Providing
Relief To The Transgender Community
Wishes and Blessings, a Delhi-based NGO, distributes
ration kits to 100 families of the transgender community in a Covid relief
drive.
Reaching
out to marginalized communities
The
transgender community has been one of the worst-hit sections of society due to
the crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. All sources of income have been
blocked and most are unable to access support being provided by the government
due to lack of formal documentation and identification. While executing Covid
relief in Delhi with the aid of Wishes and Blessings Relief Vans, the Wishes
and Blessings team realized that there was no aid reaching the transgender
community residing in Ajmeri Gate, Delhi. The team took it upon themselves to
ensure that all their basic needs and requirements were met.
After fundraising and executing due diligence, a relief drive was held on 20th August. Ration and essential supplies were distributed to 100 families belonging to the transgender community to fill the gap that was created by the crisis. The President of the Delhi Chapter, (name withheld for privacy) said, “Due to the lockdown we completely lost all sources of income. We would visit weddings to give our blessings, but since that has stopped, we have nowhere to turn. We would also sustain ourselves by begging but that is no longer helping us. These past 5 months have been very difficult. Today, I am so happy. We got enough ration to sustain ourselves. Blessings to everyone who has helped us today!”
The
organization aims to continue relief drives until their beneficiaries are
assured of their security.
The Wishes and Blessings Covid Relief Project
Wishes
and Blessings is determined to reach out to all those who have been harshly
affected by the lockdown, and aims to share the load with the government
and other organizations working on the field and launched the Wishes and
Blessings Covid Relief Project on day 1 of the lockdown itself (25th March
2020).
The
organization has converted its day care centers into shelter homes to ensure
that the homeless have a safe space to stay till the lockdown is lifted.
Hygiene supplies have been procured to safeguard the health of all.
A
larger part of their efforts is providing nutritional aid in the form of cooked
meals and ration kits. At the project’s peak the organization served 45,000
meals/ day and distributed ration kits to over 8,000 families across 7 states-
Assam, Delhi, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West
Bengal.
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