Gift dignity of basic clothing to a senior citizen by Action for Development of Demos(ADD)

A:- Milestones achieved – Since the commencement of this programme, we have yet distributed the clothes to about 600 poor old beneficiaries. Giving the comfort and warmth to such needy old beneficiaries, gives the relief to both, the beneficiaries as well as to people who work for their welfare. • Another milestone that we can proudly state that, now after working for such long time over this programme, we taught or convinced almost every household in the concerned area, that serving the old needy people is the best way of human welfare. • We have left no rural poor household untouched, for selecting the needy old beneficiary, technically we have achieved 100 percent penetration. B:- Major events – Our every cloth distribution event is like a major one. Old poor people in mass, standing and sitting queue waiting for their turn, volunteers in active mode to assist them, the organisation’s team members busy with their assigned roles are all the glimpses that are repeated every month at new venue with new beneficiaries. • All gathered old beneficiary, are also well explained and convinced about the importance of sanitation and healthy food habits. • Our volunteers also keep on guiding them to get treatment from local govt. healthcare centers and hospitals.

C:- Cities, regions, areas etc covered – Sampathchak, Pun Pun, Dhanurua and Phulwarisharif Blocks of Patna District of Bihar.

D:- Number of people impacted directly/indirectly - Since the commencement of this programme, we have yet distributed the clothes to about 600 poor old beneficiaries.

E:- How the work was carried out-

(1) Survey of an identified village by team members with local volunteers. (2) A local gathering of masses is called out. (3) Brief introduction about the organization to the assembled mass. (4) Individual counseling of the people and selecting out the poor old beneficiaries. (5) Door-to-door verification of the selected old needy beneficiaries by the volunteers and the team members. (6) Final preparation of the sorted beneficiaries by the core team panel and Pre-announcement of the date and venue for the distribution. (7) On the event day, gathering all the selected old beneficiaries following the COVID Protocol. (8) Final distribution of the clothes and pre-fixed stuffs to each selected beneficiaries. The clothing includes two sets old sari and blouse with petticoat to the ladies and two sets of dhoti & Kurta to the gents. Apart of this one mosquito net, one towel and one bed sheet to each head Blanket is also distribution to each head in winter. (9) Feedback collection from each benefitted people by our volunteers after the distribution day. (10) Time-to-time survey regarding the actual morality, and removing the deceased case. (11) Regular exploration of the new potential areas. (12) Proper inspection of the stuffs being provided to the beneficiaries. (13) Getting to know the exact family and social status of each selected beneficiary.

F:- How did the program help and impact the people – Few remarkable impacts are-

(1) There is a message everywhere in the village and in the functional area that there works an organization whose work is dedicated for the welfare of the poor old people, whose no body take care of. (2) Even the family members of the selected old beneficiaries, who previously have worries for the poor old souls, are now taking a good care with a lesson to serve the old souls. (3) The old ones are now living with a positive good hope.

CHALLENGE :–

1. Following the Covid- Protocol during the mass gathering
2. Identifying the correct genuine beneficiaries
3. 100 percent attendance on the distribution day.
4. Mobility of the old senior citizens from their huts to the venue.

OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGE :–

1.Making the people sit with distance, use of mask and creating awareness among the gathered mass. 2.Individual counseling, door-to-door verification to reverify the genuinity of the information and to get the exact financial status. 3.Door-to-door invitation and call to each selected beneficiaries on the Day of event. 4.Asking each old beneficiary to report at the venue with one family member. More over our volunteers are specially instructed to keep on supporting the old weak bodies.

Reshma Devi, Age 84 Years

Poverty in India is the biggest fate which makes the common fellow fed up of their life. One could acknowledge it in case of this 84 years old Reshma Devi of Manoharpur Kachhuara, district Patna. Her husband died 10 years ago. Although blessed with three sons but they don’t take any care and have no any sympathy for their old mother who is enough old to do any hard work for having at least one time meal a day. Now she just was counting down her days. Under such poor conditions she was really very helpless and in need of some immediate help.

When ADD came to know about the plight of the poor old lady Reshma Devi, it provided her basic cloths (2 sarees, Peticote, Blouse, Towel, and Bed Cover & Mosquito net and also blanket) under “Gift dignity of basic clothing to a senior citizen”.

Reshma Devi leads a happy life now and is grateful to ADD for saving her from cursed survival. May god bless her smooth and happy.

In the past five to six months, there were two major events that took place in two different localities under this programme. The first one was on June 24th, 2021, in Panchayat Bhawan, Manoharpur Kacchuara, Sampatchak block, and the second one was conducted on September 18th, 2021, in the premises of Mukhtar Saheb Market, Domnachak, Sampatchak, Patna, wherein collectively 100 poor senior citizens were provided with clothes. The smiles on their faces after receiving a means to cover their feeble bodies was a peaceful sight to see. It is their wholesome reactions after getting the help that keeps us going against the odds to find a way to help them. Many of these beneficiaries are abandoned by their families and are not strong enough to work and live a stable life. Any sort of help for them comes in the form of a blessing, especially clothes, as it is something that puts a smile on anyone's face, be it a child or an old man. That's exactly what their reaction was. They became extremely lively, just like little kids.

The very first challenge was beneficiary selection. It’s a very crucial part of carrying out any programme as deciding upon the authenticity of the information gathered about the beneficiaries and the neediness of different beneficiaries were the key points in the process. Next come the COVID related hurdles, which are quite inevitable. Carrying out the distribution, gathering a crowd while keeping in mind that all the COVID protocols are being followed was a real struggle. The first challenge was a cake piece because of our dedicated team of volunteers who cross-verify all the details to make sure that the actual needy people get the support while obeying COVID guidelines. During the distribution, we had specially allotted some volunteers for this task, and their sole job was to make sure the distance between people was maintained, to check whether or not they were wearing masks, etc. We have set a target of benefiting more and more people in different localities. As of now, we have decided upon a number of 300 to be covered over the next 6 months.

Ram Babu Ram, a 75-year-old man from Dariyapur, Sampatchak, Patna, was leading a happy life with two of his sons and their families. Problems struck his life when one of the two sons, who were supposedly very caring and concerned for his father, died. Soon after that, the other son almost abandoned the poor old man. This son is so immersed in his life and family that he has almost forgotten that he has an old father to take care of. Given these conditions, Ram Baby fell sick some time back and is now recovering. When we got to know about his case, we could not help but go to him, and what we saw was really unpleasant to see. The old person was sitting outside in the chilling cold with no clothes on, as he had very few clothes. We did not hesitate one bit after that to register him under this programme, and after gifting him with clothes, he got very emotional as he said that he had never gotten to wear any good clothes all his life and that it made him really happy that someone, after his son died, came forward to show some concern. He thanked the donors for their noble help.

Under the concerted initiative, till now we have gifted basic clothing to about 600 (approx) senior poor beneficiaries. All the beneficiaries belonged to extremely poor families with age groups above 65. Neither they had proper clothes over their bodies nor they had enough resources to afford the same, their sheer helplessness to even cover their bodies and protect them from extreme weather motivated us to go ahead and help them. We spotted such helpless old people and tried our best to provide the basic clothing to them.While implementing such noble works, side-to-side we also motivated them to live a healthy and clean life with all the sanitary measures that would also help them to stop the spread of the current Covid pandemic.The major goal of this initiative was to provide the identified beneficiaries with basic clothing as per the requirement like Dhoti and Kurta, for the gents and Saree & Blouse for the ladies. Apart from this we also provided them with a Mosquito net, Towel and Bedsheet.All the beneficiaries were thankful to the kind donors and these social welfare activities spread a good message in their locality.

While working over the pre-set activities and plan, we came over with a lot of challenges and hurdles.The very first challenge was to manage the assembled crows of beneficiaries, maintaining the social distancing, and the use of masks & sanitisers.We followed strict guidelines as per the Government, everywhere we made the beneficiaries gather with ample measures like social distancing and the use of masks and sanitisers. This is the reason that with the pre-set benefits of basic clothing, we also provided each of the beneficiaries with masks and sanitisers.Seeing the 3rd wave of the current Corona pandemic, we are determined to follow the same measures in the coming 6 months of the programs. We are trying to avoid the violation of Corona measures anywhere while the implementation of the programme.

Story of Surti DeviAge- 83 yearsPhysically disabled now due to her old weak body.Belongs to Manoharpur Kachhuara, Sampatchak, District Patna (Bihar).Her own children have not been taking any care of his old mother. The poor lady anyhow has been managing her bread and meal by roaming here and there like a beggar. When our volunteers noticed her, he kindly explained to the lady about ADD's noble programme for the helpless old people. Without any delay, we registered the poor old lady under the programme and provided her with the basic clothing that included the saree and blouse along with a bedsheet and mosquito net. Apart from this our volunteer also helped her in getting her basic medical check-up at the local health centre. Now the old lady is seeking some more regular help from us for her daily bread and butter. We are already working on that. We also motivated her son to take care of the old lady because everyone has to attain this age once in his/her life. It created a good impact on her son and as a result, the pool old lady now happily lives with her son. May God bless the poor old lady.

This programme has been on the most supportive and beneficial programme for the needy poor old people. We truly pay our deepest regards and thanks to the kind donors whose noble contribution adds joy over the faces of hundreds of needy old people. Here under this initiative, we just provide basic clothing support to old needy people. When we see the bare bodies of poor people, we feel sorry for them from our souls, but what next?
The next, is done by us. With the help of local volunteers, we every month enroll the poor old villagers under this programme. Afterward, we provide them with basic clothing support including bedsheet, towel Kurtas, Dhotis, mosquito-net etc. This support just brings a feeling of love and care for them in us. We are very happy to see them in clean tidy clothes. At least, this programme has brought awareness about Cleanliness and Sanitation among them. We are just trying to care for those entire people who think that no one is there to take care of them. May god bless all such poor needy people!
ADD has also been deliberately working for covering mass village population for the proper fooding and clothing support which is actually the fundamental right of every citizen of India. Even if today any poor dies of heat or cold due to poor clothing, having not a single cloth over themselves then all this development is useless. In these tough times when not even the government which has to be held accountable for the pity condition of the people, takes some action to help them, ADD is trying its best to improve these helpless old lives.

Life is beautiful now

Getting clean needful clothes in the state where one is living under extreme poverty is a worthy and incredible help to the needy old beneficiaries. Apart of this, we also have started counselling the beneficiaries regarding their health and sanitary measures. Received c lothing benefits for gents and old men separately which also included bedsheet, towel and mosquito-net in common which are a great aid to them to which they too admitted . We have been constantly increasing the number of beneficiaries and been working hard to add more required benefits.

Happy to receive the care packages

Program Update

After a thorough and strict inspection of the identity and financial condition of the spotted Beneficiaries, we finally enrolled 60 Beneficiaries for the noble venture. We provided the pre-set benefits which included basic clothings of the gents and ladies, to each of the beneficiary in the locality they have been residing in. The gents clothing as per the provision includes 2 Dhoti & 2 Kurta and the ladies clothing includes 2 sarees, Petticoat and Blouse along with Bedsheet, Towel and a Mosquito Net to both the gents and ladies.Its been a delightful experience for us to help such needy Poor Old People by providing them with one of the most basic requirement of a person. Each of the benefited old man or lady has been living a pathetic life with lack of basic primary requirements Thanks to the noble donors whose kind thoughts bring happiness over the faces of hundreds of needy people.

Story from the field

Jag Narayan Manjhi, 75 Years belongs to Beur Mushari, Beur ( Block- Phulwarisharif), Patna. Though he got 2 sons but none of them take any care of the the old crippled man. Recently Jag Narayan's wife had too passed away leaving the old man to lead a helpless solitary life. The poor man had been completely alone and helpless, struggling for bread and rice to keep him alive. His body had almost retired and gradually deteriorating. Day-by-day he was perhaps loosing the hope to live more days. No body in his locality and even his own children held his hand to support him. Anyhow he required some urgent help, and very timely someone reported us about him. We immediately interacted with him and got him enrolled under the ADD's Basic clothing programme and provided him with Dhoti, Kurta, Towel, Bedsheet and Mosquito-net. We also assured him to help him in regard of his unhealthy body. However for immediate relief we got him diagnosed and treated at Primary Health Centre. Apart of this, we too talked to his sons and convinced him him that every man on this earth has to become old one day. At this stage everybody will need a shoulder to count the remaining days. So its our prime responsibility to take care of our old parents. Very positively, Jag Narayan's sons got convinced and these days, he has been happily caring his old father.Doing all these, just to make him feel better and happier than before, we felt quite proud and very humbly we thank our donors for giving us a chance to uplift the life of such poor needy people. May god bless the poor old man.

Program Update

Under this Programme, we have provided the basic clothing aid to our specified beneficiaries. The clothing aid included 2 sarees & blouse sets for the female beneficiaries and 2 dhotis & 2 kurtas for the male beneficiaries along with towel, mosquito net & bed sheet. These life supplements though can not quench the thirst or the hunger of a needy person, but we also can't deny that one's clothing and environment decides their fate. Apart from providing these benefits to our beneficiaries, we also educate them about the significance of health and sanitation. We also have decided to work upon their health and sanitation requirements.

Story from the field

Deo Raj Mochi is 75 years old from Domnachak Village at Sampatchak Block of Patna. He is crippledd and belongs to a Dalit community. He has been leading a very low class miserable life due to lack of support or resources. He has three sons but unfortunately none of them take care of him. His wife has also passed away. When we found him, he was under no care and support. He had been living a solitary life in his retiring age. We tried our level best to convince his sons. With a positive impact of our noble programme, one of his sons realized his responsibility and decided to provide for his old father. Very soon, we enrolled Deo Raj into the programme and as per the provision- we provided him with 2 dhotis and 2 kurtas along with towel, bed-sheet and mosquito-net. During our interaction with him, we convinced the old man to never give up hope and also requested his son to take proper care of his father. At present Deo Raj is happily living with his son. We found him in Dhoti and Kurta that we provided to him. A million quotes of thanks to the kind donors whose noble thinking bring smile over the faces of hundred of such poor needy people.