The pandemic has been an especially disturbing time for those who didn’t have a fixed home or a job. The migrants of the country have had to fight day and night for basic survival, even the most basic essential like clean drinking water was not available to them during the lockdown. In a bid to reduce their pain and help them, an initiative started by the volunteers of Ismaili Kurla Jamat Khana in Mumbai called ‘The Water Distribution Project’ is helping provide migrants clean drinking water.
A couple of volunteers from the Ismaili Kurla Jamat Khana saw the sorry state of affairs for those migrants who were catching trains from the LTT station in Mumbai and decided to help them by distributing water bottles. They carried about 480 bottles with 500 ml water and ran out of them in minutes. More people lined up for water bottles and that made the them order more bottles and bring more volunteers on board to contribute.
With the help of a senior well wisher from the community who lent them his empty godown, they were able to store more water bottles and get them to more people. 12,00 litres of clean drinking water is being distributed to migrants every day. The number of volunteers on the team has gone up from 2 to 9. These volunteers are using their own resources and modes of transportation to help distribute water faster to those who’re in need. They’ve also joined hands with the volunteers of the gurdwara in Chembur.
Every volunteer is protected with protective gear so as to keep safety protocols in check.
On May 31 2020, the team managed to share free clean drinking water to almost 20,000 people who were heading out of the city back to their native homes. They have distributed close to 20,000 litres of water so far and the effort continues!
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