Reaching out to the less fortunate
Taslima Khatun's livelihood was dependent on selling flowers on streets, but for the last one week, the roads were empty and there was no one to buy flowers from her.
All her joys seemed fading away.
Recently, a video of her plight was shared on social media and it came in notice of team Mission Save Bangladesh (MSB), an initiative aiming to support underprivileged families facing hardship amid shutdown imposed to contain Covid-19.
Without any delay, the group reached out to Taslima (45) at her slum near the city's Dhaka Udyan area where she lives with her daughter and son-in-law, and provided her with groceries and necessary commodities.
The joint initiative by The Daily Star, Sheba.xyz, and Samakal, have supported more than 2,000 families in the past eight days.
MSB also aims to provide financial support for small businesses and deliver community-based support such as disinfecting homes and distributing required materials to contain the virus' spread, said Tajdin Hassan of The Daily Star.
Taslima said she sells flowers at the stretch between Aarong intersection and Rapa Plaza on Mirpur Road.
"These days, no one wants to buy flowers," said Taslima, sharing the hardship she and her family members are facing now.
To help the underprivileged, MSB has joined hands with renowned brands which came forward with financial and strategic support. The Shakib Al Hasan Foundation, a charity initiative of the ace Bangladeshi cricketer, joined the cause recently.
At a time when the government was taking preventive measures to tackle coronavirus, people had to lock themselves in their homes, resulting many daily wage-earners to face uphill battle to maintain their livelihoods.
Recently, MSB also supported Belal Hossain, a differently-abled person in the port city of Chattogram.
Belal said a small shop was his source of income, but he had to close it following the outbreak.
As his savings ran out within just a few days, he communicated with MSB on its Facebook page.
MSB members in Chattogram gathered necessary information and subsequently helped Belal with some basic requirements.
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