Prajwala girls help Telangana govt in fight against COVID-19

Hyderabad: It was an eventful one week for the sex trafficking survivors at Prajwala, an NGO based in Hyderabad. Even as the world is reeling around the novel coronavirus pandemic, these survivors have taken it upon themselves to help the health sector in whichever way they can.

In an effort to address the general shortage of masks during this health crisis, a team of 18 women from Prajwala had decided to make re-usable cloth masks. Sunitha Krishnan, the founder of Prajwala says, “Most of our survivors here felt helpless hearing about the COVID-19 crisis. Some are worried regarding the safety of their families. That’s when we thought, why not channelize these energies into making something fruitful? That’s how we decided to make these re-usable masks.”

The 18-member team worked together for almost 12 hours a day to make 5,000 re-usable cloth masks, over the past one week. “During the initial days, around 300-400 masks used to be made. But as we approached the end of the week, the number of masks has also grown. They have made around 700-800 masks in a day, working constantly,” added Sunitha Krishnan.

After they crossed 5,000 masks, they were handed over to the health department officials. “Handed over 5000 face masks prepared by my girls all survivors of sex trafficking to Mrs Shanti Kumari,IAS Spl Secretary, Health & Family Welfare & Mrs @YogitaRana, Commissioner, Health. What a pleasure that Mrs Shanti Kumar wore the first mask,” tweeted the social activist.

“Our women plan to make even more masks, saying that they want to cross 10,000. As of now, Prajwala is bearing the costs. Amid this COVID-19 issue, we see so many people cribbing, bashing people or government. These girls have so many things to complain, but chose to do something for the betterment of the entire world, and that gives me hope,” signed off Sunitha.