Community Spotlight Covid19 Response Live Happy

We understand that the Live Happy has stepped up to support vulnerable people throughout this quarantine period. Can you explain a bit more about how you guys mobilized to offer your support, and which communities you are currently working with?

What is the mission of Live Happy?

—The mission of Live Happy is to bring about eclectic solutions to societal problems through the Sustainable Development model and our motto is to achieve social empowerment by implementing a collectivistic and inclusive community-based approach.
And this is exactly what Live Happy has been doing along with the Aware Citizens group of Assagao for 10 years and in the last month when the lockdown was implemented. It is absolutely amazing to see the entire community together towards a common goal that is: no person should go to sleep hungry.

And can you tell a bit more about some of the other community projects you have helped facilitate in the past for Goa?

Live Happy has been involved in providing waste management solutions in the past. We did this for five years, awareness, collection, and segregation. For the past three years, But we still create awareness in the community, the students that attend our classes, and on social media. We also now run a center that provides holistic learning classes to children in the community, this is our third year, and each year we have more children thus more opportunities to make an impact.for 5 year running school happy home on behaviour activities with 30 Students .

I have also been involved in hosting major social and environmental movements in Goa. These include Goencho Avaz, Goeichi Maati, Goa against PDA, Goa against CRZ, Goa against coal goa revolutionary . These events provide an opportunity to make an impact on thousands of people that are either present physically at the event or witnessing it through mass social media.
In Assagao we work in the community by providing asset-based solutions to social issues.

What have you been doing to support Goa during this lockdown period?

When the pandemic first hit especially in China and Italy, I interviewed three doctors of the local community about it. We highlighted on the symptoms, precautions, consequence of COVID 19. These video interviews served as sources of information on social media to the people.
The pandemic is an overwhelming situation for everyone, it is new and thus measures to take care of the people in such a situation is not in place. The panchayat members, the members and the Aware citizen’s group along with the local shopkeepers had a meeting with the deputy collector in Assagao about the problems the village was facing. We spoke about how to get stock in the shops and from there to the people.

Assagao has a population of 13 thousand people including migrants and those migrants workers in construction sites as well as those who reside in rented premises in the area. While the panchayat paid attention to the needs of the local citizens. We focused on serving those most in need people of the village.
On the first day of the lockdown…the 23rd five of us saw the essential need for FOOD.
By the 31st March, WE started distributing the produce collected and purchased to the people we knew that were most in need in the village. We then visited construction sites in the village and saw that the laborers were stranded and their builder had deserted them. We contacted the local police station and along with the police, the inspector solved the problem by getting the contractor involved and distributing ration to around 90 workers that day.
The sheer numbers, as well as the conditions we witnessed, made us realize that there will be more such people around Assagao and if help had to reach them then data had to be gathered. Another reason for collecting data was to identify those that were really in need of help. The data collected would help the set criteria to give free ration.
We currently have in our database of 248 families which is data of 951 people include there profession, which will come to great help in coming days(AGRICULTURE) . The data collection has been appreciated by many people. This includes the Deputy North Goa collector and IAS officer electioner commissioner , who came personally to oversee the distribution of ration on the 10th of April, that was undertaken by Government.

What are some of the difficulties you have faced while trying to do this work?

· With such strict measures to curtail the flow of people outside in the initial phases of the lockdown, one of the fears was being lathi-charged. But being in close contact police station of Anjuna helped us move a little more freely to carry out our work.
· There was no supply for food so procuring material to do our work was a challenge
· Similarly funding was a problem too. But then this was solved with the help of a handful of people from the Aware citizen’s group. Through the connections of our NGO, we were also able to get raw materials and still have more .
· Things like packing, following up with families to see who is really in need , finding volunteers to help us to do the distribution has also been challenging.
· On-site distribution with 200 people swarming is a difficult thing to do too. But with the help from the police crowd management was done systematically.
· In the beginning handling of data and managing the outpour of information was a big task. We had people from all over the village sending in information. Segregating, deciding how to keep a record of goods given, etc. was an uphill task but we have now fallen into a smooth-running system.
All these challenges were hurdles that we needed to cross and we have done so very systematically and successfully

What has been the most rewarding part of this experience?

Food is one of mans essential needs and when that is need is not being met it puts a strain like never before on people. This was very visible on the faces and in the voices of people. Seeing the wrinkles of stress turn into wrinkles of a smile even after receiving only for a couple of days worth of ration is a reward. Their words of blessings were and are the greatest rewards. The support of the Aware Citizens group providing funds and people across Goa who provided us ration to feed people government support was just perfect was heartwarming and beautiful experience.

How many migrants/day laborers have you fed/supported thus far?

As of 16th April we have fed 483, this ration provided is roughly able to feed them for three days. So if we say we have provided food for these individuals three times it equals feeding 1449 people. And this process is still ongoing.
Since the lockdown has eased in Goa and people are going to work now, they have a little money on their hands. What we are now doing is to provide ration packages at very subsidized rates to those that can afford it and we have four to five laborers coming in every day to purchase it. We make sure this process is also transparent all the subsided ration packages sold have receipts made so that transparency is maintained. However, we are still providing free ration to those families are needy .

Can you tell us a bit more about the community art competition you are running at the moment and how people can get involved?

The Live Happy NGO along with the Aware Citizens Group of Assagao has come up with an initiative that has the potential to spark a chain reaction in the community. This idea spurt from a recent donation that we received from a friend Starling Dsouza towards the Assagao Food Relief Program. 500 Fanta bottles have been given to be distributed.

Since we are a sustainable NGO, it goes against our ethos to generate waste of 500 plastic bottles. Thus to tackle this problem we have decided to host a Wealth out of Waste competition for the children, in which they will have to use these or other bottles they have to create art/ a useable product.

This initiative falls under the Awareness Program of the NGOs Live Empower project. Live Empower not only targets creating awareness of the issues faced by society but also deals with grass-root level approach wherein children are shaped into promising citizens of growth and development.

So, this contest is for the children of Assagao, they have to register through a Google form the link is shared personally and Facebook page, they need to send us a picture of their artwork along with a small description that tells us about the material used and its use through Whatsapp by the 3rd of May. All those who enter the contest will win a prize because to us they are all winners that are making the best use of their creativity and material they have at hand.

Keeping social Distancing This entire contest is being conducted and coordinated online. We have over 167 registrations so far. Each family has two children, sometimes more, so the total is 267 children that we managed to reach. What we are planning to do next with all the data that we have gathered is to continue creating awareness through social media about various other topics, we will also work on collaborating with our current collaborators at the NGO to bring something educational to these children at home that will add value to their lives. we believe in bringing the fun back in learning it was limited to the 30 children that studied at our classes but we now have an opportunity to open our doors(virtually ) to 267 children and more, so why not?

Can you tell us about the pizza party you are co hosting with Terra Consciousness and Saraya? Who is it for? And how you came up with the idea for the event?

Now, once we received the Fanta, I shared this information with Puja Mitra from Terra Conscious. And it is she who suggested that we should have a Pizza Party for the children. Since all the adults are reeled up with procuring essentials, a small party to ease up the tension is the last thing on the minds of caregivers. So, we thought why no bring a smile to faces of the children and this is how the idea came to life. We have Fanta and chocolates sponsored by Starling and Pizzas from Sarayah. This special meal is for 70 children and 30 caregivers of ASRO-Care home for children suffering from HIV/AIDS and Don Bosco Orphanage-Bastora.

Anyone you would like to give a shout out to or thanks in particular for helping your organization?

There has been so much outpour of support during this time of crisis. All the work that is being done was not possible to be done in a short period of time without help and support. This includes arranging food, raising funds, putting a system in place, managing the food, distribution of food and especially maintaining the norms of social distancing.
This is a friendly conversation with Kavita Datta, an active member of the Aware Citizens group. When we entered the first day of lockdown and the major food crisis broke upon everyone. She said that “Our priority is that nobody should remain hungry. And money shouldn’t be the problem” and she managed to raise funds towards the cause on that very day. That was great moral support for us to go ahead.
The next greatest support has been that of our volunteers that have helped in the overwhelming food distribution. We had Alok Hisarwala, Kegan desouza, Melroy simoies who were on the site, in areas distributing food when everyone was cooped up in their homes because we didn’t know how fast or when the disease would affect anyone. Their families were also supportive of them in this cause. For me personally, it comes from my wife Beatriz Contreras Milla, co-founder of Live Happy. From Spain . Knowing the intensity of her country . Who gives me the support to go out and help the needy by risking her life and the life of our two year old son as well as our family at home. The support that I have received from home has been great. Another source of support has been our team that works on the backend, our coordinator Talasha Sawant who is tireless working towards the management of data and following with the supply of the needy people.
Our great support comes from our funders, Malvika Tiwari, Vijay Mishra, Ritu Damial, Heidi, Dr shika and so many more people that have supported us raising funds.

But most importantly my gratitude goes out to our children who study at our classes, our champions have helped us get data from different localities of the migrants We were able to reach these different pockets of Assagao because of the children that attend our Live Happy Holistic Learning Classes. They have helped us gather a lot of this data and helped us reach so many people. They are our champions.

Different Organizations have also been of great help to us like Jill Furguson from ActForGoa, who not only provided us motivation but also strategies to help us devise a system for food distribution. ActforGoa has been working in the entire North Goa region to provide food for migrants. Puja Mitra, from Terra Conscious who has collaborated with us to provide sanitization kits for children and their families. She is also helping us bring smiles to children in care homes by helping us organize the pizza party.
Ilka Muller Patham, who is also helping us in designing and conceptualizing for the groundwork.
Nancy Medonca also generously gave her coconut produce of 180 coconuts to be distributed
Starling Desouza(Hilltop) who ration for 60 families, 500 Fanta bottles as well as other essential goods and Big hearty thanks to Yogoda Satsanga Society of India Goa Mandali Porvorim, and farther Laurance don Bosco .

What is your plan moving forward? Do you see the type of support needed changing?

Our plan moving forward is to continue to provide food for the needy for free, people who still face difficulties but can afford we will provide the ration at a subsided price. Our concern is to provide free food to those who are needy but are able to work. What do we ask from them in return is their time. With their time we can get involved in agriculture, for cultivating our own food. We are blessed with land, good soil and a good ecosystem to grow our own produce. If these things fall in place, the tool that we are using is the contest. So that the future generation the children will get involved in agriculture and sustainable way of living and having our own food. This the final goal we are looking out for. The contest is just the beginning to get the children involved. Said and done there is not much food requirement now. But we are planning to go ahead with the same plan so that workers give us their time and we invest their time in agriculture activities and provide this food back to them.

If you could hope for one thing for Goa, in the outcome of all of this, what would it be?

The outcome is the mass awakening and learning of a big lesson, especially for Goa. What Goa was known for fundamentally its rich heritage: AGRICULTURE. We would produce our own food we have an abundance of land and this land is buried for money and materialistic gain. While progress is important it is also important to assure that we don’t loose and destroy our motherland. I would hope that this pandemic moves us all collectively to revive, protect, and restore our agriculture and get back to farming Be self sustainable and live happy ,,?.