By Sujata Jena

Bhubaneswar, April 5, 2020: The congregation of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (JMJ) of Bangalore province has reached out to hundreds of slum dwellers and poor villagers in the capital of Karnataka state in southern India.

“The charism of our congregation ‘ever adaptable apostolic availability’ prompted us to respond quickly to the needs of the hour,” B Sobha Rani, director of JMJ Social Service Society of Bangalore province, told Matters India on April 5 through Whatsapp.

Sister Rani said they first sought the local police’s permission to distribute the groceries during the lockdown.

India is currently on a 21-day lockdown from March 25 in a bid to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The nuns have undertaken the project in collaboration with Dream, an NGO.

“Our sisters from two communities went out with all precautions to distribute provisions to the needy,” Sister Rani added.

Sister Anthony Mary, the provincial, said they have distributed 300 food pockets to slum dwellers at Nagawara and Lingarajapuram, another 250 packets in Austin town and Vivek Nagar slums on April 2.

“It was heartening to see hungry children stretching out their hands and pleading for food,” the provincial said.

The JMJ nuns also reached out to another 100 families at Palamaner Mandal village in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh, a few miles away from Bengaluru.

Sister Rani said they distributed 25 kg rice, 1 kg each lentil, sugar, salt, 500 gram chili and turmeric powders and two hand wash soaps to each family in Palamaner.

According to her, the lockdown has severely affected many especially the poor daily wagers, migrant workers and domestic servants.

“While distributing ration, we guided the people to maintain social distance and gave awareness on wearing masks and washing hands,” the nun said.

Sister Rani also said their main target group was widows, elderly and persons with disabilities, the most affected.

The nuns also helped lonely elderly and handicapped families who could not collect food the government distributes at a particular place.

According to her, some families have no ration cards to avail the government rations. “The government ration isnot enough to feed families with large number of members,” the nun explained.

Sister Rani narrated the story of Jayamma, a 72-year-old widow the nuns found, who was unable to stand in the long queue for the ration. The nun said the woman was overwhelmed when they went to her door.

Sister Rani expressed her hope to reach out to more after mobilizing furthermore local resources.

“Our work is still on, we are trying to reach out to needier around Bengaluru, and distributing mask, food and dry provisions in in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh”, she added.