Hyderabad: Eight years ago Sheikh Amer Arafath learnt a life lesson when he struggled to get food for his father who was admitted in a hospital multiple times. The pain that Arafath felt was never forgotten, and the young sub-inspector of police in Karimnagar now is helping several families of COVID-19 patients every single day.
Over the last fortnight, Arafath and his peers have been distributing food packs, mineral water, face masks and bananas at the Government Hospital in Karimnagar district to family members and attenders of COVID-19 patients. Arafath is currently working as a sub-inspector for the Telangana State Prohibition and Excise department.
“Since the last 15 days we have been distributing food packets to COVID-19 patients and their attendees at the Government Civil Hospital in Karimnagar. The main motive is to provide humanitarian support to the families of COVID-19 patients irrespective of religion who are struggling to get food due to the strict enforcement of the lockdown,” sub-inspector Arafath said, speaking to Siasat.com about the work he and his team has been doing.
The sub-inspector said that they will be doing this work daily until the lockdown ends. With regard to the daily distribution undertaken by inspector Arafath, he said that it includes 200 food packets, 200 mineral one litre water bottles, 200 face masks and one quintal banana.
“I understand the pain of the attendants of COVID-19 patients as I experienced the pain 8 years ago when my father was admitted into the hospital multiple times. I struggled to get food. Now the lockdown has made this problem worse,” Arafath added.
Furthermore, the SI said that he noticed that the attendants, despite having a lot of amount with them, are struggling to get hygienic food, which is a basic necessity for the survival of a human being. As he could relate with the problems they are facing, he said he decided to chalk out a plan for food distribution after discussing it with his friends and well wishers, who have now become sponsors and helped him undertake this work.
He had also helped people similarly during last year’s lockdown. “I reached many people as a facilitator in getting ration kita delivered to their homes in coordination with various authorities, Police, NGOs and Civil administration,” Arafath told Siasat.com.
The state government in Telangana has imposed a lockdown since May 2, which was extended for another 10 days on May 30. The public can however move around from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m., and has another one hour as grace period to return back home.