Since 2014, MOST has been functional in Lucknow and is run by city boy Hemant Thakur. It was founded with a vision to teach children hailing from underprivileged sections of the society. So when the country-wide lockdown was imposed, many of those pupils studying here reported that their parents who were mostly daily wagers, had lost sources of income and have been facing issues of various kinds. To minimise this crisis, Hemant took it upon his shoulders to reach out to people in need and his story has left us all inspired!
The inception of MOST (Malti Organisation for Special Talent)
“My father was in Indian Army and gave his life fighting for his country in 2015. I had grown up seeing him serving his country and helping people around him, since my childhood.When I was pursuing my Bachelors, I started teaching two-three children from nearby slums for free and in no time, the number increased to 150. Shortly after that, I registered an NGO by the name of MOST (Malti Organisation for Special Talent); Malti is my mother’s name. Now I work full time for HCL Technologies as an IT Manager and simultaneously I have also been running this classroom with the help of my friends and family.”
Hemant further added, “After the country-wide lockdown commenced, along with some friends and my family, I started working towards providing ration and food to the daily wagers in and around Lucknow from the second day itself. During the initial days, we cooked food at home and bought water bottles for people who were returning back to their native places from national highways. We set up two food stalls on Faizabad Road to help these migrants travelling on foot or cycles in this scorching weather.”
“Later to feed more people, we tied up with a kitchen which sold food packets at ₹30 each and we used to buy 2,500 such packets everyday and distribute it in different parts of Lucknow. Most of the people we helped were migrant labourers from Chhattisgarh and Bihar. So far we have distributed over 40,000 meals and 3,000 dry ration packets, that has a week’s worth of ration. Our ration packet is sufficient for a small family for a week- it has 5kg atta, 5kg chawal, 2kg daal, 2kg sugar, masala, 1ltr cooking oil, toothpaste, sanitary pads and so on. We have been supplying the essentials in areas like Gomti Nagar, Malhour, Chinhat, Khargapur, Takhwa Gawn, Nishatganj, Hazratganj, Rajajipuram, Vikas Nagar and Deva Road amidst other parts,” Hemant said.
“I feel lucky that I have such friends and family who have been very supportive throughout the campaign and it is still going strong! We have also helped thousands of migrants to register for special trains and sent them back home. This was done in sync with the UP Government. Seeing our work, many of my friends either contacted me to support or they started helping people near their places and that was the ultimate goal- to motivate people to help others during these testing times,” he added.
A message to all our readers
“If one person stemming from a middle-class background with no connections to the creamy layer can run such a relief campaign on this scale, then folks who are blessed with resources of all sorts can do a lot more if they put their hearts into it.”
So if you wish to help on any level, you can contact MOST on 09473692346 and 07705851111. You can also visit their website and click on the DONATE button to help further. They are also available on Google Pay, Paytm and PhonePe.
