By Vaishnavi Srinivasan | Executive Director
According to news18, the government's helpline for children (1098) received 4.6 lakh calls during the first phase of the nationwide lockdown, 30% of which required COVID-19 related interventions,were simply pleas for food. A report published by the Medical Education and Drugs Department (MEDD) on 12th May states that 770 kids below the age of 10 have the coronavirus.
India, with a population of 1.3 billion people, faces the highest percentage of undernourishment and food insecurity. COVID-19 may just add on to the woes by putting both lives and livelihoods at risk.
With the vulnerable communities at large in India, the lockdown has led to children being bereft of grocery support, making them the silent victims of the pandemic. While the Government relief is making a difference amongst many low-income families and in mitigating the pandemic, it is important to practice solidarity, either through volunteering or by demonstrating other ways to combat the pandemic universally.
Hence, there is a pressing need to support children at shelter homes with necessary groceries and medicines to tackle and cope with the current situation, and help them build their immunity. Until July 25, 2020, Bhumi volunteers with support from donors like you have supported 6,193 children in 117 shelter homes across India with ~US$ 25,000 worth of groceries.
Bhumi is associated with around 200 orphanages, and the children in these orphanages are facing the brunt of this lockdown more than any of us. Mainly dependent on in-kind donations, these homes are now struggling to provide the basic three meals to the children living under their roof. Thus, Bhumi’s COVID project on grocery support to shelter homes aims to provide basic groceries such as rice, grains, pulses, vegetables, oil etc., along with medicines and toiletries such as soaps etc. to these homes. We have a strong team of volunteers who will call and assess the needs of these homes periodically.
Our strong volunteer network has come together to aid through the pandemic and has built a crisis effective model to ensure that the needs of these homes are being met and tracked periodically.
Methodology:
As Nelson Mandela once said “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats its children.”
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