Amid nationwide lockdown over the coronavirus pandemic, the underprivileged in the country are suffering and many have come together to help the poor and needy ones during the crisis.
Hyderabad-based entrepreneur Shaaz Mahmood, along with his friend, have come forward to help the poor people who are stuck due to the lockdown by providing them with the essential supplies.
The initiative which is named as ’Youth Feed India’ has Tennis star Sania Mirza as a patron. Several celebrities from the film industry including Abhishek Bacchan, Farah Khan, Shriya Saran, Dia Mirza, Businesswoman Ananya Birla and sports personalities like Yuvraj Singh, Rohan Boppanna, Mahesh Bhupathi have extended support to this initiative.
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Speaking to India Today, Shaaz, one of the co-founders of the initiative, said: “I learnt about migrant workers suffering and even losing life due to hunger and that led me to connect to my friends and we all decided to join hands and provide help to them.”
Apart from Shaaz, Tanya Mallavarapu Reddy and Deepthi Kat are other co-founders who are actively ensuring help through their network of friends and donors living in different parts of the country.
Explaining about Youth Feed India initiative, Shaaz said “Youth Feed India to me is a movement which every young Indian need to adopt and execute in their own way in their own society. If we have access to food in our homes, we are privileged in these times. We must ensure we help those in need.”
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“While coronavirus might not be in our active control, hunger is. For me, its a black mark on all of humanity. The initiative has witnessed extensive support where none of the members has physically moved out but has provided help to many across cities including Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai and Gurgaon, also Faridabad and parts of North Karnataka in Gulbara District,” Shaaz said.
Explaining about raising funds for the initiative to help the poor, Shaaz said: “Till date, we have raised around 2.5 crores from friends and family. We are distributing across India through NGO partners. By this weekend we will have delivered over 47,399 packs to 2.36 lakh Indians that will provide them over 33 lakh meals.”