While news about confirmed cases of the deadly coronavirus pandemic was fast spreading in Liberia as the government, in an effort to halt its spread, imposed a State of Emergency, and other tough restrictions including free movement of people, goods and services, many ordinary citizens and residents were equally overwhelmed by fear of hunger occasioned by such restrictions.
The restrictions could not enable many persons to engage in their daily hustle for food and other essential commodities for their immediate families. In other words, people were visibly troubled as it related to meeting the basic needs of their families.
It was in this worrisome atmosphere that the Honorary Consul General of India in Liberia who is also Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the famous Jeety Trading Corporation in Liberia, Upjit Sachdeva, buoyantly stepped in with his humanitarian services by offering free cooked meals to many disadvantaged people including the elderly, youth, and street boys and girls, such as drugs addicts, commonly referred to as “Zogos”(boys) and “Zogees” (girls).
A lot of such people have no homes but sleep in the principal streets, dilapidated buildings, and in the tombs at cemeteries in central Monrovia and its environs.
The “Zogos” and Zogees have no jobs or useful skills, but are mostly engaged in peti-crimes and other unlawful activities for living.
In the time of the State of Emergency characterized by a stay-at-home measure that gets everyone to be at his or her residence by 3 p.m. till the next day, the Zogos and zogees practically have nowhere to turn as state joint security forces comprising the Liberia National police (LNP), Liberia Immigration Service(LIS), National Security Agency (NSA), Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency among others were effectively deployed along the principal streets and in various communities to enforce the State of Emergency and other restrictions which were imposed by the President of Liberia, George Manneh Weah.
With the inscriptions “STAY HOME: Hot Cooked Food for Less Fortunate by Jeety,” a convoy of trucks by May 2020 began taking cooked and sumptuous meals daily to the Zogo communities around Monrovia; something that was not only appreciated by the beneficiaries and the government, but also the general public.
The Government of Liberia (GOL), through the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gbehzohngar Milton Findley, officially applauded the unimaginable initiative by the Indian Honorary Consul General, describing the gesture as quite satisfactory.
As for the beneficiaries, it was interesting to note in the densely populated slum community of Clara Town, Bushrod Island, outside Monrovia, that whenever 2 p.m. was approaching and more police officers were deployed to ensure orderliness in the vicinity where food distribution was being carried out, the euphoria became high as the beneficiaries, in their hundreds, received cooked meals often sealed up in plastic plates.
Each person takes his/her plate along with a bag of purified water.
Also, at the Slipway Community Sports Pitch near the Gabriel Tucker Bridge in Central Monrovia, no one could tell the young men and women, and several other old folks to form queues when 3 p.m. approaches. They formed their long queues and were ready to abide by the instructions of the police which require them to wash their hands with soap water, stay 6-feet apart from each other in line with COVID-19 prevention health protocols as they calmly walk in the queue to receive their plates and water.
A few of them who were detected to be misguided, in their attempt to sell their served food for little or nothing, others were immediately rebuffed by their comrades and other onlookers.
“Anyone who sells this food will not get what he/she wants to get, but we will take the food from such person and eat it. This is a humanitarian food, it is not for sale,” asserted some of the beneficiaries in the queue.
Another densely populated community that became an area of attraction for Jeety’s humanitarian gesture was Center Street, where many Zogos and Zogees are found roaming about almost daily.
They, like others, could not wait to take their spaces in the queues upon seeing the gargantuan meal convoy approaching their area.
Men and women, teenagers, under ten, and toddlers all formed the queue to receive their plates. “Jeety, thank you oo, thank you. If you have not come to serve us, what would have happened to us is anybody’s guess,” said a jubilant Zogo as he happily walks away with his meal.
“We have to tell Jeety thank you because many people don’t like Grow-9 people (street loiterers) because they say we are societal outcasts. So if Jeety had not come to us with food, we were not going to get it from anywhere,” said Hawa Kamara.
Trench Town at the Randall Street beach, down town Monrovia, also plays host to lot of toddlers including nursing and lamenting mothers almost all of whom cannot afford US$1 a day.
Reaching there with the food was an exciting moment for them. They all stood and walked easily under the supervision of their mothers and the police to receive their meals.
Another area, the 25th Street colony, had many indigent persons including youths and the elderly who were well- organized and behaved orderly as they received their individual meals.
In this community, the police had no headache in telling people what to do as everyone exhibited an appreciable deportment. The free meal convoy also moved to the overpopulated slum community of West Point where the number of beneficiaries swelled to over a thousand.
In spite of the huge population of disadvantaged people, Jeety prepared much daily food to feed them, and if their memories would retentively recall in years to come, the name JEETY that appears on many symbols and buildings in Monrovia and other cities directing people to business entities will never be forgotten by ZOGOS.
The food distribution was interspersed with anti-COVID-19 messages.