Bengaluru, KARNATAKA :

Bengaluru :

AS they say – think individually, act globally – BENFA is doing just that. BENFA (Bengaluru Friends Alliance) was born with the common goal and the collective efforts of a group of doctors to help the underprivileged section of society. The organization extends financial help to the poor and helps them overcome their financial hurdles in education and healthcare.

Talking about the organization Dr. Saleem Mehkri, Vice President and Trustee, said, “We were already into helping poor Muslim population with their education and health issues.

Then, it was planned by Dr. Suhel Pasha to establish an umbrella organization to facilitate their charity works on a large scale. The organization primarily addresses a large number of poor Muslims and deserving non-Muslims, too.”

Dr. Suhel Pasha, President, BENFA, said, “Twenty percent of the city’s population lives in slums with the lowest standard of education, inefficient healthcare, lack of necessities, and most importantly low standard of living. Even today, one-third of the slum dwellers fall below the poverty line with an income of less than Rs. 2500 per month. So, to help these poor populations, BENFA was established in October 2020.”

BENFA is a registered charitable trust focusing on education, healthcare, and socio-economic empowerment of underprivileged parts of society. How BENFA assists in empowering the disadvantaged? Answered Abdul Mateen, BENFA General Secretary, “We have recently launched a micro-credit scheme to provide loans to the deserving women and men to start their small trades. The loans we give are free of interest. So, they have to return only the principal loan amount without any interest.”

Dr. Saleem informed, “We have launched schemes not only to empower poor men and women financially, but we also aim to empower them through adult education schemes. We provide education and training to unemployed youngsters/adults as per their skills and help them get government or private jobs. We have helped students to pay their fees and paid hospital bills too.”

According to Dr. Saleem, around five people are benefitted every week through their microcredit scheme. So, how does the organization arrange its finances? Replied Dr. Saleem, “We have around 500 members, including 400 male members and 100 female members, who voluntarily contribute and help run the organization successfully. Nobody is forced to contribute.”

Besides these programmes, BENFA actively distributes rations during Eid-Ul-Fitr, performs Qurbani/sacrifices during Eid-Al-Adha, and distributes meat amongst low-income families. Furthermore, BENFA has several groups focusing on different areas, namely-BEEP for education, BHCP for healthcare, BSSP for socio-economic support, BMCS for microcredit schemes, and BALP for adult learning programs.

That is not all. BENFA is slowly and steadily adding more to its activities for the betterment of society. Lately, in collaboration with the field experts, BENFA has organized several webinars related to health and education topics. Pointed out to Dr. Suhel, “We organized webinars to educate people on several issues that focus on health, education, amongst others. We also organize career counselling for youth. We invite experts to address the relevant topics.”

BENFA also played an active role amidst the raging COVID 19 by supplying oxygen to the patients. As Dr. Pasha said, “We supplied oxygen cylinders during COVID 19 and spread awareness regarding the vaccine and also organized a webinar to help people prepare themselves during COVID crisis.”

Dr. Saleem urged people to join the organization as members to extend help to a large number of underprivileged people.

source: http://www.indiatomorrow.net / India Tomorrow / Home> Development> Features / by Rashida Bakait / October 16th, 2021