COVID 19 Response by Asha Kiran Foundation
Asha Kiran Foundation has been registered under Indian Trust Act,1882 and working for the welfare of the most vulnerable marginal communities and also in the area of Sustainable Development in the State of Odisha since last more than one decade.
The Prime Minister of India declared a 21 day country wide lockdown for the first time to break the chain of transmission of the novel corona virus pandemic. Later on it has been extended in different phases. The sudden lockdown has affected the most to daily wage earning labour class, the homeless, the beggars, slum dwellers, and people from low income groups, elderly senior citizens who are living alone. The people were struggling to get food, the basic necessities of life for survival.
At this critical juncture Asha Kiran Foundation (AKF) with a committed team of volunteers decided to step in to action by creation of Awareness Programme along with Relief Work in different phases of lockdown. The implementation strategy of Asha Kiran Foundation also changed in different phases of lockdown to cater to the needs of the vulnerable communities.
Asha Kiran Foundation(AKF) distributed Relief Kit of dry food stuffs ( which consists of 12.5 kg of Rice,2kg of Pulses,3kg of Potato, 2kg of Onion, 6 packets of spices, 2 packets of Biscuits, 2 kg of flattened Rice(Chuda), 1 kg of sugar, and also non food stuff like 1 bottle of sanitizer, 2 no of soap cakes for hand wash and 4 no of masks to cover the face) to 2492 poor and needy beneficiary families spread over in different places under Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and in and around Bhubaneswar with focus on poor tribal people and migrant labour.
The areas includes ( Swarna pally, Adibasi sahi, Tyre Chhak, Saliasahi slum, Sikharchandi (near Masjid), Bajpayee Nagar, Shakti Vihar near Ekamra Park, Rental Colony, Polytechnic College, Kalinga Vihar,Khandagiri, SUM hospital, Mundasahi, Phiriknali, Bhalunka, AmbaPadia, Baramana, Chudanga, Prasanti Vihar, Nilamadhab basti, Jena Sahi, Hati Gadhiba, Pithara Gadia, Tulsadeipur, Godibari, Bhola, Chandaka, Uparsahi, kandulei, Taalabai, Krishna Nagar, Kantabada, Baurisahi. In brief, 2492 poor and needy families were served by way of providing dry food stuffs.
While distributing dry food stuffs the volunteers of Asha Kiran Foundation noticed the helplessness of lonely senior citizens, beggars, homeless people who have nobody to look after them or to cook for them. There after the felt need concretized in to immediate action of providing cooked food to the vulnerable group in order to save them from hunger and starvation.
Four Feeding Centers were opened at various places of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. The Swarnapally Center at Jaydev Vihar was opened on 10/04/2020 and 400 meals per day was served consecutively for 54 days and Sikharchandi Centre (Near RTO-II) was also opened on the same day i.e., 10/04/2020 which was also serving 400 cooked meals for 55 days. The third Centre nearby Loyola School was opened on14/04/2020 and feeding 400 people per day for 50 days and Mundasahi Centre was opened on 15/04/2020 and feeding 200 people for 35 days. In short the four Feeding Centers provided 70,600 cooked meals in 55 days, in an average of 400 meals per day except Mundasahi .The no of beneficiaries in Mundasahi were almost 200 per day for 35 days.
The standard vegetarian menu/diet includes boiled rice, dalma (pulses, all eatable green vegetables, spices all mix together-vegetable includes plantain, turnip, pumpkin, sweet potato, snake gourd, yam, sweet potato, bringle, ladies finger, radish, pea, gourd, capsicum, arum, beans, parbal. calliflower, potato, coriander leaf, onion, spinach, etc.) and Tomato Chaney/Pickle and 3 days non vegetarian items (which includes egg, chicken and prawn) respectively were served during lunch hour.
The Volunteers home delivered food to the elderly single persons and pregnant mothers those who were unable to come and stand in the “Q” for food in the heat of scorching sun. The simple wholesome food was appreciated by all categories of beneficiaries irrespective of the age group.
Helping the migrant laborers who are returning to their homes by different mode of communication.
We had also distributed cooked food packets, bread and biscuits, water bottle to migrant laborers who are returning to their homes by different mode of communication (cycle, bike, truck and bus) also provide them pain relief ointment Volino. We had distributed in National Highways (NH – 5) and locations are Crown Hotel stop, Rasulgarh stop and Phulanakhara . These activities continued from 18 th May 2020 to 30 th May 2020. We have distributed 300 food packets, 150 bread packet, 500 biscuit packets and 500 water bottles in an average every day. Other than food and water we also provided 400 Volin spray for pain relief during this time to make the journey comfortable.
The Relief activities of Asha Kiran Foundation published in Print, Electronic as well as Social Media. The Relief activities were coordinated and supervised by Shri Pratap Kumar Pradhan, Secretary and Asha Kiran Foundation with a team of dedicated members, Staff and committed Volunteers. Our Committed Volunteers like Ch Murali, Jugal Kishore Nayak, Balabhadra Digal, Prakash Digal, Basanta Digal, Anil Nayak and many volunteers helped in weighing, packing ,transporting and coordinating the distribution and finally handing over to the right person was not an easy task and without their help it would not have been possible to take up this massive relief work.
We are thankful to our donors namely
Dr. Mehul Khetri Shivaji Ganesh Gouda Katharine Richardson Er. Sasmita Behera Smt Archana Redy Arun Patri Smt. Sovna & Rakesh Bhai Bijaya Suryasnata Tripathy Sourav Shilpa Behera Soumya Ranjan Mohanty Leela Dulali Soren Sitesh Parida Anurag Sarangi Devi Prasad Roul B B Mohanty (Dubai) Bramha Madam Sishir Mohapatra (Singapore) Ambu (Singapore) Pritish Sahu (USA) Er. Jamuna Behera Babli Madam Ashish Palai Surekha Dikshit Surendra Gopi R M Patra Suchismita Pahi Ajit Praharaj Stutee Routray Swikruti Suprava Niraj Kumar Prabhupada Rout Ankit Kumar Mr. Arupanan Rajesh P Nair Khusi / Manoj Ku Maharana Yasobanta R Patnaik Subharansu Kumar Jasmine Ara Khan Miss. Shweta Smt Sabita Das Abhijeet Chaudhury Bikram Kumar Haresh Shamdasani Foundation Jayanti Sidhu Mr. Jagatjit Roy Rozalini Patnaik Mrs Sarita Behera / Mr Sujit Behera Smruti Ranjan Mr. M N G Srinivas (Dubai) Dr. Pabitra Mishra Dr. Santosh Behera B C Tola
whose contribution varies from Rs 500 to Rs 5000 and also to our young energetic volunteers for their selfless service who have contributed substantial amount of their time in planning, executing the work at ground zero level to make the relief work a great success.