Feeding Hyderabad’s homeless

Concerned Young citizens come under the umbrella of Youngistaan Foundation

It all began in January 2014 when Arun Daniel Yellamaty, a former journalist, decided to quit his job to take on full time service of the poor and needy. And hence was formed Youngistaan Foundation, an NGO with more than 500 volunteers, that would serve thousands of homeless and hungry beings.

Arun worked with an English daily and later with an IT company as a corporate communications professional. He is currently employed full time with Youngistaan Foundation and another NGO. He invites everyone with the zeal to serve the needy to enroll via the official website of the NGO.

The foundation has various projects like ‘Women of Courage’, ‘Blood Donors’, ‘Rush for Help’ and ‘Homes for homeless’ which address issues of young women, patients needing blood and emergency services and finally the ones who are deprived of even basic shelter.

The Feeding Project:

The volunteers begin their Sunday at Abids, where they prepare for the rest of the day. Each member contributes money every week to buy the necessary raw material. After the food is prepared, around 30 volunteers travel across the city on bikes to distribute food packets to people living on pavements and roadside accomodations. The NGO feeds around a 1000 people every week. And the ones who have undertaken the onus of reaching out to the weak are students along with working professionals from the age group of 18-30 years.

“We all gather at a friend’s place and our volunteers cook the food. About 70 volunteers are involved in the project. We work in groups where each of them is given a have task; be it buying groceries, cutting vegetables, cooking food or finally distributing the food packets to the needy,” Arun says. The foundation has also launched this project in Bhopal and has 30 volunteers working on atleast 50 homeless people.

Bright Spark Project:

Apart from the regular weekly project, the volunteers visit underprivileged children and orphanages every Saturday across Hyderabad. They take under their wing atleast around 500 children and teach them various school related subjects, creative arts, games, and music.

“Our volunteers help school going kids with their academics. We also teach them English. There are three annual events where we take children to the zoo and a theatre festival. We also organise a carnival for children, in which kids from orphanages and schools participate,” Arun shares.

Transformers:

This project has a dedicated number of 50 volunteers who take care of the needs of street dwellers. “We work through several streets and spot people who have not bathed for many days. Our volunteers take them to the nearest Sulabh complex and help them clean up. We also give a haircut and a shave to all those who need it. A new set of clothes are provided along with a hygiene kit that has a soap, shampoo, comb, toothpaste and brush,” says Arun.

“As part of the ‘Women of Courage’ project, we go to government schools and colleges to impart leadership training to girls and teach them the importance of self-empowerment. There are also many elderly living on the streets. We mobilise them and shift them to old age homes.” Arun says.

The expenses of these projects are mostly incurred by the volunteers themselves. The NGO also receives donations from people occasionally. The foundation spends around Rs one lakh every month on various projects. “People make voluntary donations of Rs 1,000, Rs 2,000 or sometimes even higher,” Arun shares.

By:Navin Pivhal