A couple from Chennai, who got struck in Erode during lockdown, has transformed the lives of 50 alm-seekers, homeless persons and workers by arranging jobs and helping many to give up smoking and alcohol.
Naim Khan (39), a software professional from Chennai, visited Erode to take back his family and got stuck due to the lockdown. On March 25, when he and his wife Mahathaj Parveen went to purchase groceries, they found homeless and stranded migrant workers near the railway station at Kalaimadu Statue. “Initially, we gave bread and biscuits to them,” said Mr. Naim Khan, who then decided to provide food to them regularly. The couple started distributing food packets to 50 people which later went up.
With the help of Shabber Ahamed, who runs a catering service at Nadarmedu, the couple supplied 520 lunch and 100 breakfast packs a day until April 25 when the Corporation asked them to stop distributing food packets and instead permitted them to shift 75 persons to the Corporation Elementary School at Railway Colony and provide them food. “They were provided food, clothes, bed sheets, essentials and kabasura kudineer,” he said.
Games were conducted to keep their body and mind fit. Funds were sourced from friends and colleagues, and essentials were also distributed to 835 families in the district with the help of volunteers, he said.
Since many were addicted to alcohol and smoking, counselling was provided to them and the result was encouraging, he said. Fifty persons were given jobs in power looms, hotels and in constructions, while a few were selling snacks and ice creams in pushcarts. One person was given sewing machine. “We have planned to open a restaurant and six persons will be given job,” he said and added only after all the persons were employed, the temporary shelter would be closed and they would leave for Chennai.