Till date, the WithBengaluru initiative distributed ~6500 food ration kits to vulnerable groups across #Bengaluru. Thoughts about the 2-week journey...

#1 Identifying need: this happened organically. @vinaysreeni connected to some experienced NGO workers, who were already seeing distress calls from slums and labour colonies they worked with. Soon more people starting sharing requests from across the city...

#2 Platform: Requests pour into a whatsapp channel (with all its limitations). Not ideal, but ubiquitous. Volunteer moderators track requests and responses, summarising status, highlighting unfulfilled requests... and matching with offers from those sending food packets

#3 The supporters - amazing individuals & organisations. E.g NRAI members, Mercy Mission, Atria Foundation, Prof Trilochan Sastry etc. In fact the initiative started only coz Ibrahim (Beijing Bites) reached out on 24/Mar, saying he wanted to supply food packets for those in need

Not just Ibrahim & team, many restaurants including Chichabas, Saapad, Bhaijaans Barbeque... have opened their hearts and hearths, to make food packets for the needy...

#4 Mapping & deduplication: This is a big challenge. There are many orgs & networks, those in need will try all options - but it's imp to remove duplicate requests, given scarce resources. So need every network to share info. @reapbenefit on this at http://nd.solveninja.org )

Some groups which have taken ownership of specific geographic areas - like Whitefield Rising (WF, Mahadevapura side), Goonj (SE Bangalore - Hosur Road to Sarjapur Road and in-between), Rotary, RoundTable etc. If you are helping any large group, please inform @reapbenefit

#5 A credible, trustworthy nodal agency - that's @Hasiru_Dala in this case. They handle the operations (supported by a bunch of tireless volunteers). Importantly, they understand grassroots needs. Here is @CPBlr visiting the packing centre today.

#6 Fundraising - many of us volunteers worked on this. Crowdsourced Rs 17 lakhs + some CSR funds still not enough to fulfil requests from 15000+ families... https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-with-bengaluru

#7 Often stuff happens ad hoc and inefficient. But the situation is fluid and we have to last out till the govt machinery kicks in everywhere. Ration shops and social security are critical needs now.

In some places, govt & some orgs are fulfilling just a small part of the needs: Issuing 400 tokens when there are 3000 families can lead to conflicts that can potentially turn violent. Also urgently need to identify pockets where no aid's reached. Water, cooking fuel big issues

There are also partisan groups who target select communities in a given pocket. This is not acceptable esp. when there is public funding involved. As they say, the communal virus is a bigger problem.

The saddest: upper middle class junta who can surely afford to pay their domestic helps basic wages, refusing to do so. Construction firms can afford to pay labourers at least part wages to manage food needs...

~30% of Bangalorean households earn 10L+ annually, can't this group support basic food supply for the BOP ~40% (urban poor) + migrants for a month?
i.e each of us feed 2 more families for a month? Can't we pitch in with a mere 5000 bucks?