Justice Kurian Joseph Inaugurates ‘Mother’s Meal’
Bengaluru/New Delhi: Former Supreme Court Judge, Justice Kurian Joseph has inaugurated a new movement to end hunger named Mother’s Meal in Delhi on August 15. K J Alphonse, Member of Parliament and former Cabinet Minister also joined in inaugurating the movement by providing Survival Kits to 25 families in distress. Inauguration of the movement based on a new concept of Family to Family support, was done simultaneously across 55 locations in all 28 States and eight UTs of the country by helping 1000 plus families.
The objective of Mother’s Meal focuses on the idea that no one should die of hunger. According to OXFAM and the World Food Programme, as many as 12,000 people might die every day due to COVID induced hunger globally, more than the number of people who will die of COVID disease itself. The target of Mother’s Meal movement is to provide support for a million people over a period of time, said Fr George Kannanthanam, director, Project Vision.
The strategy of Mother’s Meal is to create a Family to Family Support between 50 percent of the world’s families that can afford to support the 10 per cent of people in extreme poverty. Each donor family will provide for a Survival Kit worth 500 rupees of food and provisions to a family in distress, for a sustained period of minimum six months.
Most vulnerable sections were selected as the beneficiary families for the Mother’s Meal programme. These are families of people with disabilities, terminal illness, widows, refugees and tribal people, the sections that are pushed further into poverty and hunger due to the financial crises related to COVID. While Mukthi in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh provided Kits to beggars in the railway stations, National Federation of the Blind gave support to 25 visually challenged persons in Tamil Nadu. Dehra Dun based Waste Warriors organisation extended help to the waste workers. CDI in Mumbai supported sex workers and HIV infected families.
Mother’s Meal programme was implemented through 55 grass root agencies, working closely with the affected families. Some of them are established NGOs such as SAATH in Ahmadabad or AIFO in Bengaluru. Many of them are groups of individuals coming together for a cause such as the DMC in Delhi. Some of them are social groups like Rotary club in Bengaluru, Lions club in Darjeeling. Thus the programme solves the end-user connectivity effectively.
There are many Christian religious groups of religious and laypeople that are Providers of the Survival Kits in various States. Ambikapur in Chattisgarh has the Social Service Society as a partner with Mother’s Meal. Networks such as the Catholic Health Association of India work through their network partners like OCHA in Bhuvaneswar, Odissa. In North East, FAsCE India, an initiative of the MSFS Fathers and NanJan of the Claretianscoordinate Mother’s Meal programme in all eight States, mostly among the tribal communities. While Jesus Youth is involved in the distribution of the Survival Kits in Tamil Nadu, Vincent De Paul society members are the Providers in Wayanad in Kerala and Bangalore. Various women’s religious Congregations have partnered with Mother’s Meal to ensure that the most vulnerable sections are supported to survive through the COVID times.
Mother’s Meal is a movement started by a group of passionate social entrepreneurs under the leadership of Claretian Priest Dr George Kannanthanam, a social activist based in Bangalore. It is the eighth social innovative idea by him under the Hope Anti Addiction Action Group Society initiated in the past 30 years. About 13 Founder Members from various walks of life across the world belonging to various religious affiliations came together to find a workable solution to the extreme hunger that many are pushed into due to COVID. Already more than two lakh people were supported under the Coronacare Bangalore, initiated by Fr George after the outbreak of COVID.
Justice Kurian Joseph is the Patron of the movement. Fr George Kannanthanam was inspired by his late mother Brigit to start this movement, with the thought that no mother would allow her children to go hungry and we can all be a little motherly by helping another family to survive this troubled COVID times.
Anyone can become part of this movement, by adopting a family or referring a family in extreme poverty in their website www.mothersmeal.life .
All are welcome to contact for details Fr George Kannanthanam – 9845811515 / 7063396563 and Sibu George – 9448071973.
