Mangalore, August 27: Reaching out to the most deserved and poorer sections among the community effectively and methodically is Hidaya Foundation's approach towards tackling the issue of poverty. Hidaya foundation, a mangalore based organization has been sincerely engaged in a constructive way in addressing the problem of poverty among Muslim for quite some time now. And it has now ambitious plans to address the issue in a big way.
Data collection
The Foundation distributed 'Ramadan Kit' to 850 most deserving families across Dakshina Kannada district beginning of this Ramadan. Prior to this, various teams of the foundation went across the district to find out the deserving families who could be covered under scheme. During the process, the teams not only identified the deserving families, but also collected data of socio- economic- educational scenario of this section of the community. Kasim Ahmed, on behalf of the organization, says that they had embarked upon the mammoth data collection project not just to help out these people in Ramadan, but to plan a complete poverty alleviation and rehabilitation programme throughout the year for this section of Muslim community.
In fact, the teams have horrifying story to tell about the miserable living condition of these people. Many families live in thatched or mud houses and it is unimaginable for most of us how they survive the severity of Monsoon rains and winds. Power supply is still a dream for many of them. Poor or no ventilation in many houses make these people live in pitch dark even at midday sunshine. Leave alone toilets, many houses don't even have bath rooms that have walls to safeguard the modesty of women.
Each house has a story to tell about the misery of life. Women are most affected. Many of them are either widows or deserted by their husbands with many children to look after. Even those houses where men are available either earn meagre amount per day or don't work at all due to physical ailment and other reasons. Children are most helpless lots, suffering badly from malnutrition and lack of education due to poverty. Single room dilapidated houses, shabbily dressed, mal- nutritious women and children are seen around everywhere. The presence of specially abled children in many houses and inability of these families to provide rehabilitation to these children add to the misery of the families.
Total solution at colony
As part of a total rehabilitation programme, Hidaya foundation has secured around 6 acres of land at KavalKatte, Bantwal tq. and has plan to build 40 houses to start along with a rehabilitation centre for specially abled children and a self- help centre for women.
Coordinated exercise
The Foundation recognises the similar kind of relief effort done by various other organisations in the district. It wishes to have a coordination between various such organisation so that a concerted effort can be made to reach out to poorer section of the community. As a beginning in this regard, Hidaya foundation convened an Ifthar meet of the all the like-minded organizations on 19th of this month at Kairali Hotel in Managalore. Aziz Maulavi, Khatib of Masjidunnoor in his address stressed the need to look into the matter seriously.
The think-tank and representatives of organisations gathered on the occasion appreciated the initiative taken by Hidaya Foundation in this connection and expressed the need for such an endeavor and agreed to work with the Foundation to arrive at a consensus and understanding.
Comments
Add new comment