When lockdown began we started raising money, expecting that it would be a short term. Here’s an account from Ganesh Pandey who orchestrated the first few distributions in Kathmandu in April 2020:
CHARITY FOOD DISTRIBUTION DURING LOCKDOWN CRISIS
After continuous 11 days lock down in all Nepal to avoid the possible spreading of COVID-19, the general people life has been affected in many ways.
The working class family who lives with fewer wages even at the regular days is the most affected group of people. They are going through such a financial situation that they can hardly manage onetime meal in a day.
Being deprived of food is as much of matter of life and death for them as the corona virus is for the all humans. Hunger and poverty now has become another terrifying affect of corona virus here.
We went to do a survey to find out the very poor family living in Boudha-6, Patitar,Kathamandu and with no surprises what we saw was very heart breaking. We came across a blind widower who has been left hungry for past 3 days. We found a labor man who used to work in construction sites very sorry for his family that he is not being able to work anymore. A 35 years old single mother of 2 kids was expressing her grief about the financial crisis caused by the pandemics. Well, there were a lot of families appealing for help and support. Among all, we shortlisted some of the very needy family and promised them to provide some food supplies. It was definitely hard for us to make this selection but we also had to consider our budget.
On Monday, 6th April we conducted the charity food distribution program giving people all the important essentials. For this we needed the permission of local Municipality .We did get the permission and the honored municipality member himself showed up at the program, which we appreciated as a very fine gesture of government support.
All the particular items donated are as followed:
- 15 KG Rice
- 2 KG Lentil
- 400 gm Soyabean
- 1 Litre cooking oil
- 1 packet Salt (1 KG)
- 1 KG Beaten Rice
- 3 KG Potato
- 2 KG Peas
- 2 Hand Washing Soap Bar
With all the volunteers help we quickly managed to prepare the package and have it stand by for the needy people. One after another all the invited people came to receive the donations. We could see the big smile on the their face and some women were in tears as they felt very overwhelmed about the help. While the food package distribution was going on there were lot of people who were not in the list asking for help. We felt very sorry for them but we collected their contact and promise them that we will inform about next charity program and help them for sure.
We noted down the information about their family situation and number of family members. The information has to be passed to the local administration as well so the donation receivers wont have their name repeated again on the next similar event. Instead new deserving needy people will get it.
Here is the name of the donation receiver and their details.
Yet we have lot of things to do and a lot of people to help. We are working hard to find out the way to collect resources and funds as best as possible. There are a lot of other people who desperately need help and food at this emergency time.
We would like to express our gratitude to our Honorable Jayram Pudaisaini, the member of Gokarneswor Municipaity for his presence and official approval .
We would like to heartily thanks to all the generous people for their doanation, without you all this event would not have been possible.
We appreciate all the volunteers and shopping stores for making this happen.
The whole funding was collected by Ms. Sophie Claire Maliphant from the UK. She has been helping Nepal in many ways with the best way possible. She has her online Charity page named as THE COUNTRY THAT SHOOK. She has been helping NEPAL with monetary and innovative supports.
We hope to see your amazing support in any way it is possible.
TOGETHER WE CAN!!
Thank you,
GANESH PANDEY