BTS: Ahead of Jimin’s birthday, Indian fans raise ₹1.65 lakh-fund for a cause in his, RM, Jungkook’s honour

In less than two days, BTS member Jimin will celebrate his 26th birthday (international age, he will turn 27 according to Korean culture). Ahead of his birthday, the Indian BTS fan group, Bangtan India, raised over ₹1.5 lakh fund to donate towards a cause. The group recently hosted a fundraiser, called Project Mi Casa, in honour of Jimin, RM and Jungkook’s birthdays. 

Jungkook celebrated his birthday on September 1 whereas RM turned a year older on September 12. Jimin’s birthday is on October 13. The funds will be donated to Habitat for Humanity India, a non-profit organisation that provides affordable shelter, sanitation and housing facilities for those in need. 

Speaking with Hindustan Times, the Bangtan India team said, “We donate to a cause for members’ birthdays every year. It has become a tradition for us. We try to support new causes each time and also try to pick causes that resonate with us based on what we see happening around us or what we think would be a good project to pick up. This time, owing to us hearing about so many disasters happening around us for a long time now and so many families getting displaced in the process, the cause that Habitat for Humanity serves really resonated with us, and hence that was the NGO we decided to support for this project.” 

When the fundraiser was launched, the group was hoping to raise ₹80,000. However, they raised twice the expected amount. “Every time we host a donation project, we are overwhelmed by the response people show. While we can never expect the kind of love that is shown for every consecutive project, we are really confident about ARMYs and we know that people always come forward to help noble causes. We closed the project on 10th October, and ₹1.65 lakh has been raised for the cause,” the team said. 

While fundraising has been one of the mediums through which fan groups celebrate BTS members’ birthdays, this year, BTS fans in India were pleased to see that billboards were dedicated to Jungkook on his birthday. Billboards were rented in a few cities and posters of the singer were erected. 

Also read: BTS: Indian ARMY celebrates Jungkook’s birthday by covering bus stands in Mumbai with singer’s pics, see here

“We knew that something like this would happen sometime for BTS in India, but we had not anticipated it at this time. We were quite surprised to hear of it, and a lot of followers did visit the Billboards wherever they were put up (not just in Mumbai) and sent us pictures,” Bangtan India said, speaking of the phenomenon.