“With the sudden rise of COVID-19 and the fear that lockdown brought with it, working from home had become the new normal. I went to the vegetable market the next day to stock up on groceries and what I experienced took me slightly by surprise. The prices of all the vegetables and other essentials shot up exponentially!

I spoke to a few of my friends and realized that everyone was facing the same trouble. This got me thinking on how I can help my friends when I realized that the daily wage earners and the people who depended on hand to mouth for their living, are definitely suffering more than all of us. Because, my friends and I at least had the money to buy these essentials. This reminded me about teachings of Muhammad (PUBH), “what ever belief your neighbour follows, is upto him, but if your neighbour sleeps without food, you will be asked on the day of judgement”.
That was when I decided to do whatever is in my capacity to help my fellow human beings. I contacted a friend of mine and we both started formulating a plan. The first step we took was to identify distressed families within 2km radius of where both of us were living. We collected funds, mostly from our savings and some from fellow friends and family members and made grocery kits. Each kit contained around 15 kgs of Rice, 5 kgs of wheat flour, 1-2 kgs of pulses, Cooking oil, salt, sugar, tea, red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Our initial target was 50 families. The target was accomplished easily and more requests started flooding in from the local people who were helping us in finding the families. We gathered more funds for the second round and made it happen! Balancing our work on one side, we’d distribute the food either early mornings or after work hours. We didn’t miss a day to help! We continued till we ran out of funds, but the requirements kept pouring in even after. We then figured out another way to help the people in need where we created a whatsapp group and added local volunteers, who in turn added their families and friends. The group soon reached its maximum capacity! We were the happiest we could be. The volunteers raised requests from different parts of the city and sometimes different states as well and then the people would contribute to fulfill those specific requests. People were encouraged to contribute more than the Zakat money (a pillar of Islam, which obligates every muslim to contribute 2.5% of their wealth every year to those people in need). All these funds helped us do four more phases of the grocery kit distributions!
In total, we covered more than 800 families! Additionally, the group by itself has fulfilled 70 plus requirements. The group has also sent 1.5 lakh rupees to Kolkata for Amphan Cyclone Relief!

With the lockdown coming to an end, we hope people will be able to earn their own bread. Our group have decided to continue but not in the form of grocery distribution, instead on making small business plans for people to start with limited initial investment, like providing them with a sewing machine, setting up vegetable or fruit stalls, etc. We hope to use education, experience and intellect of the group towards the betterment of our fellow Indians.”

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