Parikrma's program to supply emergency food rations for our students

Parikrma Humanity Foundation runs 4 free K-12 schools for children from 67 slums and 5 orphanages around Bangalore. Our children are first-generation learners from uneducated families where the parents are typically uneducated, working as daily-wage laborers, unskilled workers and petty shop owners; monthly family income is in the range of Rs.10000-12000/month. Thus, the Parikrma 360 degree model is one where our students are not only given education, but also nutrition (breakfast, lunch and a ragi drink in the evening) complete healthcare and family welfare (skilling, counseling, de-addiction etc for the parents). In the current CoViD-19 pandemic, our students have been severely impacted– with school forced to shut down, they no longer have access to the breakfast, lunch and evening snack that was served to them. At home, where a large chunk of their parents have found themselves out of work, or have seen severe fall in earnings, the worsening situation has made access to food difficult. Parents are unable to sufficiently take care of even basic necessities like food and nutrition. It is in this environment that Parikrma proposes to supply weekly food rations to these families to ensure that they get sufficient nutrition during these unprecedented tough times  

Parikrma proposes to supply, on a weekly basis, each of our families with 3 kg rice, 1 kg dal, 1 kg malt powder,1/2 litre oil and 1 bar of soap, expected to take care of the needs of a 5 member family. These rations would be given to one member of each family at our school premises. Distribution would be done by Parikrma’s Community Services team and teachers volunteering for this purpose. We propose to continue with distribution for the next 4 weeks

Parikrma is ensuring that social distancing norms are strictly observed. Since our Community team is in touch with all families via their mobiles, each family is given a specific time to come to the school for collecting their rations. This ensures that we have no more than 3-4 parents waiting outside the school at any time. Only one parent is actually allowed into the school; since rations have been pre-packaged, the actual collection process is very quick and the parent exits the school before the next parent is allowed in. There is a volunteer from Parikrma to ensure that the few parents waiting outside do not congregate, but stand atleast 5-6 ft apart from each other.  

The project aims to ensure that the students and families of Parikrma obtain atleast basic nutrition in the next few weeks, rather than starving. It would ensure that our students are healthy enough to return to school once this current crisis is overcome and continue with their studies. It would also help parents stay healthy so that they may take care of their families and resume their employment once the lockdown is lifted.