By Verghese V Joseph –
New Delhi: The COVID-19 lockdown has already disproportionately hurt marginalized communities due to loss of livelihood and lack of food, shelter, health, and other basic needs. Several non-profits, volunteer organizations and even companies stepped in to feed the migrant workers stranded in the cities across India. Going beyond the call of duty, one innovative movement called Mother’s Meal stands out in its effort to end hunger among poor.
The new initiative inaugurated at New Delhi by former Supreme Court Justice Kurian Joseph along with K J Alphonse, Member of Parliament and former cabinet minister provides survival kits to 25 families in distress. The movement, based on a new concept of Family-to-Family support, was done simultaneously today across 55 locations in all 28 States and eight Union Territories (UTs) of the country by helping 1,000-plus families.
The objective of Mother’s Meal is that no one should die of hunger. According to OXFAM and World Food Program, as many as 12,000 people might die every day due to COVID induced hunger globally, more than the number of people who will die to COVID-19 disease itself. The target of Mother’s Meal movement is to provide support for a million people over a period of time.
The strategy of Mother’s Meal is to create a Family-to-Family Support between the 50% of world’s families that can afford to support the 10% of people in extreme poverty. Each donor family will provide for a survival kit worth Rs. 500 of food and provisions to a family in distress, for a sustained period of minimum six months.
Most vulnerable sections were selected as the beneficiary families for the Mothers’ Meal program. These are families of people with disabilities, terminal illness, widows, refugees and tribals, the sections that are pushed further into poverty and hunger due to the financial crises related to COVID-19. While Mukthi in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh provided kits to beggars in the railway station, National Federation of the Blind gave support to 25 visually challenged persons in Tamil Nadu. Dehra Dun-based Waste Warriors organisation extended help to the waste workers. CDI in Mumbai supported sex workers and HIV-infected families.
Mother’s Meal program was implemented through 55 grass root agencies, working closely with the affected families. Some of them are established NGOs like SAATH in Ahmadabad or AIFO in Bengaluru. Many of them are groups of individuals coming together for a cause like the DMC in Delhi. Some of them are social groups like Rotary club in Bengaluru, Lions club in Darjeeling. Thus the program solves effectively the end user connectivity.
There are many Christian religious groups of religious and lay people that are providers of the survival kits in various States. Ambikapur in Chattisgarh has the Social Service Society as partner with Mother’s Meal. Networks like Catholic Heath Association of India work through their network partners like OCHA in Bhuvaneswar, Odissa. In North East, FAsCE India, an initiative of the MSFS Fathers and NanJan of the Claretians are coordinating Mother’s Meal program in all eight Sates, mostly among the tribal communities. While Jesus Youth is involved in the distribution the Survival Kits in Tamil Nadu, Vincent De Paul society members are the Providers in Wayanad in Kerala and Bangalore. Various women’s religious Congregations have partnered with Mother’s Meal to ensure that the most vulnerable sections are supported to survive through the COVID times.
Mother’s Meal is a movement started by a group of passionate social entrepreneurs under the leadership of Claretian Priest Fr Dr George Kannanthanam, a social activist based in Bangalore. It is the eight social innovative idea by him under the Hope Anti Addiction Action Group Society initiated in the past 30 years. Thirteen Founder Members from various walks of life across the world belonging to various religious affiliations came together to find a workable solution to the extreme hunger that many are pushed into due to COVID. Already more than two lakh people were supported with food kits and masks under the Coronacare Bangalore, initiated by Fr George after the breakout of COVID-19.
Justice Kurian Joseph is the patron of the movement. Fr George Kannanthanam was inspired by his late mother Brigit to start this movement, with the thought that no mother would allow her children to go hungry and “we can all be a little motherly by helping another family to survive this troubled COVID-19 times.”
The COVID-19 pandemic is a stark reminder that we need to look beyond income to tackle poverty in all its forms. Anyone can become part of this movement, by adopting a family or referring a family in extreme poverty in our website www.mothersmeal.life.