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Church distributes 1,000 masks to residents of Aarey village
A church in Aarey Milk Colony has been making masks for the residents of a tribal hamlet amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
A church in Aarey Milk Colony has been making masks for the residents of a tribal hamlet amid the Covid-19 lockdown.
St Paul’s Methodist Tamil Church began their efforts on Monday with two members stitching masks. Within three days, they distributed 1,025 masks across the hamlet (in unit 7), where the church is located, and at Aarey Chowk as the police were detaining commuters for not wearing masks.
After the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday made wearing mask mandatory while stepping out, they intensified their efforts and started making another 2,000 masks in a bid to cover 3,000 residents across the 1,000 hutments in the dairy unit.
“We must realise that prayer has to come with action,” said priest in-charge reverend Godson Samuel. “During this difficult time, residents of this hamlet were finding it hard to procure masks which are being sold at ₹200 per piece. As we did not have funds, I asked two of our church members, who are excellent tailors, to help. With the cloth available with us, we managed to stitch 1,000 masks within three days.”
Megalingam Meyyan and Samlet Yesumani have been stitching black and white masks at home since then. However, they have exhausted their resources. “We have run out of elastic strings that we attach to the ears and we have also used most of the cloth available with us. We are currently making arrangements to procure more resources,” said Meyyan.
Reverend Samuel said church members and locals struggled during the first week of the lockdown. “Our members were not getting the basic essentials. However, with the help of friends across the city, 55 members and local residents were provided with 4kg rice, 2.5kg daal, and one-litre oil each. Then we realised that the next most important thing is to provide personal protective equipment,” he said.
Samuel, who stepped out on Thursday to distribute masks, said, “As priests, we too are public servants like doctors and police personnel. It is time for us to take up such efforts on war footing.”
