Coronavirus and humanity at its utmost best

Every country in the world was taken aback, just as the realisation of how deadly of a disease COVID-19 pandemic actually is started to sink in. Then watching the countries around the world with best and most advanced health care system crumble and fall on their knees for the fact that all their efforts were in vain to control the spread and cure the disease. So, when a situation like this arises in the world, and when you watch the superpower countries crumble.
A Third World country like ours, is bound to be devastated with fear and the people are very well expected to be in panic, which was exactly what happened here in Kashmir. Just as the government introduced lockdown the panic did take a rest but what came next was even worse than the disease itself. This community lockdown led us all to a situation where many households lost their livelihood. Their only way of survival, which was to go out, work for the day and earn so that they can get something to eat at night, we are all very well aware about the fact that our society has a class that work hard for the day to feed themselves and their families at night, but due to COVID-19 and the lockdown they aren’t able to do so, there were people who didn’t have a single penny in their pockets, let alone afford the medicines or the basic necessities.
So, now as the shareholders in the community this job was ours to be fulfilled, In view of which Darul Khairiya Baitul Maal, halqa Khanabal Anantnag, reached out to the people and gave a call for donations so that they would be able to supply all the basic necessities to such families who cannot afford it right now for themselves in these situations, and what was even more commendable was the fact that many local youth of this Baitul Maal came forward as volunteer for serving people, These guys did and are still serving humanity.
They have maintained various groups of volunteers who carry out different tasks every day, from daily sanitisation of streets, houses, roads, vehicles, and various public places like masajid and markets to serving the poor and needy families with food, medicine, and financial aid these guys work hard from dusk till dawn, to reach out to the people who are in dire need of help. Till 11April 2020 they have raised 4.26 lakh rupees which they have successfully transferred to 321 families who were hit hard by COVID-19 pandemic, which is very commendable of them. They have been successful to keep people from coming out of their houses in order to fulfil their needs and violate the laws of community lockdown as they serve them right at their doorsteps. They are going around providing necessary information about COVID-19 and making people aware of how it works and what one should do to keep oneself safe from it. These volunteers are helping the local community in maintaining social distance and are spreading awareness about what one should do in view of this pandemic.
Not only this time, the Baitul Maal has always come forward to help people with all kinds of assistance. They have been working for the betterment of their society and community since ages, and they have been helping poor families by taking over their financial responsibilities, marrying the poor girls, providing financial aids to needy families despite what their religion or beliefs might be, they did a very commendable job even at the times when flood hit Kashmir in 2014, and they are serving humanity yet again.
Such are the heroes of our community which we often forget. All the NGOs, Semi-government, government, or private organisations who are working for the provision of basic necessities to these needy families should be appreciated. These people who have higher level conscience have displayed that serving people on the humanitarian grounds is the biggest act of charity anyone can do. They have displayed humanity at its utmost best.
Many people here are still taking it as fun, we see memes and jokes about COVID-19 everywhere on social media and memes about lockdown and being bored at home, but we need to understand the harsh truth that people who have their pockets and bank accounts filled with money can never really feel the devastation of such families who do not even a dime to provide for themselves, in these times where all of us privileged people are missing and thinking about how we used to go outing, and how we used to eat at expensive restaurants and how we used to travel around and post our best moments on our respective social media accounts, there are people who are more worried about their family starving to death rather than the disease killing them, and it’s heart wrenching to even think about it let alone living such a life.
If you ask me I would say that COVID-19 as a pandemic has given us all a chance to serve the humanity, and give back to our communities, and societies who we have been taking from all along. This is a chance to redeem ourselves by taking care of the people who have always been serving us our necessities at our door steps. Now is the time to donate to those needy families who work so hard to survive. It is a high time that we ask ourselves some questions: How alive is our conscience? How much humanity is left in us? How empathetic can we actually be? And how can we serve the humans who have been serving us for all this time?
All these NGOs and volunteers cannot reach everyone, but you can reach out to the families in your society that you identify as needy and poor. Ask yourself are you able to help someone? If yes then why aren’t you helping them right now?