India, Kerala - Every Challenge Can Turn into an Opportunity

Message from Thomas Mathew

1988 Graduate

SEEDS India

Report on Our Activities During the COVID-19 Crisis

Greetings! I am glad to see that ARI training continues despite the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. We all are in one way or the other struggling to bring normalcy, but naturally it takes time.

https://gyazo.com/a92f08e233e816ab5b2a8907656ec35c

Sewing masks for the people who need them most!

Actually, I got stuck in the USA while participating UN Conferences. I got a side event program in connection with the UN Youth Program on April 1st and 2nd but unfortunately Kuwait Airways stopped its flights (the one I booked my return journey) suddenly and unexpectedly without any notice. So, I could not return to India.

Then, I moved to Bentonville, Arkansas where my son and his family are living, and I am still here waiting for flights to resume. Though I travel frequently, usually I return home within a month. This is my first experience where I suddenly needed to embrace a new situation, and I am unsure how to continue SEEDS services from a place far from my hometown. But I have been thinking and striving to serve the community which desperately needs social services in this unforeseen crisis of the 21st century. 2018 heavy floods in Kerala and its consequences have given a collective leadership in SEEDS-India. So, it is an opportunity for us to lead the organization from two distant parts of the world.

“Every challenge can turn into an opportunity,” is the slogan I got in ARI training from Takami Sensei. Thanks to ARI training for making things happen in every situation whether it is positive or negative.

In addition to our daily dinner service to the district hospital and other routine services we have decided to concentrate on more humanitarian services. With the cooperation (facilities) of the YMCA Aluva (Kochi City) project, we have been serving the migrant workers, mostly from North and Northeast parts India, who are struggling to get food and shelter. Daily, 150 lunch boxes were distributed to them, with the help of the police department, until government assistance started.

Lunch boxes and grocery kits ready to go

2000 face were masks made in April in Kochi. Due to the lock down, appropriate cloth for masks was not available our local cities for some time. These were distributed to hospitals, health staff, police, etc. As of today, around 3000 face masks have been stitched in SEEDS-India by our tailoring staff and trainees. With special permission from the authorities, and with the help of another NGO “The way,” these masks have been distributed in Madurai, Tamil Nadu among the blind and Dalits, as well as to many Dalit colonies and street dwellers in various towns and villages in Kerala State.

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Mask distriubtion

With the co-operation of the YMCA Boys Home, who helped us cook in their kitchen and distribute, 150 lunch boxes were served daily to the gypsies, street dwellers, migrant workers and other sidelined people in Tiruppur, Tamilnadu until the trains started running to North India. My association with the Indian YMCA helped me reach their helping hands in the time of this uncertainty. Especially vulnerable were the poor and migrant workers, who suddenly became economically handicapped and mentally worried about their death and life in strange places. They were stranded thousands of kilometers away from their homes.

Our team successfully distributed 100 grocery bags of 17 food items to the jobless poor families, mostly landless Dalits, around three villages nearby SEEDS. We are also constantly assisting the Cancer Palliative Center of the District government hospital through providing mineral water and snacks to the inmates and bystanders.

After a request received from an NGO in Madurai, we helped them serve 50 families of the blind with the grocery kits, and trained them to wear the masks, and the importance of wearing face masks while they go out from home. Our services have been continuing with the help of many good hearts.

Delivering lunch boxes

I hope ARI training is going on well, though with a limited number of participants. Please encourage the participants to read and learn more about disaster management. I believe Japan is the finest place to learn about disaster management. After the training they need to help people to see a new world. Therefore, it is the right time to equip themselves to lead their societies in the near future.

My deepest appreciation to all staff and ARI community for showing the world that We shall overcome.