Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 26

Chandigarh-based NGO, ‘I am Still Human’ (IASH), has initiated a campaign to help the underprivileged amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

The team of the IASH is targeting the poorest of the poor, including daily wage earners, people living on footpaths, slums and specially abled people on streets. Under the campaign, sanitisers and masks are being distributed by the founder and volunteers of the IASH. The NGO is also making arrangements for ration for these people. The strategy being adopted is to make rations available for 15 days per person.

Vivek Mehra, founder of the NGO, said: “The livelihood of those living in slums and on footpaths depends on what they earn by doing daily work. The national 21-day lockdown, which is of utmost importance, has resulted in loss of work for people. In such a situation, they need to be helped for not just provision of important things such as sanitisers, soaps and masks to ward off getting infected, but also giving ration. We are working on both aspects.”

If the crisis worsens, there will be a shortage of medical facilities and food supplies which will hit the underprivileged segment the most. In this situation, the NGO’s support to the poor segment of society will go a long way in mitigating their hardships.

Mehra adds: “The free distribution of sanitisers and masks has started and in the next phase, we intend to provide them with basic food kits, so that they do not sleep hungry during the lockdown and curfew.”