Dhaka Youth Club and Mohajon Foundation’s Manobik Store for underprivileged families

Dhaka Youth Club and Mohajon Foundation established the Manobik Store in Bongshal to help underprivileged families during the global coronavirus crisis. With the slogan, bhalo thakun, bhao rakhun, the initiative was funded from their own accounts and maintained by the members of the club and the foundation.

Sohag Mohajon, the chief coordinator, started the initiative at Haji Jummon Community Centre on March 31. The store opened from noon to three in the afternoon every day. "With the coronavirus pandemic hitting Bangladesh, the prices of masks, hand sanitisers and hand gloves increased tremendously. When the shutdown came into effect, the prices of staple food, such as rice and lentils, also increased by a good fold, which is a fraudulent approach, to be frank," explains Sohag.

This led Sohag and the others to inaugurate the humanitarian store, which gave away necessary items for free. "For every family, we have prepared a package of 5 kg of rice, 1 kg of lentils, 1 kg of potatoes, 1 kg of onions, ½ liter of oil, 1 kg of salt, 1 bottle of liquid hand wash, 1 bar of soap, ¼ kg of dates, and a mask," shared Sohag. The initiators assured health precautions and safety measures for their volunteers by providing them with aprons, gloves, masks and setups for social distancing.

They have assisted at least 100 families a day with supplies for a week. Alongside this initiative, From March 8, Dhaka Youth Club and Mohajon Foundation distributed 6,000 masks and 10,000 awareness leaflets in seven schools and disinfected several mosques and streets in the capital.