Daily Times

While TV and social media are full of posts on the coronavirus preventive measures, the debate on lockdown continues. However, life’s realities like foodfor the underprivileged cannot be deferred. An economic lockdown and recession are known to us all, but here is an inspiring storyof our youth. It is based on compassion; it is a fight against the horrors of coronavirus as there is a large segment thatis the worst affected of this pandemic.

It is not only the medical personnelthatis working to serve humanity.The ones working to feed the indirect sufferers of coronavirus due to thelockdown are also the saving face of humanity.

In the small office of Rizq, a social enterprise located under theJinnah Flyover,threeyoung graduates of LUMS are working on data collection of low-income families. They are doing it with the help of otherNGOs and welfare organisations.With a strong and vast data-based network, helping and provision of daily supplies to the poor and suffering families will be feasible. Before the coronavirus pandemic, these three LUMS alumni had alreadybeen working to feed the poor.Since their university days, they started with a simple Facebook page named Rizq.Through thatpage, they shared the idea with people, and started receiving donations in the form of leftover food.They used to pick leftover food and deliver it in slums; they didthat on their own motorbikes, using their pocket money to cover the petrol cost.

Rizq is working in collaboration with the government of Pakistan and other welfare organisations to provide basic ration facilities to the underprivileged families

The story behind Rizq is a journey started by a simple housewife,Rukhsana.She is the mother of one of the co-founders of Rizq, Huzaifa. Since the past two decades she had been providing free lunch to the needy and hungry from the garage of her house. It wasa simple arrangement: home cooked food, and everybody was instructed not to take more than the requirement. Huzaifa grew up seeing that. He shared the idea with his two friends, Musa and Qasim, at LUMS,who had the same concerns towards hunger and poverty.

Gradually, other volunteers joined in. It took them a while to nurture it into a self-sustainable social enterprise. That eventually worked towards providing a million mealsto underprivileged familiesin Ramzan last year. Just a few days ago, when I was updated on their latest venture, I thought that sharing the message was essential as a community service. Rizq is workingin collaboration with the government of Pakistan and other welfare organisations to provide basic ration facilities to the underprivileged families. They have devised an app through which you can not only donate but also see the entire system of ration distribution and the operation of the organisation.

Yesterday,in a live video shared by Rizq,a daily wage worker narrated his story.For three days, there was not even a morsel of food in his house, his widowed daughter’s child was sick, and they could not afford a visit to a doctor or purchase medicine. Hedescribed how in deep despair and depression he went outside, and was roaming around hopelessly, praying for any source of help so that he could provide at least a single meal to his family.He was soon spotted by the Rizq team, as they were out on their regular dutyto distribute ration to their registered poor families and slums. The daily wage worker was provided ration.He referred Rizqto other daily wage workers, currently jobless; they were all added in the database.

Rizq teams are working to reach out and register as manypeople as possible on the app and data base to estimate the resources and funds required to eliminate hunger. One of the other major contributions is formation of teams of mostly young volunteers.The manifesto of the campaign of #Ehsas Karois to give a constant shout-out to everyone in our society to contribute and participate.

Musa, one of the co-founders of Rizq,explained that it is not poverty but lack of compassion that is the real evil.He further explained that they not only needed donations but volunteers as well to distribute the rationamongst the needy the and poor. Rizq members suggest that teams of young volunteers can help out by giving their time as donation; instead of living in isolation of insensitivity we can reach out by compassion. In the time of depression and bleakness,they are working on the potential of youth to form a team of compassionate front-line workers.

Musa and Qasim, with their economics background, are well aware of the importance of data collection and technological help. The newly devised Rizq app can be easily approached through Facebook where donations can be made as per own convenience and feasibility. Rizqhas devised a system where leftover food can be picked and delivered to the needy. Donations can be made through the online app.They positively respond if you refer needy people. They are not only providing food to the poverty stricken but also doing data-based research on the people worst affected by this epidemic.Volunteers from youth are also given a shout-out so that they can help in data collection, ration distribution and management.

Rizq also collaborateswith a few companies, such asSwvl, Cheetay, Bykea. They collect food or ration from a donor’s house and deliver it to the Rizq office from whereit is distributed amongst the needy.Currently,Rizqis functioning in all major cities of Pakistan. Stores like Jalal Sons are also taking donations on Rizq’spart; if we leavea donation for ration at Jalal Sons it reaches Rizq.

In a developing country like Pakistan,a formal record of data and registration of nationals as per income group categories is immensely difficult. One of the major hurdles that government is facing is how to reach out to the poor families. Elimination of poverty and hunger seems to be the most challenging task in a developing country, especially in the situation of a lockdown in which economic activities are minimal, and daily wagers, minimal wagers and staff workers surviving on daily tips can hardly survive. In these times compassion needs to be more viral than the coronavirus.

The writer is a child right activist, researcher, Ph.D. scholar.She teaches Gender Studies at a university, and can be reached at nabiha.shahram@gmail.com