Ehsaas International in service of Humanity
An interview with Chief Spokesperson Tahir Makhdoomi
NGO Ehsaas International is a prominent non political social organisation working for benefit of masses in Jammu and Kashmir .At Ehsaas International the belief is that humanity is not limited by borders nor by affordability. It is all about ‘EHSAAS’(meaning care and respect in Urdu language) for human beings and human values. In the need of the hour Ehsaas International have reached different corners of the world and participated in whatsoever means one can ,be it Palestine or Yemen, Chennai or Muzaffar Nagar UP, Nepal or Kerala and Kashmir . In the ongoing Pandemic Coronavirus, Ehsaas International has done a marvellous job in Kashmir, especially when it came to providing the frontline workers all important standard PPE and Masks.
In an exclusive interview with the News Kashmir’s Rameez Makhdoomi, the Chief Spokesperson Ehsaas International Tahir Makhdoomi talks on diverse issues.
How difficult it has been to work in a pandemic like Coronavirus especially at beginning?
Whatever one does for society is always full of hardships and challenges. People were lot of panic struck when Corona hit first. The most difficult challenge for people of Kashmir was how we will fight this pandemic especially ensuring safety of our frontline warriors in covid hospitals. We at Ehsaas have been always at forefront in helping the society at adverse times . We do most of our work in education sector. This time we saw how we can protect our front line workers like Doctors , Paramedics, SMC people, sanitisation teams, those working in Quarantine centers, police, revenue officials etc. Our General Secretary Ilyas Hakeem and Chairman Tabasum Geelani held a brief meeting in this regard with executive body. We unanimously drafted idea of producing PPE and held a meeting with all the concerned stake holders especially administration and hospitals got their nod. At the end we bought the material and gave this idea practical shape in our thirty centers. Our PPPs and Masks produced are of global standard with full protection and comfort. We gave then orders to our centers to produce masks, PPE, food covers. We were able to engage large number of tailors and they also thus got meaningful livelihood opportunities. They had faced lot of economic pain due to previous and current lockdown. They got good amount of money to survive these tough times.
How many PPE and masks your produced so far? We have been able to distribute so far thirty thousand PPE to different institutions from Directorate of health , SMC to Quarantine centers, and other frontline workers. Our PPE proved great boon for the doctors and protecting them in hard times. We got appreciation letters from different organs of Government. We also distributed more than fifty thousand masks. After advice from esteemed DC Srinagar we then shifted to distributing food kits especially in those areas were no one had reached. We covered areas like Harwan,Dhara, Khimber, Phag, Theed etc. We have so far distributed more than 1500 food kits .
Your initiative as Ehsaas International are also now part of UPSC exam. Your take ? One of the eminent team dealing with drafting of syllabus of UPSC exam talked with our General Secretary Ilyas and after getting inputs from us, they have now added tremendous work done by Ehsaas international in the exam syllabus. What about donation you received during this pandemic? We received impressive donation especially at the start and it is only due to this we were able to produce this large number of PPE,Masks, Food kits.Do you believe there is need to improve functioning of Mohalla or area committee in Kashmir? Definitely, the need to improve the Mohalla or area Committee remains in Kashmir. We need to strengthen the institution of the Bait ul Maal as we found many areas during this pandemic facing quite lot of hardships.
Has NGO coordination in Kashmir improved during this pandemic? The NGO coordination in Kashmir has definitely improved during this pandemic.But, we need to bear in mind that due to diverse thoughts, different mentalities, difference in motives, ego clashes complete harmony between NGOs is not possible.
