The COVID-19 crisis has taken over lives and affected us financially as well as physically and mentally. At Light of Life Trust, we are constantly making an effort to reach out to the economically challenged class. Our founder, Villy Doctor has been a source of inspiration for all of us during these testing times. She is constantly being our driving force and in turn asking us to support the needy and the less privileged.
COVID-19 has spread a lot of panic across the world and it is pretty much the same story in India. While we are grappling with this contagious viral disease, we have to also make sure that our people feel safe and secure.
For this we have introduced many ways and means through which we can reach out to our people and provide them with the best possible help.
COVID-19 sees no barriers when it comes to contagion. However, some of us are more affected because of the side effects the disease brings along with it. We are talking about loss of job and daily wages. At Light of Life Trust, we are trying our level best to make sure that no one in our vicinity sleeps hungry.
With the help of our donors and team, we have managed to tieup with tehsil kirana stores, who send hygiene and grocery products to village kirana store. Our social workers pick up the supply from the store and then make sure to distribute it to our beneficiary’s family. The kit consists of 3 handwash soaps, 5kg rice, 2 kg dal, 1 kg whole pulses, 5 kg wheat flour, 2 litres cooking oil and masala powders.
By providing food and hygiene products we are also building their immune system in order to fight this deadly virus.
School has been affected by COVID-19 as well. While classroom teaching has been suspended, their studies have also been disrupted. Well, necessity is the mother of all invention and Light of Life Trust made no delay in applying its mind and came up with a plan to teach online. Technology has certainly turned out to be a boon for our volunteers and students at Light of Life Trust. Our teachers have been conducting online lectures for our students. Surya Darji, a Mathematics teacher, of the Worli Centre, has formed a group of 10th standard students and he is conducting online lectures for them. These lectures are then solved by problem solving sessions online.
Not just academics, the use of technology can be seen in the arts field as well. The students of Anant programme (which is in association with The Flowering Tree Inc.) have been practising their music and dance diligently at home. Jagdish Patil and his wife Reshma conduct music lessons online for the students. Similarly, Vaishnavi, our dance teacher has been imparting dance lessons online.
The world is slowly moving towards digital and we are only encouraging the use of digitisation so that our students are ready for the challenges ahead.
There is a lot of news going on about the Covid-19. While some of it is true, we are subjected to a whole lot of fake news as well as rumours. The villages, especially, are at a complete loss, owing to the information they get from various sources. Over the last few days, since the news of the lockdown and quarantine came into practise, a lot of our villagers have been in a state of panic. In order to help them out, we have started the Beneficiary Counselling Programme. Two of our doctors – Dr. Geetanjalee Rao Hajare (Karjat Centre) and Dr. Hemant Ghude (Murbad centre) have been at the helm of the affairs and have taken matters into their hands to do this counselling for the villagers. They relentlessly answer all the queries of our villagers about Covid-19.