Help provide #1MillionMeals to cash-strapped victims of terrible loss. Donate now!

Days after the lockdown was announced, Apne Aap founder Ruchira Gupta received a text from a 12-year old who had been sent back from school to her mother in Delhi’s red-light area. In the text she said she and her family were starving. Gupta responded by taking 500 cooked meals to the community - but immediately realised this was simply not enough to match the scale of hunger.

The victims of hunger

COVID-19 has been particularly disastrous for victims of sex-trafficking and their children across the country. So Apne Aap started the 1MillionMeals campaign to ensure 10,000 excluded women and children get food for at least 100 days. 

Now Cyclone Amphan and the devastating monsoon floods in West Bengal, Assam and Bihar have rendered daily wage earning women in the agricultural and fishing sector and female migrant workers even more vulnerable to traffickers.

In a study conducted during the first 100 days of the lockdown has found that, post-Covid, prostituted women are deep in debt, have sporadic access to food and medicines, at risk of losing their housing, have faced police brutality, and are unable to educate their children. 

100-meal ration kits

This campaign is to raise funds to provide dry ration kits for 100 meals and some sanitary products per family. Each kit has rice, dal, spices, flour, vegetables, soya, cooking oil, sugar, salt, sanitary pads, soap, masks and medicines. 

The kits will be sent to 10,000 households in the worst affected districts of Bengal, Bihar and Assam. Apne Aap has identified a network of NGOs and community leaders who will distribute the provisions.

Supporters: Emmy winning journalist Ruchira Gupta, Apne Aap Women Worldwide Ek Packet Umeed, LataSita, TISS and Jadavpur University students. Its partners are SC Johnson, Amazon Web Services, ITC, Hyatt Regency, Kolkata, Apeejay Group, Kolkata Gives, KST Trust, Pepsico, India Gate, Jalangi, Trincas, National Disaster Relief Force and West Bengal Police.

Budget:

1.  ₹7,000,000: ₹700 per kit for 10,000 kits (rice, dal, vegetables, atta, spices, cooking oil, sanitary pad, mask, soap)
2. Logistical support: Rs 1,050,000 (@Rs 1 per meal- for distribution, accounting, transport, communication, packaging, documentation)
3. Awareness and fundraising- Rs 200,000 (Banner,printing, photo,creatives,events)
4. Community mobiliser honorarium- Rs 100,000 (Rs 10/kit for 10,000 kits)

The target of this fundraiser includes the above costs along with the expenses incurred to setup and expand its reach for more donations.

About 1MillionMeals: This campaign spearheaded by Apne Aap Women Worldwide was launched on March 24 by Ruchira, post the Covid lockdown. We have already provided 3 million plus meals and sanitary supplies to more than 50,000 excluded women and children in Bengal, Bihar, Delhi, Jharkhand and Mumbai in Phase One. 

Ashley Judd, Gloria Steinem, Richa Chadha, Adil Hussain, Abhay Deol, Rosanna Arquette, Tannishtha Chatterjee and Michelin star Chef Vikas Khanna were among the key personalities who supported the campaign.