It was an unexpected tragedy which hit the world. At the end of March according to the government law the Lock Down took place because of the Novel Corona Virus Pandemic, that time the ACI family was pooling up some donations from the group for a woman who had Kidney transplantation and as they were busy recruiting funds it was Fr. Walter D’mello who gave an idea to the ACI Family president to take initiative in distributing some grocery to the needy who were affected by covid-19 lockdown. The ACI family members collected Rs. 14,000 from the group and gave it to the sick patient called Margaret. Later on, they took the advice of Fr. Walter seriously and with the encouragement of sisters started to collect the fund from the groups as well as from some of their family members and relatives.
Mangalore in generalis an area with well to do people as well as middle class, but because of the lockdown many middle classes people were suffering, many were jobless and had no money to meet the basic necessitates. This was realised by the sisters and the members.So, we were thinking to reach out to these needy people without knowing what to do and how to do because of the strict order by the government and the fear of the COVID-19.Then the core group met together and decided to distribute some food items to who are really in need. The fund was provided by the ACI family members.On 13th April we were able reach out to 13 families with rice, coconuts, oil, tea powder, rava, dal, bath soap coriander, chilly and washing soap.
We posted the photos and send appeal to all our ACI family members. For our surprise we were able to collect Rs.29,000/- from the ACI family members and their relatives.Again, we were able to reach out to 28 families on 25th April and we distributed hamper with16 items per family.
We have a tailor in the ACI Family, the sisters provided the material and with his help we could also stich Mask and distribute to many people, that too was a great help for the people.
Mr. Rajesh the ACI Family president contacted one of his friend who was in touch with St. Aloysius collage which is run by the Jesuits and a well know collage in the city, they had distributed groceries for more than 60000 people so Mr.Rajesh Requested His friend to help us out in getting some hampers since our funds were not sufficient, so Mr. Jith the friend of Mr. Rajesh got 58 hampers of grocery along with the 2 Jesuit scholastics of St. Aloysius collage. Sr. Suvarna also contacted some of the parishnors who were not part of ACI Family and collected some more funds also, through the influence of Fr. Walter Sr. Suvarna got 150K.G. Rice, 25.K.G. Potatoes, 25. K.G. Onions and 25.K.G. Dal from the social centre of the Diocese and the 3rd round we distributed for 85 families. On the 14th of May which was a significant day as Pope Francis had declared it as a day of Fast, Prayer and Charity. While distributing as part of awareness and following the rules we also kept sanitizer and social distance before they could collect the hamper from us.
We felt happy that we could reach out to the need through generous donors and through our ACI Family who is young and dynamic. All the 3 times that we distributed, we never kept any barriers between cast and religion, we gave to Hindus, Christians, and also some migrants of North India.
Suvarna Fernandes ACI
Mangalore.