare, Arjuna awardee Premchand Dogra, Hiral Shah (first woman secretary, Indian Women’s Bodybuilding Federation) and Arvind Madho (president, Body Building Federation of India) were also present in the event.
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