Beard lovers’ group plans charity events as it turns one

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Beard Society (KBS) – an exclusive group of beard lover men in the age of 21 and above – will celebrate their first anniversary here on Friday at Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan.
In connection with the celebration, the collective will organize charity events, including blood donation camp and provide food bystanders at Regional Cancer Centre and honour various social activists in the city etc.

The group was started as a Facebook page with an aim to change the misconceptions surrounding long unkempt facial hair. Now, it has around 400 active members, including those from other states and expatriates.

“It was in July 2017 that we formed a group of people who are proud of their beards, on Facebook. Eventually many people started making fun of us, sending abusive messages; posting nasty comments as if we were terrorists and drug addicts. In order to change this misconception, we established KBS as registered charitable organisation,” says Shefer Affians, president of KBS.

The members include doctors, engineers, lawyers and others from all walks of life, and it’s not just sporting a beard that has brought them together. They are bound together by social commitments too.

“Recently, our members visited Ambedkar Orphanage, Varkala, to do our bit for the kids there. The number of members is increasing day by day. Anyone above 21 can join our organisation buy paying Rs 500 as membership fee; one major condition put forth by the collective is the members should not use drugs,” said Sachu, member of KBS.

Social activist Azeez, member of Lions Club, Aswathy Jwala, Latha (Mythri Cancer Care Cociety), Deepa Anantha Padmanabhan (president of Save a Rupee Spread a Smile) and others will be honoured at a function to be held in the state capital.