In times of distress and crisis, it’s wonderful to see just how the world, forgetting its differences, comes together. In a one-of-its-kind initiative, a student duo from Singapore recently attempted to raise funds for migrant workers 4,000 km away in Govandi, Mumbai. The students were Canadian and Spanish, reported news agency IANS.
Canadian Daren Xiao, aged 30, and 29-year-old Spanish national Ke Xu Zhou got together to ease the plight of the migrant workers in Mumbai in whatever way they could. They organised a 100 km cycling marathon in Singapore. The day picked for this, 9 May, was a special one as it was Daren’s birthday! At the end of the day, they ended up collecting almost (Singaporean) $1,700. They also told IANS that they will continue raising funds online for seven days after the marathon.
The students, engaged at the INSEAD Business School in Singapore, have set a goal of $7,000 which they wish to achieve by 15 May.
This initiative has been taken in collaboration with Feeding From Far (FFF). Ever since the lockdown started, FFF has been helping out the migrants in Govandi. They’ve set up a small community kitchen that has, in the past six weeks, served over 4,00,000 meals to needy migrants in the area who have been left jobless amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The community kitchen is set up in BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s Al Mahdi School in Bainganwadi, Govandi.
FFF has been working with plenty of celebrities like Vishal Dadlani, Abish Mathew, Monica Dogra, Harish Iyer etc. They have all contributed to the cause.
(With inputs from IANS)
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