The theater artists of Azad Dramatic Club and Parampara Arts are making a difference in these testing times by reaching out to needy people and helping them with food by doing Langar Sewa (Community kitchen) in the Tricity. We speak to these unsung heroes to know more about their philanthropic initiative!
It all started during the initial days of lockdown when these young and empathetic minds strongly felt the plight of the daily wage workers and decided to lend a helping hand and ever since then, there has been no turning back.
Abhishek Sharma, Director, Parampara Arts, explained, “During the initial lockdown days, we came across many posts talking about the plight of the daily wage workers, but felt that it’s easy to share about the crisis on the social networking sites and we need to get on the field to actually make a difference. So, I, along with my friends collected and contributed money from our pockets and started the community kitchen.”
While highlighting about their experience further, Paramjeet Bedi, Director, Azad Dramatic Club, shared, “Initially we were just five people, but with the passage of time, many volunteers joined us in this initiative. We took the pledge to continue this community kitchen until the lockdown ends. In the beginning, we provided food to 250-300 people in and around the area. Gradually the count increased to 700. One week after we started the community kitchen, there came a day when we started providing food to 1000 people in the morning and 1000 in the evening. This got noticed by the administration and we were called for a meeting with the DC. They asked us about the problems that we were facing and the administration co-operated a lot. Now along with their support, we have started providing food to 1000 people in the morning and 1000 in the evening.”
Other volunteers involved in this initiative include Ashok Chaudhary, Gurpreet Multan, Raja Virk, Kuldeep, Amit, Rajat, Anshul Jolly, and Rohit.
“We are providing very good quality food, the same food which we eat at home along with our family. Even our volunteers eat there only. We take complete care of maintaining social distancing and cleanliness. Our volunteers wear OT caps, gloves, masks, and sanitize their hands. Now people have got habitual of making a queue, maintaining social distancing and sanitizing,” volunteers shared satisfactorily.
“We recently posted on Facebook asking for donations along with pictures and videos. While many people supported us morally and financially, we were also criticized for posting the pictures and videos. However, our intent has just been to connect with more donors and supporters through the help of social media”, they add.
These unsung heroes are not only distributing food but also medical supplies and sanitary napkins to those in need. One of their volunteers, Gurpreet Multani from Azad Dramatic Club has also taken the initiative to feed the stray dogs regularly in every area wherever they go to provide food to the people.
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