Care&Share Italy, with its thirty years of experience in the field, has not only taken immediately initiative to bring tangible relief to thousands of poor families who were struggling with the additional problems caused by the Coronavirus, but also succeeded in networking with local partners. With its operative office in India, “Street to School”, and other partners, it has promptly obtained the government authorizations, necessary because all the slums had been declared inaccessible red zones and were therefore even more isolated than usually and unable to access food. Care&Share has mobilized own and other resources, started fundraising in Italy, and gone within a few days on the ground.
All this thanks to you!
It was therefore possible:
-to reach and support 1,547 families of Vijayawada and Hyderabad, in the slums and areas of:
• Autonagar
• Kandrika
• Kedaswar
• Vambay Colony
• Prem Nikethan
• Sai Nagar
• Bhatamakunta
• Baghat Singh Nagar
• Jaipur Colony

-to distribute to each family sanitary kits consisting of:
• at least 2 pairs of gloves
• at least two masks per person
• an average of 5 soaps per kit
• a bottle of cleaning and antibacterial sanitizer
• in total over 20,000 pieces

-to supply the populations with:
• i.e. 23 tons of rice
• 3 tons of dhal (lentils that are the foundation of basic nutrition)
• 2000 liters of cooking oil
• 300 kg of chili
• 2000 bags of tamarind and masala
• 1,500 salt packs 150 kg turmeric

-to distribute information sheets to all of them on coronavirus and a list of nearby hospitals.
Twenty Care&Share workers participated directly in these 13 distribution actions, 4 of whom were operators and 16 volunteers. In some slums, such as Autonagar, the distribution was repeated.
We have of course secured all the families of the children whom we support, and identified the families that were in the most critical conditions thanks to social assistance checks.
In all slums there was not the slightest information about anti-contagion rules. The inhabitants had no possibility to find anything useful to defend themselves. Therefore, in addition to distributing gloves, sanitizer, and masks, it was necessary to raise awareness among as many people as possible regarding the good practices of defense against contagion. The measures to be taken to prevent infection have been communicated continuously with the megaphone.
The situation required concrete and immediate help. Nothing similar had happened since 2004, when a Tsunami struck Southeast Asia. On that occasion also, Care&Share distinguished itself by its three-months-long support to no less than twenty coastal villages in the Bay of Bengal.

Our intervention will not end here, as there are still many families in difficulty. Hence, phase 2 has already started.