‘Pure intention’ of seven-year-old gives rise to growing COVID-19 relief group
Written by: Samanah Ali
March 2020 was a life-changing month for most Canadians.
It was when World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic and when Ontario ordered school closures.
However, in these difficult times, some groups have formed to shine some hope into the lives of many Canadians who are suffering from mental, financial, medical and other issues at this time.
The idea to form one such group came from a seven-year-old boy.
It all started in March of this year when everyone was advised to purchase items for themselves for about two weeks. There was no panic and no lockdown at this time, and the general advice from officials was to stay at home.
At this time Zainab Merchant, a mother and muslim journalist, was watching the news with her three young children. “My kids are very in tune with the world and politics and what's going on and you know the oldest one said that ‘mommy we should get extra [items] for people who need help’,” she said. “That's how it started, with the very pure intention of my seven-year-old child.”
Canadians most often reported that they were stressed regularly or all the time in March because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada. A NANOS survey also revealed that 39 per cent of Canadians reported financial hardship and debt as two things that concerned them the most amid the pandemic.
Zainab started purchasing two of each item that she needed for herself. One she would keep for her own use, but the other she kept for a makeshift food bank in her basement that her children helped set up. “They helped me stock up, they helped me actually arrange everything. They're the ones who put everything for me on the tables and stuff,” She said.
From there she spread the word on social media that if anyone needed help with food she could drop it off on their doorstep. “I don't need to see who you are or you don't need to see me. And then if any elderly needs help with the groceries, I can also run out and get some, whatever I could do you know with my three kids,” she said.
Soon, the chair lady of a local mosque asked her if she could become a “point person” for anyone who needed help. Zainab agreed.
While this group had requests for help, and volunteers willing to help those in need of it, it was still missing something Zainab hadn’t even thought of. “Somebody asked me, what do you call this initiative? And it was one of those scenes that you know, you look around the room trying to find a name and I couldn't figure out what I would call this.”
She then remembered an experience very close to her heart that helped her come up with a name.
Recently, Zainab’s mother had broken her wrist in Orlando, Florida. As a result, she had to go through surgery when Zainab was still in Toronto and her dad out of the country as well.
When Zainab was trying to get a flight from Canada to Florida, a makeshift group called Parveen’s angels was formed. Parveen is Zainab’s mother’s name. “They cleaned for her, they brought meals to the hospital, one of them stayed the night with her, and I just found that gesture to be so amazing,” said Zainab.
“That's when I remembered that this group has to be called angels, just because we are helping people we don't know, and we don't have to see them and they don't have to see us, it's just very anonymous, so that's where the name came from.”
This group has since been called Angels for COVID Relief, and it now has a Facebook and Instagram page as well.
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One of the Relief’s volunteers, Moona Khan, helps out as a dispatcher from home. All grocery requests from every channel gets forwarded to her to follow through with the request.
On average, Khan gets around five to seven calls a day, but she still tries to give special attention to each call instead of making it a robotic process.
She first starts off thanking the caller for calling Angels for COVID and then introduces herself. Whatever comes after that, she tries to make it personal.
“They tell me who they are, I would say 99 per cent of them are very scared, and very, very unsure of how to even go about with the conversation. So usually something as simple as how's your day or how are you doing? And how's everything going? And how are you holding up? Something of that sort gets them to open up and then they start talking about their situation,” Khan explained.
She says the callers come from a variety of stressful situations. Either they’ve lost their jobs, are sick, know someone who is sick, are worried about their parents because they are not able to reach them, and the list goes on.
In late March, 17 per cent of Canadians aged 25 to 64 reported that the pandemic would have a major impact on their ability to fulfill their financial obligations or meet their essential needs, according to Statistics Canada. Total unemployment grew by 113 per cent from February to April, 2020.
“One thing that you see across the board is, there's trauma in every call,” said Khan.
Once Khan notes down the caller’s information, she forwards it out to a field volunteer who then purchases the groceries and drops it off the caller’s door step.
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In one of her calls she remembers a lady whose voice was “shivering” and “trembling.”
“What I gathered is she was alone, she didn't have anyone around her. She was a senior, had a limited income or pension and no one to get groceries for her. She was also scared that her doctor had actually personally told her not to and she was in isolation. So she wasn't allowed to go out and she had groceries left for just one week, and she wanted somebody to run the groceries for her the following week,” Khan said.
Khan admits that these sensitive and emotional phone calls do take a toll on her, but she also understands that it’s a difficult time for everyone and tries to help out as much as she can.
“The way I look at it is if, you know, some of us have the ability to help out others more, then this is an opportunity for us to do it,” she said. “Even though it can get emotionally taxing, sometimes it gets very sad, but you have to pick yourself up right away and just to get yourself back up in that mode where we have to be practical to help out those right now that are not able to do it themselves.”
From the mere intention of a seven-year-old child, this initiative went from a group of less than 10 volunteers to hundreds. This includes doctors, dispatchers, people with expertise in data technology and more, joining as volunteers or donating to this initiative, called Angels for COVID Relief.
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Being mindful of potentially spreading infections through the grocery items, Zainab says that all items are carefully disinfected, which takes around 15 to 20 minutes depending on the number of items, before being dropped off at someone’s doorstep.
With all the services, sometimes free and sometimes paid, Angels for COVID Relief has received many positive feedbacks.
One of the people who benefited from the Relief’s services is a senior woman who said she suffers from both severe asthma and Bronchitis. She has requested to have her identity concealed but is glad to share her story. Take a listen:
Many volunteers in this group don’t know each other, or have never met in person.
“I've never seen any volunteer in person. I don't know any of them. They don't know each other,” said Zainab. “I tell all the volunteers that once this is over, I'd love to have coffee with them because I don't know any of them.”
“[The volunteers] are so willing, and you know, who are ready to go above and beyond and out of their way to do all of this, despite their own personal challenges, the trauma that they may be feeling, the fears they may be having, but they tap it out, they go through this as best as they can,” said Khan.
In a recent poll, conducted by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) between April 3rd to 5th of this year, 40 per cent of the respondents stated that the current crisis has negatively impacted their ability to financially assist other family members.
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