Srinagar, Dec 08:‘Apparel for Poor’, is an initiative started by a group of doctors to reach out to people in need of winter clothing to fight the intense cold in winter months.
The initiative was started in 2018 when a group of MBBS students of Social and Preventive Medicine (SPM) Department, GMC Srinagar, conducted a field study as a part of their curriculum during which the plight of many poor children moved them.
Dr M Saleem Khan, head department of SPM, who is behind the idea said during one of their study tours, the students saw kids from poor families shivering in cold without cloth and the children were socially and economically poor.
“The students were moved by the plight of children and decided to do something. Later they came up with the idea of collecting warm clothing,” he said.
Then they started collecting cloths from volunteers, students, citizens. “Then I shared the same on social media and requested people to donate cloths and that got a good response,” said Khan, the initiative’s patron.
“We have been doing it over the past four years fortunately. The cloths are mostly donated to people in Srinagar suburbs as per the age and gender of deserving people,” he said.
The MBBS students along with a group of ASHA workers pack cloths at the SPM Department where these are first collected and then distribute to the people in need at their doorsteps.
The students are doing it out of their will and as part of their social responsibility. The students do the work in winter months and the initiative is gaining popularity in Srinagar.
Every year, as the winter sets, the MBBS students are seen in their aprons distributing winter apparel to about 100 to 200 deserving families.
“The students get an idea to know the socio-economic conditions of the community. With this initiative, they try to help people. It also develops the philanthropic and social service behaviour among them and how to reach out to people,” Khan said.
The HoD said habitually majority of people in Kashmir keep extra cloth at home and they do not use the same or dispose them of.
“People keep extra cloth unnecessarily at home. Many people come forward and give us clothes at the department. I appeal people to donate the cloth to help the needy,” he said.
Khan said it is a mission and it will continue in the department each year. Recently, the group distributed cloth in many areas of Srinagar which was appreciated by people at large.
He said the doctors and medical students decided to help the deserving families survive the harsh winter. “Through this initiative with the help of the locals, we help deserving people survive the tough weather through the warmth of warm clothes,” he said.
