Guided by the principle of ‘Annadaan Mahadaan’, Helping Hands, a conglomerate of 20 NGOs in the city functioning under the aegis of Jain Samaj, are going around in Vijaywada to feed migrant workers and street dwellers.
Nilesh Jain, a member of the Samaj, explains that he and his fellow volunteers were worried about the pitiful situation of the homeless poor and migrant workers when the 21-day lockdown was announced on March 24. “So far, around 40,000 packets of food, cooked in our own kitchens under hygienic conditions, have been distributed to street dwellers and migrant workers. Since March 23, we have been covering 65 areas and 15 shelter homes arranged by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) and at Mangalagiri of Guntur district,” he says.
Students, municipal workers, stranded passengers and inmates of ashrams are also being provided food for which the bills go anywhere from ` 50,000 to `60,000. Donations from philanthropists help the mission and Helping Hands is committed to continue the programme till the end of the lockdown, Nilesh explains.
Social distancing is maintained while food is served to the people. “Every day, we make it a point to remind the people the need for maintaining social distance and insist they follow it while receiving the food,” Nilesh says.
Another volunteer Praveen Jain explains food items are not repeated daily keeping in mind the palate of the people. “We are providing upma, tomato rice, sambar rice, curd rice, lemon rice, biscuits, buttermilk, and water packets.’’ The VMC and other departments are helping them in the distribution of food to the needy people without any restriction.P Siva Narayana, a mechanic at Auto Nagar, is grateful that the NGOs are feeding the helpless in troubled times.