South Korean boyband Bangtan Sonyeondan or BTS, as it is popularly known, has a fiercely loyal fanclub called ARMY (Adorable Representative MC for Youth), which plays an important role in organising events and is known for its sheer online strength.
An arm of the fanclub called ‘One in an ARMY Charity Project’, has been set up to work towards charitable causes. The group is currently collecting money to donate to a night school in India on the occasion of BTS leader Kim Namjoon or Rapmon’s birthday, as reported by News18. The initial target of the group is to raise around Rs 3 lakh.
The initiative - Barefoot College, aims to make education accessible in rural areas, for underprivileged children. The group hopes this would eventually reduce the total number of dropouts.
By helping set up the Digital Night School, the group hopes to bring some of those, who lost touch with the regular classes due to the Covid-19 pandemic, closer to it.
Barefoot College, whose reach spreads across 93 countries, is a voluntary organisation that was established in 1972, in Tilonia, Rajasthan.
The group gives lessons in reading, writing, and accounting to children and even adults.
The ‘One in an ARMY Charity Project’ has promoted the initiative through its Twitter account, which has over 148,000 followers.
The digital night school aims to provide students study material on their phone, along with trained teachers who would communicate digitally. It also aims to deliver printed worksheets delivered to the students' homes.
The fundraiser had reached 80 per cent of it’s goal of Rs 3,70,000 on September 8.