A group of 10 samaritans in Shahgund village have taken it onto themselves to ensure strict implementation of the lockdown to avoid spread of coranavirus.
The initiative was startedby a local, Aadil Fayaz who is currently pursuing bachelors in Law, after threevillages, Hajin, Naidkhai and Gundjahangir, adjacent to Shahgund were declaredred zones.
“The news that many peoplein our adjacent villages were testing positive for the virus was giving mesleepless nights. I couldn’t focus on my studies, and started reading WHOguidelines for how to fight the virus,” said Adil.
He roped in his friendsand formed a group. They made face masks and distributed them among people inthe village.
“I brought raw materialfrom my own money and made face masks from them. Afterwards, I along with myfriends went door-to-door and distributed them among the villagers,” said Adil.
However, Adil noticedpeople were not taking the preventive measures seriously. So he along with hisfriends decided to do something to address the issue.
“To prevent peopleloitering on the roads we started patrolling the roads and made sure that noone roams unnecessarily. We were not letting people to assemble on theroadsides or on shops. Besides, we also erected barricades on the entry andexits points of our village.” he said.
The group got the supportfrom police as well villagers. It meets every morning at the village square andprepares a plan for the activities for the day.
“We meet at one point andthen scatter so that we can reach every mohalla and every lane to stop peoplefrom meeting and cut their unnecessary movements,” said, Tawseef Manzoor, agroup member.
There is a change in theperception of villagers, who see them as good Samaritans. “Somehow, we havebeen able to create such an atmosphere in our village. Now people here followsocial distancing in a better way,” says another team member Showkat Ahmad(23).
“Now our elders also support us at every step,both mentally as well as monetarily. Seeing our way of handling the issue, thepeople from other villages are also planning to join us. We feel proud thatpeople around us are happy after seeing our work,” says Mudasir Leharwal,another member of the group. Although, there have been incidents when the groupmembers had to face the some sort of resistance from a few whom they tried topersuade to return to their homes, but that did not deter them from theirresolve to keep virus at bay from the village.
“There are occasion, whena few get cranky when we ask them not to assemble or return to their homes, andthey start using uncivilized language. But we know, they don’t mean that,” saysAdil.
The group members arehowever, concerned about their well-being as they do not have any safetyequipment especially personal protective equipment (PPE).
“Unfortunately, we are notprovided with PPE kits yet. We are there on the streets without PPEs. We hadsent a requisition to the District administration, but they didn’t listen tous,” said Tawseef.
“We use homemade masks,gloves and apron while dealing with the people on the streets. We have sewed apolythene sheets and made an apron out of it, which we wear all day whilepatrolling on the roads,” said another group member Attatullah Dar. Thesevolunteers also pool essentials to distribute them among the villagers who areeconomically weak and cannot afford in these tough times.