Hyderabad: City orphanages faced with hunger pandemic

Hyderabad: Due to the ongoing lockdown, many people glued to their homes are finding it difficult to make both ends meet. The situation is more dire in respect of orphanages looking after children. Caretakers are crestfallen as stocks are drying up and there appear bleak chances of replenishing them, with the result that starvation stares at such children.

The caretakers of the children homes are now in a dilemma as to from where to arrange daily-need things as donations have stopped coming in. While some are dipping into foundation savings to manage daily essentials, other are relying on essential donations from volunteer groups and NGOs.

The president of Helping Hands Humanity shelter homes in Motinagar and Borabanda, Satish, said that earlier people used to give donations in terms of cash or kind, but now due to the lockdown, donations have stopped coming in. "We have 45 kids (23 girls and 22 boys). Due to lockdown all our helping staff returned to their hometowns; so all the maintenance of the shelter home is done by me alone. From cooking food to cleaning toilets, I do it on my own," he said.

Ashok from Cheers Foundation in Hi-Tec City area says the frequency of the donations has steeply slowed due to the stringent lockdown restrictions on movements of people. The situation is di9re. "Before the curfew was imposed, we stored some items such as rice, wheat, flour, daal and medicines, but now as the lockdown period is extending, we are worried about the stocks," said Ashok. Their shelter house has 30 children whose survival is solely dependent on donations.

Moved by their hunger pangs, a few people in the neighbourhood are donating some essentials, but it is not sufficient, rues the caretaker.

Nutan who runs Care and Love Orphanage for children in Kukatpally area said that it has been three weeks they shared all the necessary details like the number of kids and the amount of essentials they need with the child welfare department, but have not received any response from them till now. "We have to be prepared with sufficient stock of food, medicines and other essentials for the next couple of months as we don't know how long will this lockdown will last.

There are no donations coming in. We are using up all our savings to manage essentials and other items," he said worryingly. "People are under belief that if not them someone surely would help orphanages. No one is donating as they think others will do it, which is not the case," adds Nutan.