An Initiative by Philem Rohan Singh, a cyclist & social activist who pedaled 5000+ kms from Kolkata covering 4 major metros – Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Delhi
The multi city social campaign by which he reached out to more than 4000 people during the span of 60 days
Indian migrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic has faced multiple hardships. With offices and factories following the protocol of the lockdown imposed in the country, millions of migrant workers had to deal with job loss, food shortage and uncertainty about their future. Scarcity of food is the biggest problem faced by the poor and homeless people during this pandemic. Nearly 14% of India population is undernourished and India ranked 94 among 107 nations in the Global Hunger Index 2020, many people lose their lives because of hunger.
Philem Rohan is distributing the food packets to the homeless people
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a food shortage in India and Cycling for Humanity’s – ‘Feeding the hungry’ campaign aimed at feeding the poor & homeless people. The team of young enthusiasts with the vision of working towards humanity, distributed food items, groceries, one time meal and even provided shelter to the homeless and migrant labour. They also helped more than 60 drug addicts and successfully shifted to the rehabilitation centers with the help of local police. The campaign was started a year ago from Manipur but later decided to take it to the other parts of the country as well.
Flagging off ceremony from Kolkata
As a part of the campaign, Rohan along with his team embarked a cycle journey starting from Kolkata to Chennai – Bengaluru – Delhi. The campaign, which was flagged off on 5th February from Kolkata and culminated on 8th April, traversing around 5000+ kms. The focus of the campaign was to help people in need by providing them with food, groceries, slippers, clothes etc. for their basic survival.
Talking about his commitment and passion Philem Rohan Singh, Cyclist & Social Activist and the Founder of ‘Cycling for Humanity’ said, “I have started cycling in 2018 and complete 8 expeditions as of now, the aim of each expedition is to spread awareness towards humanity. Due to the pandemic, so many people are facing the food scarcity, especially the homeless. So, we decided to initiate the campaign ‘Cycling for Humanity-Feeding the hungry’ and travelled across 4 major metros to feed hungry people.”
“During our expedition we could not cover Mumbai because of the increasing COVID-19 and country again getting into the lockdown situation, still were able to feed 4000+ people in just 60 days and will continue to do so,” he added.
While travelling from Kolkata – Chennai – Bengaluru – Delhi the team faced various challenges, the COVID protocol was the biggest challenge for travelling.