CHANDIGARH/DEHRADUN: At a time when the coronavirus has forced people indoors, good Samaritans in various states are coming to lend a helping the hand to the poor, who have been rendered jobless, with food and protection against the disease.
A Sikh Charity ‘Khalsa Aid’ is providing hygiene kits to the poor and needy in Punjab, while Kanhaiya Khewariya of Haridwar and Mahendra Adhikari of Haldwani are making arrangements to feed daily wage labourers and the shelterless.
Amarpreet Singh, director (Asia-Pacific) of Khalsa Aid, said, “We felt there is a great need to take hygiene to the poor. Our teams prepared hygiene kits consisting of alcohol-based sanitizers, two soap bars, three to four masks with dos and dont’s literature to be given to the poor. Some 20,000 kits have been distributed in Jalandhar, Batala, Patiala, Barnala, Amritsar and Bhatinda.”
Khalsa Aid teams are visiting the slums, labourers clusters and explaining how to beat the virus.
They are planning to deliver another 50,000 kits to the poor, besides full-body gears to doctors, nurses and para-medical personnel who are working at the frontline. “Some 2,000 full-body suits have been delivered,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, Haridwar-based . businessman Khewariya has started a full-time kitchen to feed at least 1,000 poor in Dehradun. “I will do this for 21 days as the poor are hungry,” he said. Khewariya is adding to the government support systems in 13 districts to feed the poor. In Haldwani, Mahendra Adhikari is distributing pulses, rice, flour and vegetables among the poor. “Many just cannot afford it. They don’t have the money,” said the businessman.