After watching FB video, Aide et Action sends home 37 UP migrants by bus

NE NEWS SERVICE
VADODARA, JUNE 15
Seeing the plight of 37 stranded migrants on a social media, Aide et Action, a non-profit organization, has recently helped them reach their home by bus from Maneja near Vadodara. This NGO has so far helped over 3000 migrant families across India to return home, an official of the NGO said.

“These migrants were helpless and unaware of any information. Since they did not have cash, the crucial step was to mobilize support for them. We explored various possibilities to repatriate these migrants and co-ordinated with our teams at Vadodara and Jaipur in the process,” said Shikha Ralhan, an Aide et Action, iLEAD executive who spearheaded this initiative at Vadodara.
Shikha Ralhan came across a Facebook post showing 37 migrant labourers stuck in Maneja, Vadodara and asking for help. She immediately reached Maneja with her team within 90 minutes of noticing the Facebook post. She found these labourers, 21 children, 9 men and 7 women out of which one was pregnant, near a railway track at Maneja. They had reached Vadodara from Patan on receiving the information that they will get the train to Farukkhabad, Uttar Pradesh from here. They were stuck without food and water and were helpless without any cash in a new city. Most of them were travelling without any proof of identity.

Subsequently, The Aide et Action team contacted both government and the local police to enable labourers to return home but in vain.
Aide et Action helped them to raise funds via a Nalsar, a non-profit organization working for the welfare of migrant workers. Subsequently, the iLEAD resource centre at Vadodara arranged transportation for them till Farukhabad. On reaching Jaipur, the Aide et Action team in Jaipur arranged refreshments for them and ensured their further safe travel. The migrants returned to their native place successfully on the night of June 8. They have been quarantined in their village and the iLEAD team of Vadodara is in regular touch with them.
“We are very grateful to Aide et Action for helping us to return home. We were stranded without cash and food or water in a new city in the hope of reaching home amidst the COVID-19 lockdown. Aide et Action provided us with immense support both financially as well as emotionally,” said Malu Shah, one of the migrants from UP.
“The COVID-19 has brought a lot of hardships for the marginalized section of the society. To aid the migrants, we have converted our 19 iLEAD centres into Information and Resource Centres for them. Our employees have been trained to be vigilant of such cases and to follow them rigorously. As soon as we receive information about these stranded labourers, we trace them and arrange facilities for them to return home. As a responsible organization, we are committed to aiding the needy and marginalized in whatever way we can and with this initiative, we are able to support more than 3,000 people to reach back to their source villages safely.” said Dr. Aishwarya Mahajan, Director- Livelihood Education, South Asia, Aide et Action International.