Mohammad Masud braves Dhaka’s sweltering summer heat to pedal across the Bangladeshi capital in his rickshaw and line up at one of the last charities still feeding those left destitute by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearby are hundreds of out-of-work or struggling security guards, transport workers, domestic servants and homeless children finishing their plates of rice and lentils at Mehmankhana, whose name means “the dining place for guests.”
“I have been hungry all day,” 28-year-old Masud said. “I did not make enough to buy food.”
Photo: AFP
When Bangladesh shut down for more than two months last year during its first COVID-19 outbreak, hundreds of charities, civic groups and political parties gave out food, cash, masks and sanitizer to those who had lost their jobs.
However, COVID-19 fatigue has since set in and people have become less willing to finance the goodwill as the pandemic drags on. A new lockdown started last month, but only a handful of charities are on the streets.
“Last year, we got a lot of cash donations,” said Jashim Uddin Khan, an official at the Shonge Achi Foundation, a group helping feed needy people, stray dogs and even monkeys in Dhaka. “This year, we haven’t had many donations. There is a major fatigue for charity work.”
Official figures showed that more than 20,000 Bangladeshis have died of COVID-19, although experts say that the toll is at least four times higher.
Bangladesh recorded economic growth averaging 7 percent in the past decade, which helped reduce the poverty rate to 20 percent.
The SANEM research foundation says that the rate has shot back up to 40 percent during the pandemic.
While the Bangladeshi government has allowed some garment factories to reopen and spent US$15 billion on stimulus packages, hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs.
Groups like Mehmankhana have stepped up operations, but more and more people are suffering hunger.
“There are days when I only have one meal,” said Johra Begum, a 27-year-old mother of four in the Mehmankhana line, who lost her job as a domestic servant.
Asma Akhter Liza, a 36-year-old actress, and her cousin launched Mehmankhana in March last year after the start of Bangladesh’s first nationwide lockdown.
They say that they feed more than 2,500 people a day and are proud to tell patrons that they can “eat as much as you like.”
Liza said she resolved to start the charity after seeing children trying to break into a food store while she was out feeding street dogs.
“I thought stray dogs would be the hardest hit during the lockdown, but then I saw this break-in and I realized many thousands of people, including many who had decent jobs before the lockdown, are going hungry,” she said.
At first she borrowed money to fund the kitchen, but now gets private donations from across the country.
Liza said many middle-class people now come to the street kitchen in the evening “when they can enjoy some kind of anonymity.”
About 10,000 people ate there for the Eid al-Adha festival last month, she said.
One of her patrons is Selim Ahmed, a 45-year-old trader who said that his daily income had shrunk to less than 100 taka (US$1.18).
“Many people would have gone hungry if Mehmankhana wasn’t here,” he said.
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