COVID 19 RELIEF SERVICES
One Life to Love is a beacon of hope in our community, gaining notoriety as an organization that truly helps people in need. Through OLTL’s Relief Work, families who suffer debilitating poverty are provided with medical attention, medicine, rations, hot meals, clothing, and/or any other need that may arise.
In response to the international pandemic, OLTL began a COVID-19 Relief program to meet the needs of the hardest hit families in our nation: migrant workers.
The crowds seen in these images are made up of migrant laborers who are stranded in Delhi without food, water, shelter or work. These are construction workers, vendors, rickshaw drivers, and the parents of the children in our Education Center for Migrant Children (click here for more information).
Across all of India families like them have lost their jobs as a result of the COVID19 Lockdown. Now, with no access to the jobs they once had and no government aid, their situation has become much more urgent. Their fears have turned from COVID-19 to starvation.
We have been serving this population for years now but realized today the need has become greater than we ever could have anticipated. We frequently supply rations and medical care to migrant families. But for the first time, we had to turn families away as our supplies wore thin. In less than 15 minutes we distributed over 200lbs of food, but it still wasn’t enough.
Responding to this crisis, OLTL began distributing COVID-19 relief packs. Each relief pack includes; whole wheat flour, lentils, cooking oil, spices and fresh vegetables. A pack worth $12 USD will last a family of four for seven days.
COVID-19 is an international crisis which is affecting every human being and every household. But it is our responsibility to reach out and do our part, to help those who are in dire need of basic necessities.
For more information on COVID-19 relief efforts and what you can do to help,
Please click on the link: https://www.onelife2love.org/story/covid-19/
Social and cultural norms pose a lot of restrictions too, due to which girls are unable to enjoy freedom. Girls experience multiple forms of discrimination and violence in different contexts. Families normally give preference of education to their sons, seeing them as future earners. A majority of girls are either engaged in agricultural activities or household chores, specifically being in-charge of sibling care. Hence, they don’t get the opportunity to attend school.
Though child marriage is illegal in India, estimates suggest that each year, at least 1.5 million girls under 18 get married, which makes it home to the largest number of child brides in the world - accounting for a third of the global total. Nearly 16 percent of adolescent girls aged 15-19 are currently married.
Girls are forced into early marriage by their families because they are considered to be a liability. Parents worry about their daughters’ safety especially after puberty and therefore resort to marrying them off at an early age. For this reason, sending a girl to school seems futile to these families.
Girls who attend school are often forced to share a common toilet with male students. Without separate restroom facilities, girls often drop out of school because they don’t have private restrooms and safe places for sanitary necessities. Often, schools have poorly designed facilities for girls, disregarding the consideration for the disposal of menstrual wastes.
In addition, girls who manage to attend school are given free education only up to eighth grade, after which they are required to pay for their own books, uniforms, and other educational supplies. Because of this, and other factors, there is an alarming dropout rate of girls after eighth grade.
