Bhubaneswar: Inspired by the saying, “Give a Man a Fish, and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man To Fish, and You Feed Him for a Lifetime”, So Am I (SAI) Foundation Trust, a non-profit social organization launched “SWA AAHAR INITIATIVE”under its Hunger Free Odisha drive for sustainable livelihood of mild and moderate category of persons in the Urban as well asthe Rural areas. The initiative was inaugurated by Sri B.K.Pattnaik, IAS, Former Chief Secretary, Odisha & Sri Satyajit Mohanty, IPS, DG of Police, Fire & Home Guard at Esplanade Mall in the presence of Wellknown Linguist PadmashreeDebiprasannaPattanayak, Chairman, So Am I Foundation; HH Maharaja SriPrabin Chandra Bhanjeo, Mayurbhanj and HH Maharani SmtRashmiRajyalakshmiBhanjdeo, Mayurbhanj.
Under the initiative, the unemployed mass will be employed for various income generating sources such as Vege Cart, Juice/ Tea Cart, saplings Bouquet Stalls etc. For the most part, the foundation aims at employing people with special needs (often orthopedic challenges), the poor (widows, divorces, and skilled seniors) to include in their SWA AAHAR INITIATIVE.
Speaking on the occasion, Sri B.K.Pattnaik, IAS, Former Chief Secretary, Odisha said, “ It’s amazing to see a newly formed NGO has worked so much for a Hunger Free Odisha. I am extremely pleased to learn that they have provided Nine Lakhs Meals in the last one year! ”
Appreciating the initiative, Sri Satyajit Mohanty, IPS, DG of Police, Fire & Home Guard, “I have been knowing this Hunger Free Odisha initiative since,I was the Commissioner of Police, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack. This is indeed a great service they are rendering. Today, it is pleasure inaugurating the Livelihood Initiative: SwaAhar”
Speaking on the initiatives of the Hunger Free Odisha, CoFounder of So Am I Foundation, Dr.ChidatmikaKhatua said “ We have started with One Food Bank in 18th August 2019, today with the grace of God, we could able to serve Nine Lakh Meals, having three Food Banks and two Mobile Food Banks. Lockdown due to the pandemic had given us an opportunity to serve many categories of people throughout the state. Recently, we have started the SAI’s Community Kitchen, where we are serving meals to 200 neediest of the needy people since 30th November 2020.”
Speaking on vision of theSwaAhar initiative,Pinaki Mohanty, Founder of So AM I (SAI) said, “While distributing meals & rations, one visually impaired person’s version touched me. They don’t want to beg, rather asked us to provide livelihood. We have targeted the mild and moderate category of persons with special needs (mostly orthopedically challenged), destitute (widows, divorcee and abled senior citizens) to include in our SWA AAHAR INITIATIVE We will provide training, equipment, raw materials and the marketing support through the livelihood projects. Also this initiative will generate employment and income source for all. So keeping this in mind we have come up with Swa Aahar like initiative that would build long-term livelihood sustainability of the urban poor within the State.” “We are looking forward to taking the initiative in other districts of Odisha as well like Berhampur, Sambalpur and gradually will be adding the rural belts of the state into the initiative.” he further added.
The Foundation has felicitated to Sri Tanuj Mohanty, M/G Mohanty; HH Maharaja Sri Prabin Chandra Bhanjeo, Mayurbhanj ; HH Maharani Smt Rashmi Rajyalakshmi Bhanjdeo, Mayurbhanj; Sri Koushik Das, CEO, AAO TV; T.R. AyushSahu, Chairman, Bhubaneswar Round Table Sri Sunil Taneja, Sri Sunil Kishorepuria Mrs. Purnima Baid, Utkal Galleria Mall, Mrs. Sulagna Daspatnaik, Gurgaon Rtn. Ajay Agarwal, Mrs. Shyama Jha, Mrs. Rashmi Gupta, YI Chair, Bhubaneswar Mrs Sony Samal, Noted Film Director Sri Snehasis Das for their support to the Hunger Free Odisha Initiative.
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