December 11 , 2021 Pune
Through midnights on the streets of Pune
Volunteers see sorry sight of people covered in jute sacks
Sadhu Vaswani Mission helps make winters warmer for the needy & animals too with blankets, chaddars & sweaters
Decembers in Pune are a sight to behold! With the mornings enveloping the city in a thick misty fog and a wintry breeze blowing all day; the city wears an all new look. Winter wears are out from the closet and it’s time to don the trendiest warm clothes. But is it as easy for the poor and needy, one wonders… sleeping on the streets, living in tiny hutments, and a harsh winter, a bad combination indeed!
5th December 2021, Sadhu Vaswani Mission Pune, in an immediate response to the strikingly dropping mercury levels in the city started its winter sevas.
“Pune, in almost a decade, has not seen such winters. As we thought of our poor and needy brothers and sisters, we were deeply concerned at the very thought of how they must be enduring such temperatures. With winters and the basic lack of winter wear claiming countless lives everywhere, we immediately set out to distribute blankets,” said a volunteer.
The effort was spontaneous and distribution unplanned; the volunteers left at 10 pm in the night, carried out the distribution and returned at 2AM the next morning. They drove past the areas of Wanowrie, Hadapsar, Fatima Nagar, Solapur Road and draped the street-dwellers with blankets.
“We spotted the footpath-dwellers and saw that some had covered themselves with jute sacks; it was a sorry sight to witness. When we covered them with the blankets, they were grateful beyond words. The effort was not only timely but much-needed. Another experience we had was of a man living in a dark hut in a secluded place. When we saw him we realised he was not only poor but was also handicapped and living all by himself; it was pitiable and sad. We gave him a blanket and his gratitude showed in the way he thanked us with folded hands,” added the volunteer. On this day, volunteers distributed 100 blankets to the poor and needy. The effort will continue and is being carried out expeditiously to complete the distribution before the winter’s wane.
In a similar effort, on 4th December 2021 the Mission distributed sweaters to children at an orphanage in Hadapsar.
“The Mission carries out blanket distribution every year, however, this year adding on to it, the Mission distributed sweaters to children. We regularly distribute joy packets at the orphanage and saw that while the kids have blankets to stay warm at night, they have no warm clothes for the day. We coordinated with the care-takers and organised a sweater distribution.”
The volunteers took down the age-wise measurements of the children to avoid any ill-fitting sweaters. On this day, the Mission distributed 40 sweaters to children aged between 5-15 years.
In addition to and in adherence to the teachings of the Great Masters, the voiceless animals too were given the warmth of blankets coupled with love. Untimely rains and bitter winters have multiplied the number of sick cases of animals coming to Mission Possible Animal Shelter each night. With each day getting colder and the inability to protect them growing by the day; the uncertainty of their survival troubled the shelter owners. Knowing their plight, on 30th November 2021, the Mission volunteers immediately set out with solapuri chaddars and blankets.
“The need was critical and the help was deeply appreciated by the shelter,” shared a volunteer.
On this day, 200 solapuri chaddars and 300 blankets were distributed at the Saswad Mission Possible shelter and 200 solapuri chaddars and 200 blankets were distributed at the Shankarshet Road, Mission Possible animal shelter.
Likewise, in the hilly regions of Khandala, similar to each year, on 4th December 2021, the Mission distributed 168 ration kits and 336 blankets (2 per family).
The winter sevas by the Mission are off to a great start!