Dr Kiran- ”Safeda Basti is a slum community of about 250 families and is located about 1km from Chanderpuri where we have a centre and have been working for some years. The Asha students introduced us to the area, and we were able to begin helping the young people get a university education. I had never been there before and decided to visit today. I was horrified by the poverty I witnessed. The team ran a baby clinic from a makeshift shed, the afternoon temperature today was 42 deg C. After giving out the Child Nutrition Kits, we went into the community. There’s a cowshed in one corner of the community, and the cow dung flows through the open drains, choking them. There’s garbage everywhere. The sanitation officials hardly ever come. No source of clean water. Just a few hand pumps here and there. The homes are really tiny as you’ll see in the pictures. The men work as daily wage labourers in the local market, pull cycle rickshaws, or pull heavy loads on carts. The women work as domestic servants. They all looked undernourished and anaemic. The children under five were all malnourished. People shouldn’t be living in this area. But they have been living there for over 35 years. Covid19 has caused them immense suffering. They were telling me they feel faint standing in a line for 3 hours in the suffocating heat for a bowl of food from the government. Some of the alleys are so narrow, I nearly fell into an open drain. In the midst of such despondency, our Asha Corona Warriors, 5 lovely girls, all Asha university students have been working every day bringing hope and consolation and giving advice. Because of your generosity, we have been able to help them with groceries and funds. Further listings are being prepared, and I promised them we would be back with more. Once the lockdown is over, we must find a way or working their long term.”
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