Children celebrating the 11th anniversary of the DARE home in Varanasi. recent photo. | L. Terrasa

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Parish priest, Antoni Dols is hosting a benefit concert at Santa Eulàlia Music Chapel in Palma, this Saturday at 21:00.

All proceeds from the Capella de Música Santa Eulàlia concert will go to DARE, which is a home for girls in northern India that has the support of the NGO, Amics de la Infància in Mallorca who finance a literacy and food programme.

The project began when a local priest and a few close friends started interacting with the children at Varanasi railway station. A trust was registered on January 30, 2010 and the DARE Home opened in a house loaned to the charity by the Bishop of the diocese of Varanasi, the Very Reverend Raphy Manjali. In 2017 DARE moved to new premises at Mawaiya, Sarnath, Varanasi.

“DARE is a non-profit registered trust thatrescues children found on trains and at railway stations in Varanasi in India,” states the website. “We provide temporary shelter, education, vocational training, family counselling, foster care and legal aid so that they can live a better, more dignified life.

DARE has rescued hundreds of children who beg, steal, shine shoes and sell water or tobacco at railway stations all over India in a bid to survive and are now also at high risk of contracting Covid-19, which has killed hundreds of thousands of people nationwide.

The concert at Santa Eulàla Music Chapel will feature organist, Bartomeu Veny, violinist, Aina Lilia Domínguez, pianist, Carmina Ripoll, tenors Luis Aleñar and Aitor Palmer and soprano María Caballero.

Violinist Aina Lilia Domínguez will perform Meditation of Thais, and organist Bartomeu Veny will play Bach's Tocata and Fugue in D minor. The concert programme also includes Gregorian chants, hits by Whitacre and Barbra Streisand and Schubert's Ave Maria.

Tickets cost 10 euros.

Members of La Capella de Música Santa Eulàlia with Director Gloria Berón.