Known as the Oxygen Man of Hyderabad, Mohammed Sujathullah has been waging a war against hunger for more than four years. People started calling him Oxygen Man following him providing free oxygen cylinders to more than 1000 persons suffering from coronavirus.
Mohammed Sujathullah has been arranging free breakfast for 1000 people for the last four and a half years without missing a single day, in three government hospitals–King Koti Maternity Hospital, Sultan Bazaar, Niloufer Hospital, Red Hills, and NIMS, Punjagutta. He has also been providing dinner to homeless people on the roadsides for the past year.
Mohammed Sujathullah spoke to siasat.com about his journey to help people. He also spoke about what motivated and inspired him. He also shared his future plans in the fight against hunger.
Journey
Though he studied up to fifth grade, he could learn only the use of English alphabets. “I don’t know whether it was a favor from the school to promote me from one class to another. I crawled up to the fifth standard but hardly learned anything,” he remembered.
Then came the turnaround. But he doesn’t know-how. He suddenly began focusing on studies and worked vigorously to get into B. Pharmacy in Sultan Uloom College. In the third year of the course in 2015, he realized that he has to clear an Organic Chemistry backlog which he was a tough subject for him.
He could somehow clear that subject in one of the re-examinations he wrote. Sujathullah had vowed that if he clears the examination he would feed 10 persons. Following the results remembered his vow and bought 10 food packets from his meager savings and gave them away.
“In 24 years of my life, I had never felt as happy as I did when I fed hungry persons,” Sujathullah said after his experience in charity. He went to distribute food at a railway station and found himself in a situation where he had only 4 packets and there were 15-20 hungry people looking at me expectantly.
“That’s when I realized what hunger is. I realized how privileged I was to have been born into a family where all my wishes were fulfilled by my parents,” Sujathullah added. He said that this was when he decided to start distributing food on a daily basis. That was the beginning of his journey.
Since he lived in a joint family, he told everyone what he was planning to do. His family members decided to pledge a part of their monthly earnings to feed the hungry. In 2015-16 he distributed food four times a week with the help of his friends. We started doing a supper distribution program beginning with 50 food packs and slowly reached up to 200.
During his years in Pharm. D, he wasn’t able to take time out for social service. Later he came up with the idea of organizing breakfasts. “I could benefit more people with a smaller budget,” he said.
He said that he started distributing food packets at a government hospital and later added more distribution points.
Until now he has completed 1700 days. Also, now he has been organizing breakfasts for people at three government hospitals without missing a single day.
Encouraged by the support and success of his work, Sujathullah founded an NGO, Humanity First Foundation. He is now working on various other issues.
He said that he manages the funds with the help of crown funding with a 100% donation system i.e., his NGO. At the same time, he doesn’t take any money for himself.
“Everyone has something special within himself or herself. They should recognize and use it. Pay attention to the life after death, and become a good human,” Sujathullah advises.
Future plans
“Currently we are organizing water camps at bus stops. Since the beginning of the pandemic we have arranged groceries and lunch for the migrant workers,” he informed.
Since the beginning of the pandemic last year his organization has bought 400 oxygen cylinders and 30 concentrators to benefit the people.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> News> Hyderabad News / by Usama Hazari / June 21st, 2021
Relief organizations of Hyderabad, run by Muslims, have come to the rescue of the state and offered help to fight the shortage of Oxygen.
A TCN Ground Report features some of them.
Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Hyderabad in the southern Indian state of Telangana and rise in deaths due to the virus, the severe shortage of oxygen, ventilators and beds in both the government and private-run hospitals exposed the shortfalls of the healthcare system of the state.
Reports said that many patients were turned away from the hospitals due to a shortage of beds and died in their homes. Those admitted to the hospitals died due to lack of oxygen supply and delay in oxygen tankers reaching them. This lead to hundreds of deaths in Hyderabad alone.
Reports also said that hospitals were overcharging Covid-19 patients. These factors contributed to many people choosing to opt for home treatment.
It was then that the relief organizations of the state, run by Muslims, came to the rescue and offered help to fight the shortage of Oxygen.
Talking to TwoCircles.net, Shiba Minai, an activist said, “I make at least 50 to 60 calls to get a bed for a patient”.
Shiba helps people by connecting them with groups, hospitals and organizations that have been helping patients with beds and oxygen facilities.
Shiba has been doing relief work since the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic by providing food for the homeless, migrants, poor people in the slums. She has also helped with the funeral services of the victims.
She said that a lot of people reach out to her during crisis time. To help these desperate families, she would seek financial help from friends and family members.
“I get calls from people who are unable to find a bed or oxygen if they are already in the hospital or are under home treatment. Then, I call up hospitals and once I get the right hospital, I then connect the patient or the attendant to that hospital,” she said.
Shiba said the work she does is exhausting. “Making several calls to hospitals that want to know how much can the patient be able to pay and meanwhile handling calls from attendants of patients is taxing,”.
Talking about an incident wherein a 45-year-old woman whose saturation levels dipped low and her family could not find a hospital with a bed, Shiba said that she tried her best but “the hospitals refused to admit her after coming to know that her oxygen levels were quite low and she had fewer chances of survival.”
The family of the patient roamed to 6 hospitals, who earlier had assured of the availability of bed refused to admit her once they saw the saturation levels. The woman was taken home where she later succumbed.
“I tried to help this lady from 9 p.m. till the wee hours of the morning when it was time for Suhoor (early morning meal during the Muslim month of Ramadan). Sadly, she could not be saved,” Shiba said in a sad tone.
Although Shiba has helped sixty persons with beds with oxygen facilities, what makes her sad is that the “number of patients who I could not help is higher than the ones I helped.”
Shiba is not alone in doing Covid-19 relief work. Like her, several organizations have helped Hyderabad overcome the Covid-19 crisis from the last year. This year too they have come forward to battle the oxygen shortage in the state.
‘Oxygen on Wheels’
Mohammed Asif Hussain Sohail, the chairperson of Sakina Foundation, who is popularly known as the ‘Hyderabad Hunger Warrior’ for feeding the hungry for more than 10 years, has been receiving close to 200 calls every day from patients who are being treated at home. He also gets calls from hospitals especially Osmania and Gandhi General Hospitals requesting him for oxygen facilities.
“The price of oxygen cylinders is quite high at Rs 30,000 and the cost of refilling has gone up to Rs 2500 which a common man cannot afford,” Sohail said.
Md Asif Hussain Sohail of Sakina Foundation
Sohail said that as hospitals are running out of oxygen and due to black marketing, he has to verify if the patient needs oxygen or not before helping.
“Sometimes, they don’t need oxygen and we have to counsel and advise them not to give in to their fear and explain to them that a needier person requires it more,” he explained.
Sohail claims that he has “spent more than Rs 10 lakhs from his pocket to buy cylinders and send them to the homes of the needy.”
“Every day, in Hyderabad itself, my Foundation has provided more than 200 free cylinders. We have reached out to at least 2000 people so far,” he said.
Oxygen on Wheels is another initiative of the Sakina Foundation. As part of this initiative, oxygen cylinders are provided to patients who are on their way to the city for treatment from their towns and villages.
“Many people were dying on the way to Hyderabad. Not being able to get proper treatment in their villages they would travel to advanced hospitals in the city. The patients would only be saved if they arrived on time and if the hospital had oxygen,” he said.
“I wanted to save lives so I came up with this idea to provide emergency oxygen cylinders on the highway,” Sohail said.
As soon as they receive an SOS call, his volunteers drive to the spot where the patient is and help him/her with the oxygen.
Sohail said that they have driven up to 200 kilometers to provide oxygen to a patient on the highway.
“Patients were coming not just from the districts of Telangana state but also from Bhopal, Maharashtra, Karnataka. We met them all on the highway and immediately helped them with the oxygen if their saturation levels were low,” Sohail said, adding, “Nearly 150 persons were helped on the highway.”
Sohail said that “love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries.” “Without it, humanity cannot survive,” he added.
700 people given oxygen aid by Helping Hand Foundation
With the oxygen crisis in the state, volunteers of the relief organization Helping Hand Foundation (HHF), headed by Mujtaba Aksari, have been at the forefront.
The group distributed a flyer with their contact numbers for people to seek help in cases of Covid-19 emergency. The group also provide help with giving decent funeral services to Covid-19 victims deaths irrespective of religion.
Mohammed Fareedullah, who heads the project told TwoCircles.net, “When we receive a call for help, our doctors consult them online and based on the doctor’s recommendation, if the patient needs oxygen, we advise the attendant to come to our godown and take the oxygen cylinder without paying any advance or rent.
A patient receiving oxygen help from HHF | Photo by HHF
Fareedullah said that the families of the patients just have “to pay the refilling charges.”
“The plant where we get the cylinders refilled have begun to charge double of what they used to charge earlier. But we charge the people a nominal amount,” he said.
“The cylinders provided by HHF are usually for home patients but if the patient develops complications and their saturation level drops despite the oxygen therapy then we help them reach the hospital where again our counsellors in the hospital help them with other needs. When the patient recovers and is discharged we ferry them home in HHF ambulances. If they do not recover the volunteers help the family with the last rites too,” explained Fareedullah.
Helping Hands Foundation owns about 15 ambulances which are free for all patients. The group has 100 cylinders and a luggage trolley to transport the cylinders to the houses of people who cannot come to their go down.
To date, HHF claims to have helped more than 700 people covering the entire old city and many other localities.
Humanity First Foundation: from feeding hungry to procuring Oxygen
Mohammed Shujatullah,founder of relief organization Humanity First Foundation has been feeding patients and their attendants at three government hospitals for the last 5 years.
One day when Shujatallah received a call requesting help with oxygen, he decided to buy cylinders and give them for free to patients and then refill the empty ones and help whoever needed them. “Prices had doubled for both the oxygen cylinders and for refilling but through donations to Humanity First, I continued helping people every day with the 110 cylinders we have,” he said.
Md Shujatullah of Humanity First Foundation checking oxygen cylinders | Photo by HFF
His organization has an ambulance, which carries the oxygen cylinders to hospitals and homes of patients.
In the month of Ramadan, Shujatallah said that his foundation received good donations and he managed to help as many people as was possible for him.
Patients at the gate of a hospital supported by SDIF | Picture: SDIF
‘Our motive to save lives keeps us going’
Another local initiative known as Social Data Initiative Forum (SDIF)founded by Azam Khan and Khalid Saifullah started oxygen services during the first wave of the pandemic with their stock of 15 cylinders.
During the second wave, as the oxygen crisis has only gone worse, the group has been adding to their stockpile of oxygen cylinders.
The founders said that they had to pay more than the normal price for both purchasing and refilling the cylinders.
“Our services are not restricted to just providing oxygen cylinders. We also set up an oxygen bank at Government notified Covid-19 hospitals where usually the poorest of the poor come to access health care. People from the rural parts come to Hyderabad with hopes of quality treatment and they face a lot of hurdles waiting to get admitted after already having travelled a long distance,” Azam Khan said.
“The waiting period at the hospital and the travel time further delays the process of the treatment, which is why we opted to help in the government hospitals,” he clarified.
In Gandhi Hospital alone, which is the largest Covid-19 hospital of Hyderabad, Azam Khan said they have “20 oxygen cylinders in circulation which are serving at least 400 patients per day.”
“This supply of oxygen is crucial to their recovery,” Khalid added.
Apart from the 20 cylinders, they have 100 more cylinders at the other two government-run Covid-19 hospitals of Hyderabad.
They said they have helped more than 100 people so far.
Azam Khan narrated an experience that made them realise the significance of their work.
The King Kothi Government hospital had requested SDIF to set up an oxygen bank.
“I felt we had to start the work immediately and even though it was Sunday, our team went to the hospital. As soon as we reached the hospital, we saw four dead bodies being carried away. We were told the hospital had run out of oxygen causing the death of these four persons. We immediately set up our oxygen cylinders. Later the doctors informed us that our timely help had saved three persons who were critical and would not have survived had we not reached on time. This experience both saddened us and also made us feel happy that we could at least save the lives of other three persons,” he said.
“Our motive to save lives keeps us going,” the duo said.
The SDIF is helped by two other charity organizations from Hyderabad namely Safa Baitul Maal and Access Foundation, who work in close collaboration with them.
Pre and post-Covid care given by Al Hamd Foundation
Al Hamd Foundation, a charitable trust that helps widows, students and the poor, took up Covid-19 relief operations during the last year’s lockdown.
Amid the ongoing second wave, the foundation is continuing with online consultations of patients with doctors.
When patients contact them online, they are connected to doctors who advise home treatment keeping in view the severe crunch in the hospitals and also the fact that many cases can be treated at home with proper medications and care.
Al Hamd Foundation Covid relief services
The foundation has provided home treatment to fifty-two patients, who had reported low oxygen levels.
The founder of Al Hamd Abdul Azeem Mohammed told TwoCircles.net that the treatment cost they incurred for each patient would have run up to Rs. 7 to 8 lakhs had they been treated in a hospital.
“The team of AL Hamd ensures that the patient does not panic and develops a strong will to fight the disease and survive. The team also helps with the oxygen cylinders, the medicines and regular monitoring by the doctor who visits the patient. At times when the patients are poor and the team notices that they need provisions apart from the medical assistance, Al Hamd provides the family members with rations as well,” Azeem said.
Al Hamd has given 300 oxygen cylinders and 6 oxygen concentrators to other organizations that are helping people affected with Covid-19.
They have four oxygen hubs and seven ambulances in Hyderabad-Secunderabad and a fifth one is coming up soon.
“We have ordered 25 oxygen concentrators from the UK which is likely to arrive by in the last week of May. Each oxygen concentrator of 5-6 litres costs around Rs 46,000. We have also ordered 5 C PAP machines that cure respiratory disorders. And since we are not a hospital, we intend to donate these C PAP machines to the hospitals where there are facilities to treat patient with respiratory disorders that are linked to Covid” explained Azeem.
“We also give post-Covid care by giving immunity-boosting drugs and foodstuff,” he added.
Al Hamd is run with funds from family and close friends.
50-bed oxygen therapy centre set up by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind
Well-known socio-religious organization Jamaat-e-Islami Hind (JIH) Telangana has also set up a 50-bed oxygen therapy centre in Wadi-e-Huda near Shaheen Nagar, Hyderabad. JIH’s sister concern Students Islamic Organisation (SIO) supports recycling the cylinders, rifling them, coordinating with other organisations for availability.
Post Script
To support Helping Hand Foundation, you can make a GooglePay donation here: 8125203286
Noble service: Members of the foundation following COVID-19 protocol while performing last rites. GOPICHAND T.
His NGO has performed last rites of over 700 COVID-19 victims
Humanity First foundation, a Bidar-based NGO, has been performing the last rites of COVID-19 patients ever since the epidemic broke out in 2020.
Majeed Bilal, a small business owner who founded the NGO, says members have performed the last rites of over 700 bodies so far, irrespective of faith.
The rituals of different religions are followed during the final rites . The services are free, though the NGO accepts donations.
Mr. Bilal has spent a considerable amount of his own money on this service. “My family had two small plots in Bidar. I have sold them, to set up this NGO and conduct the final rites of COVID-19 victims with honour,” he told The Hindu.
He feels the stigma attached to COVID-19 is discouraging some families from attending the funerals of their loved ones.
“We mostly work around Bidar. But there haven been instances where our hearses have gone to places like Hyderabad, Kalaburagi, Humnabad, Bhalki, and Aurad to fetch the mortal remains,” he said.
At first, he converted a van that he used for his business into an ambulance and hearse. He rushed patients to hospitals and carried bodies from hospitals to the graveyards. Later, some philanthropists donated two hearses to the NGO.
“In some cases, the families pay us ₹1,000-2,000 per cremation. We use it to buy wood and kerosene. In case of burials, the city municipal corporation helps us by digging pits,” he said.
He began the last rites after an incident near his house early in 2020. “An old woman had died and even her children were afraid to go near the body. CMC personnel carried the body in an earthmover and threw it in a pit. I decided to start volunteering at conducting the last rites and some of my friends joined me,” he said.
Mr. Bilal is married with children. But for over a year he has been living in a boarding house, to avoid any chance of infecting his family members. His friends, business associates, and some family members who have been helping him have also been staying in lodges and boarding houses.
Members of the foundation follow COVID-19 protocol while performing the last rites.
“We have been routinely undergoing RT-PCR tests. I have tested myself 28 times and each time the result was negative. I would like to think that is the Almighty’s way of blessing me,” he added.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States / by Rishikesh Bahadur Desai / Belagavi – May 19th, 2021
Mohammed Shujatullah, a student of Pharm D from Sultan Ul Uloom College of Pharmacy, Hyderabad began serving free breakfast to the needy three years ago and is continuing to do so till date without a break of a single day.
Every morning he goes to three Government hospitals in Hyderabad – Nilofer Hospital, Government Maternity Hospital, Koti and Nizam Institute of medical sciences (NIMS) with hot Upma cooked in pure ghee and chutney to serve breakfast to the patients and their attendants. He finishes serving breakfast by 9.15-9.30 am in all the three hospitals feeding nearly a 1000 people.
How it began
Shujat spoke to TwoCircles.net about how his philanthropic journey that started in 2014 by serving food packets to just 10 people and by 2016 went on to reach 1000, “ When I was in my final year of bachelor’s degree I had failed in one subject. And as I was awaiting my results I sent up a prayer that I will feed 10 hungry people if my backlog is cleared. It was the day the results were to be declared.”
And luckily he passed. And so the same night, he went to the street with 10 packets of food. He woke up an old man to give the food, but the man declined by saying he had his fill and told Shujat to give the food packet to someone else.
Shujat did not expect this from a homeless poor person. He says, “ the old man could have taken the food and kept it for the morning. But he was so honest. And that touched a chord in me”.
People waiting in queue for the breakfast
The 10 packets were not enough as there more people who wanted food. Shujat came the next night again with more food packets and this time again the old man who had fallen asleep huddled in a corner due to the chilly winter said the same thing. Shujat asked the man to keep the food for the morning. And the man said, ‘God will feed me in the morning. For now, you give my share to someone else’. Shujat was impressed not just with the honesty of the old man but his belief in Providence.
Shujat says, he got to thinking, ‘here is a homeless beggar, who does not even know if he will get the next meal, yet he has such a firm belief in the Almighty who is the provider of one and all.’ And after this, he began serving food packets on a daily basis to the persons on the streets.
Serving breakfast at Niloufer Hospital
One day he had a chance to go to a Government Hospital where he saw people from different districts and villages come to Hyderabad for treatment and they lived in the hospital for days together with their attendants. They find it difficult to buy food due to monetary problems. So the idea of serving breakfast struck him. Mid-day Meals are available at the Telangana food centre at Rs.5/- which they could afford.
Mobilising funds
Fortunately for Shujat, his father has 12 siblings and all of them with their children are in a good position. He capitalised on this and made quick calls to all of them and asked them all to donate their one day’s salary to him. He explained to them what he would do with the funds. And soon he had enough money to enable him to serve breakfast twice a week in one Government Hospital. And soon friends and other extended family started donating. “As they say, little drops make a mighty ocean, funds started to come steadily and soon I was able to serve breakfast on a daily basis,” he told TwoCircles.net.
The daily expense for Upma for approximately 1000 persons with 25 kilos of semolina comes to Rs. 5000/- including the auto charges and the cost of disposable cutlery. On why he chose Upma, Shujat says, “ Upma is easy to make and if I attempt any other item there will be a difference in the planned budget.”
And when his service came to light through media, more people began to donate. And Shujat who was getting immense satisfaction from feeding the poor, decided to start a foundation for charity and service. So in 2016, he registered ‘Humanity First Foundation’.
Humanity First Foundation
Through the foundation, Shujat reached out to potential donors through friends, social media platforms and also crowdfunding via the internet. His activities also expanded gradually and he now distributes blankets to people on the streets; free supper in the nights to beggars, donates books and other things in orphanages, helps very poor families with their monthly ration.
Once the foundation was registered his contacts also grew. Other like-minded NGOs contacted him to work in collaboration. So now Shujat has extended his services to an old age home on the suburbs of Hyderabad where he supplies medicines, adult diapers and groceries, supports a livelihood program for women by running a tailoring centre in a neighbouring town and providing them sewing machines and conducting free medical camps. He even identifies homeless old people who have no one to take care of them and admits them in old age homes.
Sehri in Ramzan
This year for the month of Ramzan Shujat has gone one step ahead and made arrangements to provide saheri/ suhur (pre-dawn meal) for those attendants who want to observe Roza. Till now he has provided saheri meals to around 8000 -10,000 people. He has put up a board with his contact number so whoever wants to fast have to just call him up and the saheri will be provided to them between 2 and 3 am. For Ramazan, he has 15 volunteers who distribute the food. On other days his volunteers turn up for 2 days a week for the morning routine.
DIstributing sehri
What the future holds for him and the Foundation
Shujatullah shared with TwoCircles.net, that he is able to do all this not just because of the good values instilled by his parents but also because of the support his friends, family and donors have been rendering.
And he is one busy person juggling his internship at Aster prime Hospital after serving breakfast in the hospitals which he finishes by 9.15. After coming home from the hospital, after a quick bite, he goes to overlook the functioning of the small Urdu medium school started by his grandfather.
His father is a retired government employee and mother a homemaker. Shujat has no intention of going abroad or even out of Hyderabad even though he got several offers. For him, his foundation comes first.
“ I hope my life partner will have the same passion as me so I can continue my work with the same zeal”, he says laughingly when asked about the future. “ I am going to continue to serve the poor as long as I can” he added. He finishes his Pharma D (Doctor of Pharmacy) in about 2 months after which he intends to find work in Hyderabad itself.
Shujat and his team
Shujat has very few friends and does not indulge in any of the activities the youth of his age like watching movies, idle hanging out with friends and so on, which is why he has lots of time to follow his passion.
To know more about Shujat and his work and to help him, check out his website or mail him at humanityfirstfoundation2016@gmail.com call him at 9676054142
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim> Lead Story > TCN Positive / by Nikhat Fatima, TwoCircles.net / June 11th, 2019
