Heath Awareness and Food kits distribution at Pavur
Mangaluru: Pavur is a unique parish in the Diocese of Mangalore, about 30 KMs south of Mangalore city and geographically it is part of Kerala state. It is unique, because it is the only one parish where liturgical language and mother tongue of people is Tulu. Most of these people belong to scheduled tribe called Koragas.
These people are badly hit due to economic slowdown during time of Covid 19. In Fact , even today, there was section 144 imposed by the state Government to curtail the pandemic. Covid cases in the state and in the district are on the rise.
Since majority of these people are daily wage workers, many of them lost the jobs due lockdowns. Even now, economy is sluggish and many of these casual workers are jobless.
CODP identified 150 families from this area with the help of the Parish priest Rev Varghese. The identified people are not only Christians but also non Christians.
On Oct 11, 2020, Fr. Oswald Monteiro, the Director of CODP gave an awareness talk on Covid 19 soon after the Sunday services. He stressed precautionary measures like wearing masks, keeping safe distance, washing the hands regularly, avoid crowds and congested places, gargling with salt water etc. He informed the participants that an agency called Manos Unidas from Spain had donated some money for this relief work and after the distribution at Ullal Hoige and Pakshikere, Pavur is the last place to get the relief from that source. Manos Unidas means “Hands of unity”, which is a group of volunteers who have generously helped several countries and thus show their solidarity with the poor of the world.
After the talk, each family was given food kit, sanitizers, masks, and a free book on environment conservation called “Parisara -Devara Vara”
One of the parishioners responded later that “It is precisely during this time we needed some relief most because we still do not have earnings and you have provided it to us. We are grateful to you and please convey our thanks to the donors of Manos Unidas.”
The people were very happy to take home big packets of provisions.
A lot of volunteers from Pavur along with Praveen and his wife Tejaswini gave voluntary service to register names, packaging, and setting discipline.
Media Release