Ghulam Fareed, a daily-wage earner, had been stuck at home since the imposition of the lockdown on March 22. He was worried to death how to support his family. And then help arrived.
After receiving the food ration bag, which was sufficient for one month, Fareed felt comfortable, believing they were safe at least for one month. He had been expecting to resume work soon, but due to the prolonged restrictions he, like other workers, stayed at home without a job.
Hyderabad, being the second largest city of Sindh province, has witnessed deaths due to the coronavirus, which sent a warning message to others to stay home in self-isolation. In fact, fear and chaos was everywhere, frightening the people, mostly those who depended on daily-wage labour.
Khalida, who also received the food pack, was uncertain about the future as her entire family did not have any work. She gave credit to the people belonging to Fast Rural Development Programme (FRDP) Pakistan, who arranged the distribution of food packs.
The organization members reached the poor families in the semi-urban areas of the city to distribute food. These people mostly belong to the marginalized families, who needed help urgently under this kind of severe economic stress.
Ali Bux Mangi, executive director of FRDP, said they had distributed food packs among 1,000 families under the emergency COVID-19 response in collaboration with the Hyderabad district administration. "Besides giving food packs, we conveyed knowledge to the communities to adopt precautionary measures to guard against the spread of virus on their own."