In Odisha, the most affected group was the daily wage workers. Since we are working with the rickshaw pullers, the most vulnerable group among the daily wage workers, we realized that their life was going bad to the worst during this time of Pandemic. Many of them had no savings and they could not find any work outside. Around 15 families of the Rickshaw pullers approached us for the grocery and helped them. One of the rickshaw pullers with 4 small children asked us to help him to pay his house rent. He told us that if he doesn’t pay the house owner will not allow him to stay anymore. He was in helpless situation so we decided to help him through the donor.

Distribution of the Masks and Soap: We realized in our area local people were not very serious about the covid-19. We decided to distribute protective material such as Masks and Soaps. Srs. Celine and Jacklin went to meet the Deputy Commissioner and they gave us the permission for the same.  We distributed around 900 masks and soaps to the people of Orampara. As we have Tailoring Centre it was easy to stitch the masks. So we called some of the students and the two teachers to stitch the masks. The whole community too was involved in stitching and distributing Masks and Soaps. in different areas of Orampara. We got an order to stitch 310 masks for the workers in the Post Office at Rourkela.

We have distributed Masks and Soaps to the people some do wear but others are not taking much care. The number in of people who are affected is increasing. At present the number of people affected are 1, 950/-.  Nearly 5 lakhs Migrants from Odisha are coming back to their respective places and some of them have walked for several days on foot without much food and drinking water. Since they are retuning back, the number has been increasing.

Sr. Jacklin Ghonsalves

Snehadhara Community – Odisha