As Covid-19 pan­demic has im­pacted many fam­i­lies mak­ing their lives dif­fi­cult, apart from gov­ern­men­tal en­deav­ours, so­cial-minded non-gov­ern­men­tal or­gan­i­sa­tions are pitch­ing in and sup­ple­ment­ing the needs of food, gro­cery, rent and more. Cal­i­for­nia-based A Lit­tle Hap­pi­ness Foun­da­tion -USA has taken on the man­tle of pro­vid­ing Honor Mi­cro-credit in the Bay area of Cal­i­for­nia and as­sist­ing other groups in the area for pro­vid­ing food sup­port.

IN A HUM­BLE BUT DE­TER­MINED MAN­NER, re­spond­ing to the call of COVID-19 im­pacted in­di­vid­u­als and fam­i­lies, the vol­un­teers and ac­tivists of the A Lit­tle Hap­pi­ness Foun­da­tion USA, are spread­ing a lit­tle cheer through honor mi­cro-credit and food sup­port in the Bay area of Cal­i­for­nia.

Com­ing on the heels of shar­ing of packed food and gro­cery by hu­man­i­tar­ian bod­ies, this is a unique step to en­able fam­i­lies to con­tinue with their lives de­spite fi­nan­cial dif­fi­cul­ties. Al­though fed­eral and state fi­nan­cial as­sis­tance pro­grams are in mo­tion, yet there is a need to pro­vide ur­gent re­lief to those in dire need.

Elab­o­rat­ing on the pro­ject, Vice Pres­i­dent – ALHF Ra­j­pal Singh said, “Soon into the first lock­down pe­riod, we re­alised that a big cross-sec­tion of the com­mu­nity will have dif­fi­cul­ties in pay­ing phone bills, rent and other fixed ex­penses, buy­ing med­i­cine, baby food and even reg­u­lar gro­cery. It was for this that we launched the honor mi­cro-credit pro­gram.”

“Upon re­fer­ral and check­ing, we con­tribute any­thing from $50 to $250 monthly de­pend­ing upon the fam­i­ly’s sit­u­a­tion, the num­ber of fam­ily mem­bers and the ex­tent of need,” he added.

“Every penny is a life-sav­ing value this day”, said by one of the re­cip­i­ents from Hay­ward city. “Your help saved me from los­ing the roof over my head,” said a re­cip­i­ent in Fre­mont City, who re­ceived $700 as the fam­i­ly’s fi­nan­cial sit­u­a­tion was pre­car­i­ous.

Dwelling on the var­i­ous pro­jects of A  Lit­tle Hap­pi­ness Foun­da­tion, Ra­j­pal Singh said, “We are com­mit­ted to fol­low­ing the dic­tum of ‘Ser­vice to Hu­man­ity is Ser­vice to God.’ We are pleased to share that we serve through mi­cro-credit and food ir­re­spec­tive of color, creed and re­li­gion.”

To pro­vide a whole­some pack­age to the res­i­dents of the Bay area, A Lit­tle Hap­pi­ness Foun­da­tion has con­tributed their part to sup­port the weekly gro­cery dis­tri­b­u­tion in part­ner­ship with Sikh Food Pantry in as­so­ci­a­tion with Khalis Foun­da­tion and the Fre­mont Gur­d­wara.

“Every Sat­ur­day, gro­cery is de­liv­ered to some 100 -150 reg­is­tered in­di­vid­ual homes in 5 cities of Alameda County (Fre­mont, Mil­pi­tas, Hay­ward, Cas­tro Val­ley and San Le­an­dro)”.

Ra­j­pal Singh pointed out that, ALHF USA spon­sored a Home­less feed­ing event and a Face Mask dis­tri­b­u­tion drive in part­ner­ship with Sikhs for Hu­man­ity or­gan­i­sa­tion in May Drive at Glide Church, San Fran­cisco. Every year, ALHF USA spon­sors two home­less feed­ing events.

“Your help saved me from los­ing the roof over my head,”

A Ben­e­fi­ciary

ALHF also con­tributed sub­stan­tially in set­ting up 4 Dial­y­sis ma­chines at the KD Ro­tary Com­mu­nity Dial­y­sis Cen­tre in Am­rit­sar, Pun­jab by as­so­ci­at­ing with the Ro­tary Club of Am­rit­sar North. In­au­gu­rated in Au­gust 2019, with the Ro­tary Foun­da­tion Global Grant, pa­tients at the cen­tre get treat­ment at a highly dis­counted rate.

In In­dia, from the states of Ma­ha­rash­tra to Mad­hya Pradesh, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with lo­cal ac­tivists and vol­un­teers, dur­ing the first and sec­ond phase of the In­dia-wide lock­down, ALHF USA pro­vided monthly gro­ceries to the poor­est of the poor Sik­li­gars.

“As the vol­un­teer base and con­tri­bu­tions from our donors in­crease, we hope to fur­ther ex­tend and en­large our ser­vices.”