Summer wrath ahead: Donate water bottles, ORS, towels to the needy

As the city reels under a heat wave, several non profit organisations across Delhi-NCR are doing their bit to ensure help is provided to the needy. Here’s how you too can join in the noble cause.

The weather experts are expecting one of the harshest summer seasons this year. Last Monday, on Holi, Delhi experienced the hottest day in March in 76 years, as per the India Meteorological Department, and was reeling under a “severe” heatwave on the day of Holi when the maximum temperature shot up to 40.1 degree Celsius! The worrisome bit is that this heat wave can cause severe dehydration, especially to those homeless who are out on the streets. Keeping this in mind, several non profit organisations across Delhi-NCR are doing their bit to ensure help is provided to the needy. From shelter and food to water and towels, they are collecting and donating it all, and here’s how you too can join in the noble cause.

With temperature expected to rise, the homeless are the most vulnerable. Non profit organisations across Delhi-NCR are providing shelter, food, water and towels.

You could donate these:

After battling the cruel winter, harsh summer is set to present another set of challenges to the homeless, who are already finding it difficult to seek shade in shelters due to the Covid protocols that require social distancing. Those out under the sun, are prone to health risks such as dehydration, heat stroke and exhaustion. To provide for those homeless who are looking for a shelter from the scorching heat, Ravi Kalra, founder, The Earth Saviours Foundation, says, “We are in the process to accommodate 2,000 abandoned senior citizens and homeless mentally disabled people at our NGO’s new upcoming shelter home located at Mandawar Village in Gurugram. We work with the police and courts to rescue people from the roads.” 

Alongside food and water, some NGOs are also providing dignity kits to the homeless.

Rahul Verma, founder, Uday Foundation, says, “We believe that providing mere basic health care is not enough, as every individual also deserves dignity. So, we ensure the same by providing them respect, human touch, basic health care, free food and dry ration through an empathetic approach. Throughout the year we run our share and care campaign, where we provide help in-kind to the homeless and underprivileged patients in government hospitals, and people who are living in open on the streets and at shelters during the night. We distribute them among other necessities, packed water bottles, ORS, glucose and juices during the summer months in Delhi and other major parts of northern India with the support of our volunteers, corporate and individual donors. Online stores can give options to a donor to purchase an item and donate the same to us directly through the website or app.”

For the hot and dehydrating days, along with food packets, Roti Bank and its volunteers are distributing water bottles to the needy. “The volunteers recycle the empty fizzy drink pet bottles and fill them with fresh water from the RO water filters at their homes, and distribute them along with food. These days can be extremely challenging and fresh water is not easy to find for the homeless. Some even fall sick due to dehydration. We wouldn’t want the homeless to consume drainage water and harm their health. Our aim is to stop that. Apart from that we’re also giving them hand towels for hygiene purposes,” says Sudhir Behrani, founder of the NGO.

And the Robin Hood Army is focusing not only to ensure that those on the streets don’t go empty stomach, but also get nourished with knowledge, and are therefore facilitating education for the street children. Continuing to serve meals to those who need it the most, Neel Ghose, founder of the organisation, says, “We are currently serving 1.1 million meals per month across 217 cities, and we hope to scale that significantly. With the vaccine mobilisation spreading, we hope to ramp up enabling street children being enrolled in schools through our education initiative, the Robin Hood Academy.”

Author tweets @Nainaarora8

Follow more stories on Facebook and Twitter