It was almost 10 days, and around 40 migrant families at Baikady were worried, staying put in their own little tents. They weren’t going anywhere out of the shelter for work, to bring water, to wash clothes, the children weren’t even going to school!

Why were they doing this??? The reason behind this is the Coronavirus, COVID-19. It made them feel fear, panic and worry about their lives and families. But, there was a ray of light in this dark period. Let them tell you about it…

Mrs Vijayamma and Mr Ambareesh, Baikady Tent Community, Kundapur: Actually, we are migrant workers and we came from the Northern part of Karnataka, we have been living for more than 6 years at Baikady’s migrant village, in Kundapur taluk.

Normally, every day the family members have to go to work as labourers and they earned wages on a daily basis. At the end of the work day, we used to buy vegetables, groceries, cookies, and some fruits for our families and children. Due to the crisis of the Coronavirus, with each member of the family being at home and not getting any work and wages, we were struggling to fill our stomachs.

At this crucial time, some goodhearted people visited our tents with bags of rice, groceries, vegetables, cookies and they provided these items to us with a big smile. This made us very excited and speechless!

On behalf of the Baikady Tent Community, we are very thankful and grateful to Honorable MLA Udupi – Mr Raghupathi Bhat and his team, Baikady village Panchayat President – Mrs Jayalakshmi and Vice President – Mr Suvarana Kumar, Panchayat Development office, their team members and especially FSL India staff, who are all always with us to solve problems and help us! They have made us to feel happiness, they have filled our hungry stomachs.

Note: FSL FSL-India’s Tent School project was born in 2006 to provide basic education to migrant children. Our volunteers educate the children through informal methods, so that they are able to enroll themselves in regular schools. We also supplement their nutrition with fruit and milk, create awareness on personal hygiene and arrange for health camps periodically. We also make and sell paper products to fund these activities, educational and play material, clothes, as well as temporary shelters.

Due to the COVID 19 virus threat, our international volunteers had to return to their own countries. Our teachers and staff have been unable to visit the Tent community to continue with regular classes for the children.It is heartening to see the members of the local community carrying on the work of IVS and FSL India by coming forward to donate essentials to this poverty stricken community.

If you would like to contribute towards the welfare of the Baikady Tent community, write to us at communications@fsl-india.org

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