Bounty, Kinder Joy and Snickers in a relief kit? An idea that would strike most people as unusual. Varsha Aswani, a resident in Purasawalkam along with other resident-volunteers from Chennai, are trying to make it less surprising.
“We have started an initiative that focusses on providing underprivileged children with chocolates, during the lockdown period. Children of migrant families, the homeless and those part of families living in housing-board quarters, and children at government-run homes and orphanages are beneficiaries. Twenty such government-run centres have been shortlisted for the purpose. Resident-volunteer teams, each consisting of four persons, have been formed across Chennai to carry out this work. We ensure that each child gets a handful of chocolates,” says Varsha, who is also the Coordinator for Friends of Police (Women’s Wing) in Chennai.
Varsha explains that the necessity of this work became evident to her when she and a group of residents-volunteers were distributing food packets at Central railway station before they boarded special trains to their hometowns.
She discloses that a few children of migrant labourers at the station walked up to her and asked her if I had brought anything for them. When Varsha pulled out a few food packets, the children said they had enough of those and that they wanted chocolates.
Since then, 280 children from various parts of the city, especially those belonging to migrant workers and homeless families, have received a handful of free chocolates each, given by the teams of residents-volunteers, details Aswani.
“During our visits to the neighbourhood, we also provide free face masks, hand sanitizers and other safety gears to children. We also educate children during such visits on the necessity of cleanliness, wearing masks and maintaining social distance,” says Aswani.
The volunteers want to reach 5,000 children from low-income groups in the coming weeks.
A range of chocolates, including Bounty, Kinder Joy and Snickers, is said to be distributed to children by these teams. Varsha explains that one ton of chocolates has been kept as stock for the purpose.
The residents-volunteers are thankful to Sankalp Beautiful World as the Chennai-based voluntary organisation has been supporting the initiative, especially by supplying the teams with chocolates for the distribution work.