History celebrates the heroes. However, our society is filled with individuals or communities who contribute to the great cause of humanity anonymously. They do not care of the amplification their services receive. Be it during the freedom struggle or wars or this war against the pandemic, the volunteers that help during calamities or the doctors working day in, and day out during - all have inspiring stories. What brings them together is their passion for bettering others' lives.
Celebrating these unsung heroes, we look at Pune's Robin Hood Army (RHA). While the country struggled to adjust to the sudden shutdown of the world, the RHA has made sure that the less privileged had enough to eat.
Rajkumar Rathi, 60, affectionately called Rathi-ji is the Pune Chapter Representative for Robin Hood Army. Sakal Times spoke with the auditing professional, who has been associated with RHA for five years to better understand how the association works and how did they help the needy battle hunger during the lockdown.
Q: What inspired you to bring RHA to Pune?
A: Food is the basic necessity, and everyone should have access to it, this was the thought process behind joining RHA. Working without any funding, RHA provides food to the surrounding community by fending food from restaurants and volunteers. The army started off as a group of friends trying to help the less fortunate, but today they are a global community, ensuring fewer people are hungry.
Q. How was the situation during the lockdown?
A: Most of our regular drive locations were badly affected as people here were mostly daily wage labourers and migrant workers.
Q: How did you manage the challenges faced during the lockdown?
A: During the lockdown, thanks to past relationships with our donors and local authorities, RHA Pune started working for the affected community since the beginning of lockdown and distributed ration kits. Also, a few local groups provided cooked meals. We tried providing water and dry snack packets to migrant labourers passing by from Pune. The Pune Police helped us by giving the necessary permission for distribution of food packets and ration kits.
According to their statistics, 24,000 people die of hunger-related diseases every day. Since RHA's inception, in the last five years, this army of Robin Hoods have served food to more than 33.1 million people across 181 cities globally.
Q. What areas are your focus in Pune and how big is the Pune team?
A: RHA Pune has 20 chapters with around 3,000+ volunteers. Where are the efforts concentrated in Pune. The efforts are mainly in most affected pockets at Akurdi, Pimpri, Hadapsar, Wakad and rural areas Saswad, Khed Shivapur.
On 15th August, the RHA completed a huge milestone. Started under the initiative #Mission30M, the army pledged to feed 30 million people from India's rural and urban areas and across ten countries - Bahrain, Botswana, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Uganda.
Q. Can you tell us about #Mission30M
A: #Mission30M is one of the largest food relief efforts, bringing together corporates and volunteers across countries to serve staple food to under-developed rural pockets, orphanages, old-age homes, homeless people, ailing patients, and daily labourers across the country. Mission30M has been launched in the wake of COVID-19, where millions have lost their basic means of livelihood and are facing the starkest hunger problem in recent history. The mission, which got underway from July 1, 2020, has already served 12.5 million meals across 143 cities and nine countries in the first 33 days. This unique model of goodwill is also a Harvard case study.
The #Mission30M initiative has currently entered #MissionFinale - the last 10 days of the mission, which will culminate on Independence Day. The Mission seeks to bring together entire networks, and resources for one last sprint to reach their target of serving 30 million people.
The army completed the mission with the help of 50,000 volunteers and was one of the largest food relief effort that bought together corporates and volunteers across countries to serve staple food.
Q. Any message for the aspiring Robins/people who are willing to be a part of the army
A: The problem that we are trying to fight is so big that we will always be 1 per cent done. Since our volunteers are our biggest strength, we will always need more and more people to join us. Our goal is to have a Robin in every locality of every Indian city.
We would request anyone who likes what we do to join us for one drive at their closest location. We promise you will be a Robin for life.
Small steps taken together often lead to a big difference. If you wish to join the cause visit https://robinhoodarmy.com/mission30m
