About Saaras Foundation
Vision
Empowering the lives of disadvantaged communities by increasing their access to welfare policies.
Mission
Bridging the gap in access by working in collaboration with all stakeholders involved i.e., community, civil society and government. To be driven by the use of technology, research, advocacy and data analytics as levers.
Introduction
Covid Situation
Lucknow is one of the most COVID affected districts of Uttar Pradesh. There was a lockdown till 17th May. The situation was so bad that in some areas even before the lockdown was announced, the local market associations had taken a decision to shut shops for some time or reduce non-essential workers. Hence many daily wage earners have lost their livelihood and are struggling to feed their families.
Financial Crisis
Monthly income from labor work has fallen from Rs. 9500 per month before the pandemic to Rs. 3500 per month in the current situation. Many had not recovered from the lockdown and subsequent hardships and are now further affected by the second wave.
Food Crisis
People from low income families are struggling to provide a proper meal to their families. Due to the effect of the second wave people are not able to get daily work and are unable to earn properly which in result is affecting on diet of their families.
Intervention
With support of Vibha India Organization, Saaras Foundation supported 500 low income families during the COVID second wave through distribution of ration kit in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
Geography
Organization identified low income families from Rajajipuram and Vikas Nagar or Lucknow district of Uttar Pradesh.
Family Status
Identified families belongs to low income community and daily wage workers. Most of the families on working on daily basis like- labor, migrant, manual scavengers, rack pickers, etc.
Ration Kit Distribution
Saaras team members and volunteers did the packaging of ration kits. After the packaging team members visited the communities and distributed ration kits with support of community champions. One ration kit contained 10 kg rice, 10 kg wheat flour, 1 kg sugar, 1 kg salt, 2 kg daal, 1 lit oil, 1 packet of spices, 2 soaps and 1 packet of sanitary napkins.
Monitoring
We have used DataOgram food distribution application to feed the data of beneficieries and track accordningly.
Field Snapshots
Conclusion
COVID-19 and lockdown affected a lot to the people belonging to the low income families across the country. People in the Lucknow city have fear of virus and financial crisis. Saaras Foundation team members and volunteers have been providing continuous support to the low income families.
We also experienced that there is lots of myths and misconceptions prevailing in the low income communities about the COVID vaccination. It is important to remove the hesitancy of vaccination from these communities so that they can go for vaccination and reduce the COVID effect for themselves and others. We are now trying to create awareness about the importance of the vaccine and process related to it in the low income communities.
Uttar Pradesh have already started preparing for the third wave and the delta plus variant. We, as an organization, will definitely continue to support these families and bring more support from various institutions with the same energy and pace.