Covid-19 Food Support

The first wave of Covid-19 in 2020 put people at risk of hunger apart from health and threat to live and livelihoods. The World Food Programme estimated the pandemic to see more than a quarter billion people suffering from acute hunger by the end of the year.

Strained food supplies hit the homeless and those who live in destitution. With daily life put to a halt in the lockdown and eateries and restaurants shut down, street dwellers had a hard time to cope with the crises of hunger. The city of Guwahati was not an exception to this. The otherwise everyday destitute population were the only ones largely visible in the city limits during the one-of-a-kind lockdown that enforced the closure of workplaces, educational institutions, business establishments with temporary restrictions on travels and social meetings. This gray population is ideally challenged with access to nutritious food and suffer from malnutrition on account of abject poverty. The pandemic only lowered their possibility to find food and water. The threat and fear of contracting coronavirus has shut one and all in the comfort of their homes.

Understanding the importance of putting relief directly into the hands of the vulnerable DCI undertook a mapping of destitute population and found them scattered in the nooks and corners of the city. The lockdown seemed not to have hampered their street dwelling habit and the risk of contracting the virus. With permission from police authorities to extend emergency service, packaged food and bottled mineral water were distributed to more than hundred (115) destitute people and those who live by scavenging. This intervention became successful with authorities facilitating the movement of emergency workers.

Funds for Covid-19 Food Support was a crowdsourced and led by Afreed Islam and a dynamic batch of daring young volunteers.