COVID-19 Crisis Response
We have seen the toughest time with the outbreak of COVID-19. The whole world gets locked down, the economy dipped severely and the ones that get most impacted are the migrant laborers in metropolitan cities. These are the people who didn't get benefits from government schemes because of the lack of documents, they have lost their jobs and have no savings to survive. We tried to take responsibilities of such groups and responded to COVID-19 with below projects:
Ration Distribution :
Though the Delhi government has started the e-coupon ration scheme for non-ration cardholders, the need for ration was significantly high. The waiting period for ration goes up to 6 weeks. The government had planned the scheme for 10 lac people initially and around 34+ lac people have applied for it in the very first week.
With everything under lockdown, all our classes have stopped but we were still in touch with people from slums we cater. We started getting distressed calls from these slums for the need for ration. Thankfully with the help of our volunteers and donors, we were able to arrange ration for 20 families. Soon we started getting more distressed calls, and we also actively started looking to connect more helping hands. We connected to a lot of people many individuals, social workers, nonprofit organizations, and local authorities. With their help and support, we were able to support around 600+ families (3000+ family members). Around 70 families are from Shankar Garden, 500 families from Gandhi Nagar and 30 families are from different locations.
Migration :
Post announcement of lockdown 3.0 people have tired mentally. It's been very tough for even those people having financial stability, staying with their family in a luxurious house, We can imagine how tough it would have been for people living in chawls away from family with no job and growing debts. Most of them have broken mentally and eagerly wanted to go their native. Landlords have started asking for rent or vacate. People have started walking down barefooted to their native in extreme summer. The government was forced to open the transit facility but the problem was number. There is a huge number of such people thrown out of the house, with no idea when their turn will come. We helped those people by arranging buses and train tickets with the help of local authorities. We served around 500 people to reach their homes.
Mask Distribution :
Masks are one of the most essential protective gear against coronavirus. Though the government had issued multiple notifications for religiously using the mask some people were ignoring it. We decided to create awareness and started mask distribution campaign in Bareja gaon, Katihar, Bihar. These are 3 layered filter cloth masks made locally by a girl of the same village. While mask distribution we communicated with each of them convincing for use of mask and other protective measures.
Awareness Campaign :
The government has launched various programs for the welfare of poor people in pandemic like e-coupon scheme, compensation to labor cardholders, PSV badge holders, etc. To make this reach to the maximum people ran multiple awareness campaigns. We started telling people about these government schemes, what are the eligibility criteria, and how they can apply for it. We created multiple posters and videos in Hindi to help people fill in forms for these schemes. We even started a helpline service for filling the forms of those people who cannot fill their form themselves even with the help of videos. Our volunteers have researched about all the programs efficiently and floated the content to help maximum people