We were thrilled last month to receive a generous grant from GlobalGiving's Disaster Relief fund to support our emergency relief activities. We were able to purchase and distribute a month’s worth of rice and groceries to 506 families in Trichy and to send funds to our partners to purchase and distribute rations for 494 families further afield.
The residents of VOICE Trust’s Friendship Home for parentless and at-risk children received, assembled and packed the relief rations in cloth bags printed with the names of supporting organizations, for distribution as follows:
* Groceries for 75 families of to tribals and the landless labourers were distributed by Shine TREEchy
* Groceries for 100 refugee families and household afflicted by HIV/AIDS were distributed by Manitham Organization
* VOICE Trust staff and volunteers distributed rations to:
We also transferred fund to our partners to distribute relief goods as follows:
Distribution activities were accompanied by an explanation of safety measures needed to control the COVID virus, and all beneficiaries promised to wear masks, use hand sanitizers and keep their home surroundings clean.
LOOKING FORWARD
The need continues to be great, since the COVID Lockdown, though loosening, continues to deprive thousands of their regular income.
While we continue to need support for emergency rations, we are also in need of funding for long-term economic recovery to help us provide:
We are deeply grateful for GlobalGiving’s support, without which starvation or suicide would likely have claimed many lives and many more would have been anguished by hunger and despair. With their help, we provided 900 families with confidence and hope, freed from fear as to where their next meal would come from.
But this is just the start of a long and difficult struggle to provide for the resource poor of Tamil Nadu and to help them start earning an income again.
With your help, we will get through this!
With gratitude for your past support,
Janet Preethi
Links:
As the lockdown enters its third month, and the number of infections continue to rise, we have been relentless in our efforts to make sure that no one is left hungry and that rations reach far and wide.
Boise Tamil Sangam and VOICE Trust decided to work together on plans to assist 300 marginal and tribal families in 15 villages of Manachanallur Block of Trichy. BOISE Tamil Sangam is an alliance of Tamilians who have settled in the USA. We were blessed to receive a generous grant from them and we immediately mobilized our volunteers to organize the distribution.
Our field volunteers put together a package containing 5 kilos of rice, 1 kilo wheat, 1 kilo red gram, 100 grams each of condiments, 1 litre oil, soap, sanitary napkin, salt, 1 kilo sugar, and 100 grams of tea powder, which they distributed to each family of what ended up being 352 families.
Earlier this month, we distributed biscuits donated by a local bakery to many homeless individuals and hot lunches to manual workers, day wage earners, and street vendors, all of whom otherwise would have little to eat that day. We have plans to keep repeating the distribution cycle to all the beneficiaries as often as we are able.
All through the distribution activity, police protection was arranged to avoid overcrowding and ensure the safety of beneficiaries as well as our volunteers. Social distancing was strictly followed by issuing tokens to beneficiaries. Only 10 people were called at a time to queue up for rations. The volunteers donned masks and gloves and used disinfectants to protect themselves and everyone around them.
I think you can proud of the work you helped fund, and of our selfless volunteers.
As always, thanks for your past support and for any future help you can offer.
Stay well -- stay safe -- stay home!
Janet Preethi
Links:
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
