Hope Welfare Trust: The ever-growing NGO in India

COVID-19 : Coronavirus disease, the word which didn't carry any significance half a year back has gained significant momentum in the present time all over the world.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. It was first identified in December 2019 in Wuhan , China , and has resulted in an ongoing pandemic. The first case may be traced back to 17 November 2019. It slowly traced its path to all over China and gradually outspread to Italy, USA and other countries. Most of the cases were reported in Italy and the USA at large.

India reported the first confirmed case of the coronavirus infection on 30 January 2020 in the state of Kerala. The affected had a travel history from Wuhan, China. Slowly and steadily, it got a steep rise in our country.

Owing to widespread of the pandemic Covid-19 all around the world, our prime minister Shri. Narendra Modi announced a countrywide lockdown which started from 24th March for 21 days, limiting movement of the entire 1.3 billion population of India as a preventive measure against the deadly virus.

On 14 April, PM Modi extended the nationwide lockdown until 3rd May. And till now, we have witnessed 4 lockdowns subsequently to limit down this deadly disease in our country.

As of 13 June 2020, more than 7.7 million cases have been reported across 188 countries and territories including 309,000 cases of India, which resulted in more than 427,000 deaths all over the world including roughly 9,000 deaths in our country.

This lockdown certainly proved to be preventive and helpful for the people who are privileged enough to face this lockdown with ease. Think about the underprivileged and deprived ones who have to meet their daily needs on their daily wage and work. They have been severely impacted due to this country lockdown. There has been a consequence of broken labour market.

With all nonessential businesses and workplaces shut, millions of labourers and workers are staring at the very real prospect of hunger, eviction from their homes and an indefinite unknown for what the future holds. Migrant workers are those who travel to the cities for temporary work and make up almost 120 million of India’s population , perhaps more. Without work or any substantial way to earn wages, many millions of these migrant workers were forced to leave cities in droves as they trekked back to their respective towns and villages by foot. Streets and sidewalks packed with people, shoulder to shoulder, forgoing all social distancing measures, are daunting to imagine, much less to grapple with as a facet of current reality. Some migrant workers are surviving off water and biscuits as they headed home, carrying children over their shoulders while the blaring heat of late March beat down on their backs.

Residents in cities such as Mumbai and Delhi are packed into extremely dense clusters, where poverty and a lack of stable employment are rampant. Needless to say, the population hit hardest by the stringent measures to lock the country down were the poor — the daily wagers, the street vendors, the construction workers and the homeless.

Until a vaccine for the virus is approved and we are able to administer it to over seven billion people across the world, It’s the responsibility of every privileged citizen to contribute in some way or the other. Our initiative is one of the many initiatives being taken in the immediate relief to those who are left stranded alone to face this situation.

What's Hope?

Aspirations, desires, expectations, dreams, wishes or longings.. whatever you may call it..

It's the most positive word which overflows with the feeling of optimism and trustworthiness.

And to fulfil the hopes of those needy people who can't reach out their voices amongst the common public and the government, the NGO in the name of Hope Welfare Trust was started long ago.

The NGO was started by Divyanshu Upadhyay, secretary of Hope welfare trust, long back in 2015 with the able support and help of his friend "Ravi Mishra", who is the proud president/founder of the NGO.

The core idea behind starting this NGO is the upliftment of the villages by forming a group there known as "Green Group". They work in the key areas of the rural development through their NGO. It's been roughly 5 years of NGO and they have covered about 100 villages till now including some of the known villages of Mirzapur, Sonbhadra, Varanasi and Jaunpur.

The main rationale behind "Hope welfare trust" is assembling 25 female residents of a particular village into a group known as the "Green Group". The women work there wearing a green saree which is also the dress code of the Green group. These women work in certain key and important areas such as village planning, public health, education, functional literacy and communication etc. improving the economic and social conditions of the village altogether.

During this lockdown, they have reached out to 4,36,000 underprivileged people in providing them necessary meal and food packets in all possible villages including mostly naxal and hilly areas.

They have worked their way in distributing ration to the category of people who generally get oblivious by many including the transgender group, sex workers, old mothers, single mothers etc.

Moreover, they have prepared the list and planned to carry out the same in some more villages of Sonbhadra in the hilly areas. On getting some financial assistance, the distribution of ration and meal will be carried out immediately in those villages also.