Groups engaged in relief work collaborate for greater impact

The images of stranded migrant labourers and low-income households in Bengaluru during the lockdown galvanised several NGOs in the city to band together under an umbrella organisation called the Mercy Mission. Most of them had their own database of settlements with low-income families and got to work from March 25.

The mission began its operation with a helpline and deployed 20 scooter-borne volunteers to provide relief immediately. Ever since the helpline went live, the phones at the mission office have not stopped ringing. Though the major objective was to reach hungry workers and their families, the NGOs also added medical assistance due to the increasing calls from home-bound senior citizens.

According to Ameen Mudassir, the person in-charge of distributing ration kits, the Mission received over 15,666 calls during the 65-day lockdown period and attended over 79% of them.

The Mercy Mission has reached over one lakh people in distress, with ration kits worth Rs 7.5 crore distributed in 300 localities of the city and over 250 small towns of the state.

That apart, thirteen kitchens were set up across the city; over four lakh packed meals were prepared and distributed through them. Impressed with the operational efficiency of the Mission, companies and organisations like iPac, Compass, IRS Officers Association, Atria Hotels, Nandana, Prestige Group and DIPR used its network to distribute over 12.3 lakh food packets prepared at their institutional kitchens.

Desperate times

Mehraj, a volunteer with the mission, has a tale that highlights the distress faced by people. Ayaz (35), a labourer, had set out to walk from Sakleshpur to his hometown Palamaner in Andhra Pradesh's Chittoor district in the first week of April. Having not eaten for three days, he had fainted and was found gasping for breath on a stone jelly pile on Museum Road in the city. On being woken up, he gulped down an entire bottle of water that was offered to him in one go. Mehraj, who was returning after delivering food packets, offered him some food from a eatery nearby and even arranged for his food and stay in the city.

Mariyamma (60) was surprised to find a Mission volunteer with a ration kit at her door step one morning. A photograph in a newspaper, of Mariyamma picking grains of wheat out of sand near a closed grocery store, had stirred a volunteer into action. The volunteer found her house with the help of the photographer, who had published the photo on her twitter account.

Around a thousand masons working at a site in Munekolala in Marathahalli had run out of their food supplies. The team reached out to them with around 900 ration kits and drew the attention of authorities to their plight, who in turn directed the contractor and the company employing them to fulfill their responsibility.

Considering the Mission's wide reach, the State administration engaged them to supply 2.85 lakh food packets and an equal number of sanitary packets (containing soap, napkins, a towel, tooth paste etc) for the migrant workers being sent home by South Western Railway. These were supplied to nearly 175,000 migrant workers leaving KSR Bengaluru City Railway Station by 107 Shramik Express trains. Deputy Chief Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who flagged off a Shramik Express on June 2, lauded the efforts of the Mission.

The Mercy Mission volunteers have helped nearly 780 patients to get medical care and have distributed free medicine; equipped with megaphones, they moved into slums, shanties and low-income neighbourhoods to create awareness about health, hygiene and protection from viral diseases.

Organisations such as HBS Hospital, Humane Touch, Project Smile, JIH, Emmar Trust, Swaraj Abhiyan, Aasra, Hum Bharat ke Log, Lifeline Foundation, Al-Ansar Trust, Small Appeal etc are part of Mercy Mission.