Whom to call when someone is in distress or abandoned?

Helping Hand Foundation in the city says it will take care of them

Next time you come across someone in distress just dial 7893191193 or 8790679505.

A dishevelled man scavenging for food at a dustbin. An emaciated woman lying on the pavement - uncared and untended. These are everyday scenes we see and yet not see. But Arvind Gagan stood transfixed when the other day he saw a man lying near the footpath at Mouzam Jahi market with deep lacerations and maggot wounds on his wrist. The middle-aged man was fully naked. 

Though in a tearing hurry, Gagan took out his mobile and called some NGOs. The Helping Hand Foundation (HHF) responded and immediately rushed its team of volunteers to help the unknown. The volunteers first offer drinking water to the man, dress his infested hand, clothe him before shifting him to the Osmania General Hospital for treatment.

Much like the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa, Hyderabad is seeing the HHF coming to the rescue of the unwanted, uncared and forgotten persons. During the last six months it has tended and rescued 25 persons left abandoned on the city roads. The avowed goal of the civic body to make Hyderabad beggar free remains just a pipedream. 

One can see scores of persons, majority of whom are sick and homeless, dotting the streets. Most of them have serious mental health issues along with physical ailments. Due to prolonged abandonment many refuse treatment and want to be left alone.  “It is extremely challenging to nurse and feed them”, says Mujtaba Hasan Askari, Trustee, HHF.

As its name suggests, the HHF believes in lending a hand to those caught in medical emergencies. From palliative care to HIV/AIDS patients, providing nutritional supplements to malnourished, extending free transport to patients HHF has grown over the years by helping others grow. Now it has decided to bring love and care to the sick, the abandoned and homeless.     

“But lack of social support and shelters make long-term rehabilitation a challenge”, remarks Askari.  What makes rehabilitation efforts difficult is the tendency among the destitute to go back to where they think they are comfortable be it a pavement without a shelter. “When left alone they often run away from hospitals”, says Askari. 

The HHF has now teamed up with other NGOs to arrange for the last rites of the abandoned patients in the event of death - giving them the dignity of life. Next time you come across someone in distress just dial 7893191193 or 8790679505. Who knows you may be saving a life.

J.S.Ifthekhar,

Hyderabad based journalist.

Article published in The New Indian Express

Dated October 31,2018