Don Bosco Anbu Illam in its little way is supporting the health department of Greater Chennai Corporation and has united their efforts to aid the homeless people who have been neglected during the quarantine period. Because of the lockdown, normal people too who have been stranded because of the shutdown of all the transport facilities their lives became shipwreck. These people almost 2000 of them have been reached out with the help of Greater Chennai corporation were given a shelter in the limit of Chennai Corporation. These homeless and migrant people were given arrangements of temporary Shelter at marriage halls and corporation community halls. These people were also being entertained to fight the Social isolation by projecting movies, conducting social games and especially Crisis counseling for them. We also run Childline which is a National Emergency help line for children who are in distress under the ministry of women and child development. We have rescued children who are homeless and abandoned on the street and help them with the help of CWC and place them in Children’s homes.

With the help of HCL Foundation, Don Bosco Mondo, Greater Chennai Corporation and other local donors DBAI has reached 6000 families during the Covid 19 Lockdown. We are also working in 35 intervention areas, and intervened by establishing Relief Camp, provision of Grocery Kit, Hygiene Kit, Nutrition Kit, Creating awareness through art, reaching out to our caring community group, support to the families of our institutionalized children, tele counseling and help desk

Greater Chennai Corporation joined hands with DB AnbuIllam in reaching out to the homeless and migrant workers during Covid19 Lockdown and extended a helping hand at this moment of crisis. We established relief camps at the Chennai Central Railway Station. We rescued the families that were deprived of basic amenities due to lockdown and with the help of GCC we provided food, dry rations, nutrition, toiletries, hygiene kit and clothes to people especially the slum dwellers and also to the other night shelters run under the NULM project by GCC.

COVID-19 lockdown greatly affected the daily routine of people. People suffered a lot because they were not able to earn their daily food. There was also need for Personal Protective Equipment Kit (PPE). So, all these people in need were provided with their basic necessities. The following essentials were distributed to the people and Standard Operating Procedure was followed in all the distribution of relief materials.
• Provision of Personal Protective Equipment Kit (PPE)
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is very important to provide safety for the health professionals. And so, on 6th of April 2020, 100 PPE Kits were provided to the staff at Government Stanley Hospital. And on 15th of April, 60 Kits were provided to Sri SatyaSai Medical College and Research Institute for Government Stanley Hospital.
On 11th of April, 2020, DBAI staff and the community volunteers who were involved in the reach out were provided with the protection Kit. Around 100 members benefitted through this venture.
• Provision of Day meals
The nationwide lockdown caused many problems to people such as demand for food, provisions, etc. So, day-meals were provided to Greater Chennai Corporation, Choolaimedu slum and Kodambakkam slum on the following days: 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th of April, 2020. On each day more than 500 people were fed.
• Distribution of groceries
Due to the lockdown people had no work to do. There was no income and many people literally were struggling to get the basic groceries to run their family.So groceries were distributed to Gurukul children’s family by which 1300 members were benefitted. On 10th of April, groceries were distributed to people in Kannagi Nagar and Thuraipakkam. On 11th of April, groceries were distributed to people at Perumbakkam.

• Donation of Necessary Materials
Necessary materials like Sarees and sanitizers were donated to Bro Siga Old Age Home, at Broadway on 14th of April, 2020.
Our main target during this reach-out were Children. In order to keep them busy and engaged online activities were started. Regular follow-up and monitoring were also done online. The following were the activities conducted for the children:
• Online Classes
To impart the children with useful knowledge, a WhatsApp group was created with the community children according to their communities and classes and Thirukkural was posted in children’s group on a daily basis. The students would learn the Thirukkural and send videosin which they would be reciting the same.
• Sports
The sports students were encouraged to do daily workouts and follow up was done regularly through a Zoom Call meeting by the respective coaches.
Awareness Programs
• Online Awareness
To maintain social distancing and also to make our children aware of certain topics like COVID-19 safety measures, identification of COVID-19, nutritional supplements etc, awareness was created through online instructions.
• Road Awareness
Awareness about Corona virus was provided by way of road drawing by the Scouts and Guides of DBAI-HCLF.

Childline 1098 is a 24/7 service for the children in distress. Even though the entire nation was under a complete lockdown, our services through Childline were still on. The rescue of children, monitoring of the children on the streets were done throughout and placing the rescued children in the child care institutions with the help of child welfare committee were regularly carried out. The DBAI Childline team rescued a girl child who was stranded during the crisis and placed the child at the Child care institution with the support from CWC.

We distributed grocery kit to 350 families from the coastal slums. The families were deprived of the basic amenities. We stitched 1000 cloth masks with the help of our vocational training women and Self-Help Group women and distributed to the communities, volunteers and to other frontline workers. We also distributed nutritional snacks to the children from our tuition centres.

Mr. Ashok, the scouts & guides coordinator of DBAI volunteered at Collector office to provide help desk for the staff members and visitors at Collectorate building for Covid19. They provided sanitizers and other hygiene materials which were prepared by the team for the visitors.

DBAI has children’s home separately for boys and girls and caters to 120 children. Most of themare single-parentchildren, with a very low income to the family and orphan children. Since the covid19 has affected the entire nation, Govt released orders to send Children home as a temporary custody to those who have parents or guardians. Our care givers follow up the children twice in a week and enquire their health status, daily need and psychological status. We have provided grocery kit, hygiene kit and nutritional things to the families of these children. Currently we have 13 children at our CCI who are being provided with regular medical checkups, counselling during quarantine, creative learning, training in drawing, Yoga and various other useful activities. Children are also given awareness on the spread of the Covid19 through video presentation.