26-yo Dehradun man to adopt 100 children orphaned due to Covid-19

Team Udayavani, Jul 2, 2021, 11:43 AM IST

A 26-year-old social worker from Dehradun has planned to adopt 100 children who have lost both their parents to Covid-19.

The coronavirus pandemic has taken a severe toll on our lives but the worst affected are children who have lost either one or both of their parents to the virus. As per a recent survey not just the number of orphaned children has increased in the country but crimes against them too are on the rise.

Jai Sharma is the founder of the city-bassed NGO JOY (Just Open Yourself). In its Facebook page, the NGO announced that it has already begun the campaign of adopting 100 children apart from the already 20 adopted ones.

“When the second wave of COVID-19 started, we encountered five such families in the initial two weeks where both the parents had died, and the child/children were left alone at home. A few of these children were of classes 4th-5th age group, one was in 12th, and the rest were small in age. At that moment, it hit our mind that this unfortunate scenario is inevitable, and we were to come across more such cases as the pandemic rose,” stated Sharma in the FB post.

Presently the NGO is taking care of financial and other needs — food, medicines etc of 20 children and is in process of adopting a further 50 children in a weeks time. “Within a week, we will be completing our target of adopting 50 children, followed by 100 children eventually. I, Jai Sharma from JOY, am there to support these children by any means possible, till the time they become self-sufficient!,” the post reads.

The adopted children hail not just from Dehradun but also from the hilly regions and rural areas. The NGO is in constant touch with the gram panchayats of villages in the hills for helping out children who have been rendered orphans. The organisation will take the responsibility to help the children till the time they become self-sufficient.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the NGO has involved itself in distribution of COVID medical kits, sanitization kits along other medical equipment to those in need. The NGO has been distributing free 24×7 oxygen cylinders with no additional charges.