East Central Illinois Bengali Association (ECIBA) was established to maintain and flourish Bengali vis-à-vis Indian culture & traditions in the Urbana-Champaign area in Illinois (2 hrs south of Chicago). It has been working towards that for several decades now. As part of that, every year, ECIBA hosts many activities like Saraswati Puja and Durga Puja to foster Bengali & Indian culture in this foreign land. Sarodiya Dugostsav is our flagship event in autumn. Durga puja is considered the signature event of the Bengali community worldwide, as this event allows us to bring together many people, irrespective of their origin, and meet on one platform. Together, we enjoy our native culture with great vigor. We have been successfully celebrating this auspicious festival for many years now.

Currently, our Durga Pratima is a traditional Ek-Chala model. We plan to bring a five-chala model in which all idols are stand-alone. This will simplify storage and transportation logistics for us. We also see similar pratima outlooks and thought processes in other puja communities in the US.

We request that you support us in this endeavor with a donation.