The Indian Consulate General here, Shri Upjit Singh Sachdeva, continues distribution of cooked food to vulnerable Liberians across Monrovia in the wake of lockdown and a State of Emergency to fight the novel coronavirus.
Mr. Sachdeva, also chief executive officer of Jeety Trading Corporation over the weekend fed several residents, including a 40 year-old handicap, Anthony Jackson, in West Point Township, a heavily congested slum community overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Monrovia.
Suffering from paralysis, Jackson had dragged himself from place to place on his butt, his only means of movement, but provident came his way when the Indian Consulate General, popularly known in Liberia as ‘Jeety’, presented him a wheelchair, that he now uses to support his movement.
The presentation of the wheelchair is part of a COVID-19 campaign dubbed, Stay Safe, Stay Alive Hot Cooked Food for Less Fortunate being executed in several communities under the Management of Jetty Trading Corporation (JTC) led by Mr. Jetty and a team of India Nationals involved with the distribution process.
Speaking to reporters after receiving the wheelchair, Anthony Jackson, overwhelmed by joy, notes that after struggling with life for many decades, he is appreciative the Indian diplomat has lifted him up from the ground.
According to him, he was shocked when he saw some of his neighbors running to his house to inform him that Mr. Jeety has bought a wheel chair which he should come to receive immediately.Without delay, Jackson drags himself to the site of the cooked food distribution in front of the commercial office of the Liberia Electricity Corporation adjacent the Waterside General Market.
He narrates that while dragging himself, he saw Mr. Jetty approaching him with a wheelchair which he had never owned in his life since he was born.He notes that it came as a dream and work of God, for Mr. Jeety, whom he had never known from anyway to come to his rescue.
Shortly after presenting the wheelchair, Mr. Jetty also presented a take home plate of cooked food to the beneficiary, while admonishing him to keep observing health protocols announced by the government against the COVID-19 to stay safe.
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Over 5,000 less fortunate Liberians in various communities are being fed daily with hot meals prepared by the Jetty Trading Corporation since the State of Emergency was imposed by President George M. Weah as a result of the Coronavirus in the country.
Benefiting communities in and outside Monrovia include Vai Town, Slipway, West Point, Center Street, Logan Town Rice Store, Randell Street Beach, Old Road, ELWA Beach (1) and (2), among others.The exercise was extended to inmates at the National Police Headquarters on Capitol Hill and the Old Road Police substation opposite the former Grassroots Cinema where Mr. Jeety distributed cooked food and safe-drinking mineral water to security officers assigned at a check point.
In a related development, a 39-year-old less fortunate woman identified as Ruth Cooper, appeals to Mr. Jeety to also assist some of them who have a desire to return to school and continue their education.
A mother of two, Madam Cooper lives among hundreds of less fortunate youth, adults, and elderly people, who are taking in dangerous substances in the Old Road community.
Meanwhile, Mr. Jetty says the cooked food distribution would now be restricted to less fortunate people in Vai Town, Slipway, Center Street and West Point respectively, due to government extension of the lockdown from 3PM to 6PM.
By Emmanuel Mondaye–Editing by Jonathan Browne
