INDIA AGAINST COVID-19

DAFFODILS EDUCATION AND SOCIAL WELFARE SOCIETY, BHOPAL, M.P, INDIA

GROCERY DISTRIBUTION MOVEMENT UNDER LOCKDOWN DUE TO COVID-CRISIS

  “SERVICE TO HUMANITY IS SERVICE TO GOD”

BY:-MS. TASNEEM KHAN

I, Tasneem Khan, Founder and Director of “Daffodils Education and Social Welfare Society” and Founder, Director and Principal of “Daffodils Higher Secondary School”, Bhopal. I have been striving for the upliftment of society for 24 years. My mission is to remove poverty by providing mental, social and economic development to poor people through education and skill development. 700 needy children are studying in my school.  I provide them with the means for their education, and also provide employment and vocational training to single mothers and give ration materials to women who cannot earn because of their old age, illness or any other reason. Upon hearing of the global pandemic, I was the first to arrange rations for these families before the lockdown, and for 170 days and even today, I am distributing ration kits without any religious discrimination, and I will continue to distribute them as long as it is needed to help the destitute, I have to ask for help from the affluent people, even then I do not feel ashamed because I cannot see anyone in crisis, this is what my faith teaches me, my organization is not involved in any political or religious institutions. I believe in philanthropy (Khidmat-E-Khalq) to meet the needs of the people without paying heed to their caste and religion. I have provided rations to the poor children and supported staff members of my school many times during this lockdown and will continue to provide them as long as needed.

The lockdown of the Coronavirus Covid-19 had already begun in other countries before our country. After hearing the news from all over the world, I realized that such crisis is going to happen in our country too, so before the lockdown, I started buying food items from March 16^th because I am operating Daffodils Higher Secondary School in Ashoka Garden, Bhopal and I am connected to about 700 poor families and about 72 orphans study in my school, I started grocery distribution from the slum area of Dashmesh nagar from March 16^th, where most of the daily wages earning labourers live.

As soon as the lockdown started in Bhopal, I put my contact number and message on Facebook and social networking sites, that if anyone needs help or has basic needs problem can contact me and as resultant Thousands of people contacted me after my message on social sites and I helped them accordingly. Looking at the pathetic condition of people my children could not get a wink of sleep for two days and I started distributing ration from the amount which I had deposited for my daughter’s wedding I spent around 10 Lakh rupees and my children collectively spent 3 Lakhs from their savings.

After watching people starving and suffering very closely, I appealed to my relatives and my friends and from my Society “Daffodils Education and Social Welfare Society”. I sought help from Charitable Organizations and some people gave me ZAKAT (payment made annually under Islamic law on certain kinds of property and use for charitable purposes) money. I distributed ration kits to about 15000 families for 170 consecutive days and I spent about 50Lakh rupees in this whole work and many people also sent ration to me.

I faced a lot of difficulties in collecting and distributing ration kits. The number-1 task was to buy the ration in lockdown and make the ration kits. The number-2 task was to send it to needy people. The number-3 task was to keep myself and my children and the people around me to be safe from coronavirus, task number-4 was to follow all the laws and rules of government and police. We made sure not to violate any laws or rules. We worked hard to complete these tasks. When we were distributing ration kits from the school, the neighbours of the school strictly said that you cannot distribute ration from here, then I started distributing from my house, then all the residents of my building boycotted me, that if anyone came in this building, I will report to the police and people of the whole society have insulted me a lot by calling me from my house and threatening me. All this stress made me very sick. I went into depression because I cannot see the miseries of the people and did not strive which is why I decided to build booths in different areas, My brother Imtiyaz Khan helped me a lot with that. He made a booth in the Kohefiza area, my brother-in-law Aijaz Tirimizi and his father Ajmal Tirimizi made a booth in Jehangirabad and they distributed ration from their booths and I also rationed the grocery in a grocery store and Arif along with his team helped the needy from there. they bought the goods, packed them and distributed them with my son Ibrahim Mohammad Khan in the slum areas for 100 days, my daughter Taiyaba Azam also contributed to this noble cause all the time. together we all distributed ration kits in these areas- Ashoka Garden, Dashmesh Nagar, Azad Nagar, Sonia Colony, Samrat Colony, Bijli Colony, Govindpura, Sethi Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Dilkhush Bagh, Umrao Dulha Bagh, Anna Nagar, Station Area, Pushpa Nagar, Semra, Budhwara,  Bhoipura, Chatipura, Chhavani, Mangalwara, Jahangirabad, Aishbagh, Barkhedi, Lady Hospital, Kazi Camp, Putlighar, Shahabad, Bhadbhada, Patel Nagar, Rahmat Colony, Ayodhya Nagar, Pragati Nagar, Shanti Nagar, Acharpura, Rachna Nagar, Gehukhera, Pir Gate, Royal Market, Bairagad, Simrai, Nayapura, Khanugaon, Lalghati Juggi, Misrod Juggi, Chandbad, Garamgadha, Sudama Nagar Habibganj Nizamuddin and Baan Ganga etc. and all over Bhopal along with this we also provided cooked food to the labourers and homeless people living on footpaths, now we are still providing ration in the containment areas.

Whenever news comes from anywhere, I make sure to provide ration kits in those areas without any delay and will continue to do so, till the time everything is normal and people start their normal lives and get employment. I have had so much trouble in accomplishing this work like collecting funds, buying goods, packing and following the lockdown rules without caring about my life, and my heart feels very happy even after the worries and difficulties I have faced and it was also understood that if every person honestly delivers the money of Zakat, then no one will be poor.

People are agitated even after the lockdown has opened, so I have waived the fees of poor and needy children in my school and have decided to give them food, books and uniform.                                                              

“एक छोटा सा ख्वाब हो, हर काम नियते सवाब हो
हर शख्स खाने से सेराब हो, कोई भी न भूख से बेहाल हो
जिंदगी भर मेरा यही काम हो,  मन में बस यही चाह हो
करता हर शख्स मेरे लिए दुआ हो ”